Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1904-09-29
Increasing Capacity Of Cows.

PROFESSOR w. l.. Carlyle, in an adj
dress to Wisconsin dairymen, said:
After fifteen years Of study and oh.
seryation and five years OF expert
mental investigation of the dairy ca.
pacity of cows representing practically
all the types of cows kept on the
farms OF this state, am willing to
risk my reputation on the statement
that there is not healthy, normal
calf dropped upon any Of the farms
OF this state, of any breed, that will
not, II properly reared, fed and cared
Tor from birth onward, produce at
least 800 pounds Of butter in year,
when at her best. At the same time,
l believe quite as firmly that there
are many dairy COWS bred for the
specific purpose of milk and butter
production through many generations
that will produce 600 pounds of but.
ter per year under most favorable
conditions as readily as some other
COWS not having these inherited ten.
denotes will produce three hundred
pounds. While I do not wish to ad-
Vocate the breeding of anything but
the best of dairy cows, or to underes.
innate in any way the importance Of
inherited tendencies, yet am assured
from the results of our work at your
Experiment Station at Madison, that
there are thousands of choice dairy
cows in our state that are not re.
turning their owners profit, for the
reason that they are not surrounded
with the proper environment, includ.
ing suitable feed, shelter and manage.
ment.
or the cows purchased for our
dairy herd at Madison as many Of you
know, only two or three have cost
above $4,000, and many of them much
less. They include cows inheriting
beef tendencies, as well as those dairy
tendencies, and yet there is not ma
ture cow in the herd, except a pure
bred Jersey or two, that has not pro-
duced over 400 pounds of butter in
a year. The trouble with so many
Of the dairy farmers in our state is
that they are accustomed to look upon
and think of cow as machine, into
which if you put certain amount OF
raw material you will get a certain
amount of finished product, irrespec.
tive of the fact that each ana every
cow is an individual with certain pc
studied and understood, and the most
suitable raw material supplied in the
matter of feed, not to mention the nu-
merous other conditions, before the
particular, individual COW will manu-
facture the finished product to the
best advantage.
OF the fifty or more COWS that have
been in the Station herd in the past
five years, the three cows producing
the greatest amount of butter in a
year have belonged to three different
breeds and, while they had many Of
the essential characteristics of large
dairy producers in common, yet they
all showed strongly the type Of the
breed to which they belonged. The
largest yearly record of butter pro-
duction of any cow in the herd was
made by grade Red Poll; the second
largest record by a pure bred Jersey,
and the third by grade Shorthorn.
The phenomenal production of these
cows was made possible by a careful
study to supply each one Of them with
the kind of feed and environment that
was best suited to the particular de.
mands of the individual animal for
greatest production. If all three cows
had been given similar feed and treat
ment in every way, there would have
been a wide difference in their pro.
duction and some of them would have
yielded much less milk and butter.