Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-05-01
Increasing the Profits.

| increasing the Profits.
There are many farmers carrying on 9
moderate dairy business who are finding
the profits from that branch of theil
work quite small and unsatisfactory
We hear it more and more in these later
years. Only few days ago we heard a
bright young man state positively in a
public meeting that he was getting more
actual net profit from sheep than he
was from a COW. While q measure OF
his better net profit from sheep was
probably due to the man, yet "there are
Others" and the fact cannot be over
looked that under the management,
generally prevailing throughout the
dairy sections of the state, the margin OF
net profits from herd of cows is not
specially inviting to the business.
How can the net profits of the dairy
business be enlarged?
This is question of importance, and
may well be thoughtfully studied by
every individual dairyman for himself.
We know full well that the environ
ment of the individual controls results
in large measure in that individuals $
case. Hence it is not for us to suggest
a change that can be adopted by all
alike.
Here is fact that generally obtains
throughout the dairy business of our
state. The grain feed needed in the
business is nearly all purchased from
the market. Our dairymen have grad
ually dropped into that practice. Cow
feeds are offered for sale within easy
reach of every cow owner. 1t is easier
"a simpler problem-to send the team
to the station or the store and load up
with feed, than it is, through long laid
plans, to provide it some other way.
There is a good deal of dropping into
much business calculation over the mat
ter of comparative cost. This is just
what has come about with the dairy
business among us. So large a measure
of the money received for the products
of the dairy goes to pay for purchased
grain feed that but little-too little-is
left for the operator.
A remedy for the present situation is
to grow the needed grain feeds on the
farms where the cows are kept. 1t is an
error that this is not being done through
out the dairy sections of our state.
There is land enough in the farms as
now owned on which to do it and teams
enough TO do the work. All that is
needed is the go and do it. Oats, peas
and barley are good grain feeds, all are
sure crops with us, and give as bountiful
Yields as anywhere in the country.
Scarce farmer but can raise his five to
ten acres of grain with little increase OF
cost if he but wills to do it.
Another way through which present
conditions can be remedied is to discon-
tinue winter dairying, chiefly, making
the bulk of the milk in that season of
the year when little grain feed is needed.
Formerly products of the dairy, winter
made, sold at much higher prices than
the summer make. Dairymen then
very properly got in the way of running
their dairies through the winter months,
a practice that required heavy grain
feeding. Cold storage has raised the
price of grass butter made in summer,
aud reduced the premium on the winter
make correspondingly. The former ad-
vantages of winter dairying, as compar-
ed with summer, are not now realized.
The old d-fashioned way of arranging for
the cows 10 have their dry period In
winter, freshening in spring as the
warmer weather advances, and fed
chiefly on pasturage aud green crops
from the field, with little or no outlay
for grain, will leave quite as much or
more money, net, to the operator, as is
now being realized under the present
management of heavy winter feeding on
purchased grain.
To increase the profits of the dairy
business, either more of the grain feed
should be grown on the farm where
needed, or the business should be so
modified that less grain is fed.-Msine
Farmer