Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-12-23
Feeding and Testing.

At n convention Of farmers in Tas-
mania. G. M. Barnard said: Cows
must be fed regularly, and their rations
evenly adjusted. When first starting
to feed at the beginning of the winter
weigh the contents of their different
measures, so one can give each COW the
proper quantity. The full rations that
my cows get when little or no grazing
Is available, are six pounds bran or
pollard. pounds oil cake, mixed to-
Eether with chaffed straw, forty pounds
mangolds, and twenty-five to thirty
pounds of rape or green stun, and fed.
al follows: Before milking in morn
ing. bran and oil cake; after milking,
mangolds; before milking in evening,
oil cake and bran; after milking, man
Colds: and the last thing at night, oil
cake, and bran and greenstuff. The
cost of this ration was "A. Cd. per COW
for each week, and If the grazing is
Of any consequence the proportions
are reduced, and given a good season
the cost can be reduced to IS. I'd.
With higher feeding I could get a
better yield, but the increased cost OF
the ration would not be compensated
for by the value Of the increased yield.
To 60 and put good food down the
scrub cows throat is the surest and
easiest way Of proving that winter dali
rying won't pay. I have done 1t ana
don't want to do 1t again, as the ioi-
lowing incident will show. Some years
ago, when first using the Babcock
Tester. It was during the winter
months, eight cows were being milked'
and their average was five POUNDS per
week; when the tester got to work II
revealed the fact that the best cow was
making eight pounds and the worst
three and one-half pounds per week.
tho cost of feeding was As. per head'
and the price of butter Is. "a. per
pound: one left IS. 4d. profit while
the other had only one penny to her
credit, or, to put 1t another way, the
best cows butter cost Cd. per pound to
produce, and the worst Is. 81 d., or
very nearly what the butter sold for.
At the time Of writing, September $,
the weeks butter from eight cows to-
tailed 73% pounds, or an average OF
81 pounds per COW. The feeding, prin-
cipaIly grazing, came to 3s. per head,
20 that quantity Of butter cost frac-
ton under 4d. per pound to produce.
! To show that few good cows will
yield q higher profit than lot OF in
ferior or medium ones, take as an ex-
ample a farmer milking twenty head
with an average Of five pounds per
week and getting Is. per pound for his
butter; say the feeding expenses are
IS per head. Those twenty cows pro-
duce 100 pounds of butter to the value
Of IS. the eight head yield, say. seven
ty-two pounds, or value of e. u.s.;
but the twenty cows cost e. to feed,
and the eight fl As. so really the eight
COWS show IS. more profit per week
than the twenty. A great many people
look upon this testing the COWS as a
fad or hobby, all very well to be in
duIged in if you have the time to waste,
and they quite Tail to see its value.
Its value is that you find out what cows
pay and what don't; and another thing,
1t will be found that there will be
growing desire to improve when once
this sort of thing is begun. l am GER
tain that there is more money to be
made out of first-ciass dairy herd
than out Of any other branch of farm
ing, and more to be lest il you own
scruhbers.