The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1908-11-11
MILKING FOR PROFIT.
Does the Average American Farmer
Really Milk Cows for FUN.

we nave D00n Trying LOT SOIH0
years to make out the motives which
lead farmers to milk from five to
twenty cows per farm. One would
naturally think that the motives
were to supplement the farm income
and that past experience has shown
that this was one of the most certain
ways of increasing the profits of the
farm.
So far as we can ascertain the av-
erage yield of the cows in Iowa or
any adjoining state is about $50
pounds of butter per cow. certainly
not more than that amount of but
ter fat, or It's pounds of butter.
Where farmers have estimated the
expenses in the way of feed for the
support of these dairy cows they
run from S28 to S35. Allowing 20
cents per pound for butter. it will
seem that this income from the cow
is about equal to her cost for feed
for year. The profit. therefore,
must be in the calf, which is from 81
to SIS or at most So, at birth, in the
skim-milk used to balance the pigs
ration, and in manure, which is ac-
tuafly worth from So to $6 per COW,
depending on the quality of the feed
and the way in which it is applied to
the land.
But here comes in the surprising
thing: A number of the state ex-
pertinent stations in the Mississippi
valley have gone to the trouble Of
ascertaining the average yield of
some hundreds of diaries. They
have taken typical dairy cows,
weighed the milk and tested it, and
have found that while the average
cow pays about the average price in
the way of butter for the grain she
eats, about one-third of these cows
are kept at loss, another third are
kept at a profit, while the other
third just pay the expenses of keep.
The question therefore arises: Are
the farmers milking these cows just
for the fun of the thing, or do they
really think they are making money?
Why does not the farmer get ac-
quainted with his cattle? He does
not allow himself to be beaten by
the storekeeper, by the hired man.
or by neighbor, but he will allow
himself to be beaten, swindled and
robbed by the cows on his farm.
The only reason that we can conceive
for the present condition of things in
all these states is that the farmers
are not willing to take the trouble
to find out whether their cows are
robbing them or not.
Any farmer who knows enough to
milk cows can hang up a pair of
scales in his barn, weigh the milk at
every milking for at least week,
and then either buy a Babcock test
and test the milk himself or have
his boy test. Any bright boy of
16 or 18 years Of age can test milk
for butter fat as we'll as professor
at college. 1t will be education
for the boy.
If he will do this one week four or
FIVE times a year he will know exact
ly what his cows are doing. He will
usually find that it is the best look
ing cows from the beef standpoint
that are doing the robbing. Why
not put these into the feed lot, get
some profit out of them, and either
buy or raise from his best cows
enough heifers to take their places?
tits quite within the range of pos
sibility for farmers who have the
common cows of the country to
build up in a few years herd that
will give 300 pounds of butter in
stead of the average of $50 pounds.
Milking is not a very pleasant job.
Dairying is about the most combining
business on the farm, and if man
does dairying at all, then let him
keep cows every one of which will
yield an income Of from $40 to $50 a
year, exclusive of the calf. the skim
milk and the manure. This can be
done, done easily and is done on
hundreds of farms.
If it costs $50 pounds Of butter to
keep COW a year and she yields 16O
pounds she is giving profit of about
| So, but if she yields 300 pounds .
voor che 10 OivinO a nr0fit 0f 49(1