The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1901-07-16
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS
How Successful Farmers Operate This
Department of tho Farm = A Few
Hints as to the Care of Live Stock
and Poultry


Farm separators In Kansas.
George Morgan, in an address before
the Kansas State Board of Agriculture,
said in part: The value of the farm
separator to the private dairyman has
been fully demonstrated. The expert
mental stages have passed and the tes-
timony of all who have made careful,
intelligent comparison between the
gravity system and the modern sepa-
rator are practically united in favor
OF the latter for the private dairyman.
The question as TO its advantages in
localities where creameries are estab-
lished is one upon which there is much
difference of opinion. The most serious
problem is operating expenses. This
applies both to the creamery manager
and to the patron, whether the cream
cry Is cooperative one or a proprie-
tary institution, and all are vitality in
terested in the expense account
think the separator will assist greatly
in solving this problem. 1t means a
minimum of labor with a maximum of
profit. The product is carried In con-
densed form from the patron to the
creamery, and the expense greatly re-
duced. In this state, dairying is Incl
dental to beef and pork production,
and as consequence the conditions at
this time are peculiar and perplexing.
The farmer has an undesirable way of
putting the creamery on half rations,
forgetting that few people appreciate
the full dinner pail more than the Kan
sas creamery man. When times and
crops are good, it is not uncommon. to
ind farmer at milking time quietly
sitting upon the fence watching the
calves do the milking. When reverses
come, however, he finds that the cow
and the creamery are his best friends.
When large investments are made in
Swimming stations and these spells OF
carelessness strike the patron, It is
often very disastrous to the manage
ment. l feel safe in saying that fully
one-third of the skimming stations in
this state do not pay running expenses
from October to May. 1t is in these
localities that the farm separator will
8
cry patronage is light, the expenses are
correspondingly light.
l think the average cost of a skim
ming station is about 81, 900 and the
average cost of operating is about $500
a year. This will, of course, include
taxes, interest, insurance labor and
fuel. A great many plants now run
ming in Kansas do not average 1880
pounds of milk every other day during
the fall and winter. Forty cows at
twenty pounds of milk per day per cow
will produce 1000 pounds of milk in
two days. Here, then, is an investment
of $1,000, with $50 per month running
expenses necessary to take care of the
milk of forty cows. On it's face this
cannot pay. AT points where patron
age is liberal any radical change would
not be advisable. 1t will to a great
extent adjust itself in its own way
but at weaker, non-paying stations
much good can be accomplished by the
use of the farm separator, especially
in outlying districts where the distance
40 wv 81 cot W maui IhO WnOlC 1ulAh,
True, to carry out the plan the farmer
must make the investment on his own
account, but for this he is amply COM
pensated in the increased value of the
skim milk and the convenience of hav-
ing 1t on his farm morning and eve
ming to be fed while warm, sweet and
fresh and in the best possible condition
fol. giving to young animals. The milk
patron often suffers a severe loss on
account of souring of his Sunday milk
during the heated term. He also loses
the gain by feeding the new milk to
the calf for six or eight weeks, on ac-
count of the danger incurred in feeding
milk returned from the creamery.
Where the milk is fed from the farm
separator, the calf can be put upon
skim milk at fifteen days old by care
full management and the use of kafir
corn meal. 1t has been my experience
that patrons with ten to fifteen COWS
can earn enough in one year to pay
for 500 separator. Each farmer can
figure out for himself whether or not
1t will pay.