The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1906-12-20
individuality of the Cow


Address of Hon. X. w. Ellis of Embden
before Maine State Dairy ADnpBl Con-
yention held at mlngton Dec. 3. 1905
| am more or less acquainted with
pretty much every p rson present and
you all know that all the talk | ever
made on the subject of agriculture has
been from my own experience. I be
81 me will be the case with what | have
to say to you today. | have been
breeding Jerseys for So years and had
we not lost our herd and been obliged to
replace it with new one | should not
have had the experience that / shall
give you today.
We had for long time been breeding
for quality, regardless of quantity, until
we had one of the richest herds In the
state, for long time not one in the lot
testing less than per cent, and from
that to II per cent, averaging about 9
per cent, but their yield was light. run
ming from $500 to 5000 pounds per year,
and making abont 800 pounds butter on
The average. One year the average was
$40 pounds We always had the scale
hanging In our tie-up and the tester in
the milk room and we weighed consid-
cradle mot all the time,) and tested oc-
casionally. There was quite uniformi-
ty In our herd, we hardly ever raised
one that would not considerably more
than pay her keep
hen we came to get a new herd we
found things had changed The scale
hung there the same. as ever and we
have weighed and recorded every mess
from about every COW for a year and a
half, but we have not used the tester as
much as we ought, have only made one
thorough test. The first of last August
some of the cows had been in milk seven
months, and from that down to two
months, but that test was revelation to
me
The past years experience with this
new herd has taught me more about
the individuality of the COW than / ever
learned before, and that is, that l do
not know the first thing about it, and
ii is quite an important thing for man
to find out what he don't know.
| never was a very firm believer that
any external examination would deter
mine with any degree of certainty the
value of COW for dairy purposes.
never believed that the shape of the
face, head, neck shoulders. back. hips,
length or color of the tail bad but very
little to do with the value of a cow,
other than to please the eye, but l did
think the udder and milk veins were a
pretty good indication of her quality,
land | stick to the milk veins yet For
instan e, | thought a feshy udder de-
noted rich milk while a f1abby udder
denoted the reverse Then again, |
thought of course the COW giving
very large flow must of necessity be Of
poorer quality than the one giving a
small quantity, but to my utter as onsb
ment two of the highest testing COWS
in the whole lot. one testing 7 and the
other II per cent gave the largest
amount of milk per dag 80 and 80 lbs.
respectively. Both had the most habby
udders, nothing but the skin left after
being MIXED out. while the COW testing
the lowest, per cent, had as f1eshy an
udder as any one in the whole 10; and
never gave over "a lbs. milk per day at
her best So you see | am completely
"f1ambusted," | don't know where
am at But as | said 10 the beginning,
/ have learned that | don't know any
thing about the value of a COW, only as !
learn 1t by the scale and tester.
When | started out to replace our
herd | bad nothing to rely upon but
my poor judgment and the only thing
that saved me from almost total failure
was that found lots of men who did
not know much more about their own
COWS than | did, never having tested
them in any way. For instance found
a man in Winthrop, who offered me a
small 4.year-old COW for $26, and a Q
year-old that had just dropped a calf
for $12, which WAS so very cheap took
them. The heifer is now four years old
and will make when this year is out
about 225 lbs. of butter. The COW failed
to get in calf for long time. went dry
four months and got very fat and drop
ped her first calf last Jan IS She has
given 1920 lbs milk that tested SO per
cent butter fat and dropped another
calf last night after going dry only four
weeks; II nothing happens to her she Is
going to make considerable more than
500 lbs of butter In the year and drop
ped two calves in the time. TO offset
that paid another man $40 for COW
that had jus dropped a calf and looked
perfection itself thought never saw
a much handsomer cow stand up There
has nothing happened to her, but II |
udu given nun tnb Eau anu leit tue cow
with him | should have been dollars
better off
Some of our new herd are far ahead
of any in the old, and some are as far
behind, they will average up about the
same One of the new ones has gone to
The butcher and others will follow as
soon as they are ready. When the year
is out we shall publish the results real
lied from the herd. Now | want to
emphasize what | have said one hun
dred time before, no man can afford to
be N the dairy business unless he knows
precisely what each cow is doing.