Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1907-09-12
FOR OUR FARM
Err FRIENDS
Prof. Ristad Writes Valuable
Hints on Housing and
Feeding of Cattle.

IN Order TO OBTAIN the DeSt results
from dairy-farming it is of the great
est Importance that the herd is of
paying quality. That is a dairyman
must keep only good cows; COWS that
will pay for their food and care and
net the farmer snug sum besides.
If farmer has tried dairying and
found that it did not pay, the fault
was in the farmers judgment OF the
quality of his herd,-to begin with.
You can not become a successful
dairyman unless you take hold of it
in business like manner. It is not
enough to have COWS, and many
COWS, must know what your
COWS cosU you and what they bring
you, if you shall know what you are
about. You must keep an account
with your stock. If you find that
COW does not pay for her feed and
care,-why, kill her, or give her
away to someone Tho is willing to
gnaW the meat off her bones. The
more COWS of this kind a farmer
keeps, the worse he is off.
How can you tell whether COW is
of a paying quality or not? Weigh
her milk and test it with Babcock
tester! If you find that she does not
give at least $50 lbs. of butter per
year and the skim milk besides, she
does not pay. A dairy farmer ought
not to be satisfied with his herd un-
less the average yield reaches 300 lbs.
per COW.
A dairy farmer must get acquaint
ed with his COWS, then weed out the
poor ones and improve, by breeding,
the rest of the herd. And he must
not do as a South Dakota farmer
told me the other day, he did. He
bought Herford sire and a Herford
COW in order to improve the dairy
quality of his herd. He paid $3.50
piece for them to clever Iowa
breeder. who sold "pure bred
cattle.' They were pure bred all
right, but they were bred for beef,
not for milk; and when the innocent
Dakota man had his ''purebred'
Herford COW present him the first
calf, she did not give milk enough to
keep the calf alive, and he became
disgusted with ''purebred cattle.' 30
If this man had been informed, he
would have bought a pure bred
Guernsey or Holstein or Jersey out
fit, and he would not have lost faith
in ''pure bred cattle,'' for dairy pur-
poses.
When the quality of the herd is
attended to. the dairy farmer is by
no means ready. Dairying may still
be failure. A COW is like a ma
chine: the machine may be all right,
but it will not do the work unless
properly handled, properly taken care
of and given Intelligent attention.
A poor engineer may spoil the best
machine, while an Intelligent ma
chinest may get fairly good work out
of an inferior machine. 1t is not
only the oman behind the gum that
counts, but it is the man behind the
plow and the man behind the COW
that will make farming in all it's
phases a success or failure.
The dairy farmer who is trying to
succeed must understand the import
ance of the care Of his herd, of the
housing and feeding of his cattle.
Proper housing and feeding and
patient and painstaking care will
make even moderately good herd, a
paying herd: and a Wcll-bred '>ol
select herd will, by the right
management, bs as good as a gold
mine.
ANY COW will be better when she
is kept comfortable than when she is
not kept so. To be comfortable she
must have a good house, good water,
pure air, plenty and the right kind
of feed. gentle treatment, and she
must be kept clean.
THE CONSTABLE.
The Importance of this subject car
not be overstated.
When the condition of the COW
barns in many farming communities
are taken into consideration it is q
wonder, that even the scrub COW
does not 60 on a, perpetual strike
The barns are cold, hlthy, dark.
poorly ventilated and lacking II
general comfort. 10 judge by these
barns, one is led to believe that the
farmers think that anything is gooc
enough for the beasts. But WITH
such conditions for the COW, the
farmer will experience that, as far az
the proftlfro the cattle is con
cerned. anything is good enough
for the farmer" The farmer is the
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