Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-02-16
Building up a Dairy Herd.
WHAT A MAINE FARMER HAS ACCOM-.
PLIsHED IN SIX YEARS.

will give you my experience in build
ing up a dairy herd, as this may interest
you, as the herd is right here in Maine,
and many of you have seen it. began
nine years ago, bought six of the best
common cows l could find; paid $50
apiece for them. / worked along and
used scrub bulls and raised few calves
for three years, but did not get ahead
any, for the reason that l had no means
of knowing what my cows were doing.
| mean by this that did not keep an
account with each COW, to see what she
was doing.
Six years ago began to keep an ac-
count with my cows. bought set of
scales, and put them in the tieup, and
from that time to the present every cow
has to stand on her own merits. l
bought me registered Holstein bull and
began TO raise my own cows. To-day l
have about forty cows and heifers, and
this fall won fifty ribbons at the Ban
cor and Lewiston fairs. My standard
when l began was $500 quarts year,
ard to-day my two-year-old heifers are
averaging four thousand quarts a year
and my mature cows about five thousand
quarts.
| am able to get so apiece for all my
grade heifer calves when a few days old.
NV grade bull calves sell readily for
from So to so at the same age to feed
for veal or raise for steers. 1have never
sold any of my registered heifer calves,
because am getting my whole herd in-
to registered stock, but my thorough
bred bull calves sell at $50 to $40 when
dropped, and l sold one at five months
old for $50.
Now, the only way ever got started
was in knowing, first, what every COW
was doing. Lots of cows start out with
a big mess and dry up in a few months,
so that they do not pay for their keeping.
sell that kind as soon as / find them
out. but never could find them out if
did not weigh their milk. / produce
milk for the Borden Condensed Milk
Company, whose factory is at Newport.
1t buys milk by the pound, so do not
test my milk for butter fat, but the COM
pdny tests all the milk it buys about
once week and it reports that my milk
tests on an average about 4 per cent, and
that, it SAYS, is good enough for it. If |
was selling cream, would send sam
pie of every cows milk to the creamery
about once a month and have it test it
for butter fat, and in this way l would
weed out any COW that was not profit
able as butter maker.
NV best COW to date was Lady Fel,;er,
who produced in S65 days 1904 pounds
IA ounces, and her milk at factory prices
sold for Sl99.73. She was thorough
bred and raised by Henry Boardman, "f
Bangor, who several years ago started
a herd of Holsteins that were second to
none, and would have been great bene-
fit to the dairymen of Maine if they had
been appreciated and continued. This
COW rescued from butcher when she
was two years old for $50. | have anoth-
er thoroughbred who is giving between
ii, 900 and $1,000 pounds this year, and
has a days record of 75 pounds, 10
ounces, and in thirty days gave almost
1000 pounds.
have a grade that has just closed her
wear and gave 14,600 pounds, an average
of forty pounds, for the year, and the
milk sold for 1856. One of my grade
thl ee- year-olds is giving over $4,000
pounds with her second calf, and gave
over 10000 pounds with her first calf.
One of my thoroughbred two-year-olds
is Just closing her year with record of
about 1O,5O0 pounds, so you will see that
have succeeded in improving the ca
pacity of my herd in the last six years,
and i hope to keep on improving it for
wears to come, and what have done and
hope to do you may all do by using the
same methods.-W. S. Keene at Maine
Dairy Conference