The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1906-02-23
PROFIT on % COWS.
W. r. schilkng Tells Minnesota State
+. Dairymen's Association Of
His Experience,

What our dairy herd has done dur
ing the past year embodies more per"
haps than can be told in a brief ar
ticle. There are many things Incl
dent to the caring for and work OF q
large dairy herd which comes up from
day to day that are only incidents to
the daily routine on the farm, yet
they are in the main necessary to tho
dairy success. In fact, dairy success
cannot be had, without the close at
tention to detail. .~-&.
To- begin with, our herd was select
cd with regard only to dairy effi-
cheney from the standpoint OF dairy
farmer, and not at all with the idea
that they were to be fancy. True, It
Is one breed predominates, and this
because of the similarity of the con-
formation and disposition Of the AMI
mails. They were gathered together on
October. 1904, and on November Is.
the work of the herd began, and we
will state that the years work. was be-
gun under a condition certainly not
conducive to the best results for dairy
ing. ''+n~~~ @1l"~.' 'rjr d. ~
The datryman must know his cows.
They, like individuals of the human
race, have each disposition of their
own, and each COW must be studied
and her peculiarities and wants ca
tered to. This, In our first year, with
about 40 head Of new stock, was not
easy to do. especially as the cows
looked nearly alike, and many days
passed before their names could be
learned. But these difficulties were
soon mastered after fashion. "
Our feed was pretty good. We had
ensilage (almost Indispensable in feed
ing dairy cows), clover hay. ground
oats, corn, bran and oil meal. The
cows were fed: ensilage in the morning
after milking with their grain, oil
meal, etc., mixed with 1t. After break
fast the COWS were watered and then
fed light feed Of clover hay, which
sufficed until the middle of the day.
At noon a feed of millet hay was
given and at one or two o'clock, II
the weather was pleasant, the cows
were turned out in an eight-acre pas
ture east of the barn. We use no COW
ward, as have found that it is next
thing to impossible to keep COW yard
clean around the buildings in all kinds
of weather. They were never permit
ted to be out more than two hours,
and upon returning to the barn were
given a light feed Of clover hay and
milking was commenced at tve
o'clock.
We always milk at Ave In winter
and summer, and no work in the fields
! or anywhere else changes this rule.
Twenty-Five cows MIXED more or
less. and were kept through the year,
and two more started, but did so poor
| w at the end of the first six months
they were sold.
The 20 head gave an average OF s."
t 'O27 1-3 pounds of milk each for tho
milking period ranging from four TO
| II months, or an average OF nine
months and II days for each COW.
! counting out the four cows that were
not in calf at the time OF beginning
the test, and the average would be g.
665 IS pounds each. Taking our av-
erage test at the creamery at 3.74 and
we would have 1906 pounds of butter
fat for each COW in The Is. Adding the
four farrow cows and we would have
297 pounds of butter fat for each COW
| in the herd, or considerably over 3OO
pounds of marketable butter.
It must be remembered that ten OF
this herd were two-year-olds, milking
on first calf, and only three were six
years old.
We received in actual cash for milk
sold an average of .$77.11 for each OF
the 20 head, besides using three GAL
Ions of fresh milk daily at the houses
and feeding all calves raised fresh
milk for three weeks after they came
This year we propose to go still fur
| Their with our work and have pur~
chased an eight-bottle Babcock tester
and use it every Is days on each cows
milk. Thus record is kept of each
| individuals butter fat. We hope to
know more of what each member OF
| the herd is doing in another year. The
work Is extremely interesting and in
strucuve, and what cannot be found
! by ones own observation can. be read
ny attained by reading good dairy lit"
eratUre.