The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1908-02-06

the skim milk with q little ground
feed added (the screenings will d.
for the summer which, by the way.
ought to be left on the farms and not
freight paid them and then given
away in the Eastern grain markets)
and then have them finished in the
fall with corn. Third, where dairying
is carried on in connection with grain
raising, and it always ought to be,
there the land will yield a better av.
erage of all kinds of grain as is easily
proven by the fact that a rotation OF
crops is necessary. Fourth, with
herd Of we'll cared for dairy cows you
are bound to get lot of very valuable
manure, which, with the use of tho
manure spreader, will keep the fer
tility of the soil and insure better
crops. Fifth, if so arranged that the
most of the COWS in the herd will
come fresh in the fall. say from Oct.
/ to Dec. 1, harvest time will find us
with but little milking to do.
Years ago nearly all of our cows
were Of the range stock type, and, as
a rule. came fresh about April or
May. With good pasture they would
give good supply of milk during
the summer months, but when fall
came with it's dry pastures and no
feed but prairie hay and not much
of that until the ground was covered
with snow, the cows, of course, dried
up and remained dry until fresh
again. Now most dairymen try to
have good supply of feed for winter,
such as corn fodder, millet hay, and
in some cases root crops, and in ad
dition ground oats and speltz mixed
with bran, and as cows are now often
bred to freshen, say about Sept. 20
to Dec. !, they are kept in comforta.
BILE barns and fed long before any
snow falls. In this way they produce
flow of milk during the winter, and.
after spring comes with green grass
they keep 1t right up the most of the
summer months.
Il would like to tell you now what
we have and what we are trying to
do to improve our herd, and by that
means the profit therefrom. Our first
method was by raising the heifhN
calves from our best cows, trying to
raise them as dairy stock and with
better care and feed have doubled
the yield Of milk from each COW ev.
cry morning and evening, taking sam
pies of their milk and testing for the
per cent of fat each month. In this
work we were considerably assisted
by Assistant Dairy Commissioner
Flint, who supplied us with milk
sheets and instructed us how to do
the testing. AS result Of our one
years weighing and testing for our
herd Of nineteen COWS we found that
they averaged 6,628 pounds of milk
and 209 pounds of butterfat, which, If
made into butter. would average PA
pounds per COW. We found that we
had one COW that gave US 8,217
pounds of milk that contained 1882
pounds OF butterfat; another that
gave 1894 pounds of milk with 275.S
pounds of fat. Our poorest COW that
lived to complete the years work
gave 3.971 pounds of milk that con-
tanned 1854 pounds of fat. This last
COW. though, as near as could
figure paid for the feed she ate. but
was not as profitable a cow as I
wished, and she was disposed of.
We are continuing the test, and be.
lieve it is profitable labor.
Now you will likely want to know
what one can expect a good COW to
bring you in return for feed and la
Dor. This, of course, depends on diff
ferent things. The kind of cows you
have, the pasture, care and feed that
is raised on the farm the time they
come fresh and also the help you
have at home to do the work. From
$50 to $40 is about the average profit
from reasonably well kept cows in
this neighborhood. There is big
difference in the profit of different
COWS as we found by weighing and
testing ours. The years results
proved that while few of the best
procured butterfat to the value of $50
above all feeding expense, a number
of the poor ones did not do half so
well and one just paid expenses. The
latter kind get eff the farm quick
While Our herd of nineteen COWS
which gave 1O6,930 pounds of milk
with fat content of 3,974.1 pounds,
was composed wholly of grade stock,
principally of Durham breed, there is
in this neighborhood more than a
dozen of registered pure bred Hol.
stein-Friesian sires at the head of as
many different herds. also about
twenty females of the same breed
being used as foundation herds, anG
they are giving good satisfaction
This pure bred stock was purchased
about two years ago in Southern Wis
consin from noted breeders, and many
of the individual animals came from
noted families of this breed. The
animals were all treated for tubercu-
losis and found healthy before being
shipped to this state. We are also
agitating the building of silos and
feeding our fodder corn in a more
succulent form of ensilage.
by this you will see that we are