Graham guardian., 1908-01-24
Cost to Produce a
Pound of Butter

dairy business, until they know
what it costs them to produce
pound of butter. 1t would be a
perfectly safe assertion to make
that not one in ten of them at the
present time could give any idea
OF the cost, yet they must know
that in order to succeed they must
have this knowledge. A manu-.
factur"r of almost any product be-
fore he commences TO make it or
before he offers it for sale, always
figures the cost to know what
price to ask for it in order to be
sure of profit, and there is just
as much necessity for dairyman
to know the cost of q pound of
butter he produces and offers for
sale as there is for man who
manufactures wagon or plow
that he offers for sale. Wallace
Farmer in recent issue gives the
following good advice, and also
asks for estimates from the dairy
men as to the cost of producing a
pound of butter. 1t says:
1t is very difficult to ascertain
the exact cost of most of the pro
ducts of the farm. Farmers will
differ very widely as to the cost,
for example, of producing a bushel
of corn. 1t cannot be determined
with very great accuracy, because
the cost varies from year to year,
and often from causes entirely out
side the farmers control
1t is possible, however, for the
farmer to determine with approx
mate accuracy, not the cost of pro-
ducing u pound of butterfat in the
state, or county, or township, but
what it actually has cost him to
produce it during the last year.
1t is a comparatively easy thing
to determine the cost of produc ng
pound of buttcrfat in the sum
mer season. The farmer who is
selling cream knows how many
cows he has been milking. He
knows the number cf pounds he
has actually sold to the creamery
and the price he has received for
it. He knows approximately ths
amount that has been used in his
own family. He knows the value
OF bis pasture, or what he would
charge u neighbor for pasturing
the same mum Der of cows during
the summer season. 1t is, there
fore, very easy for him to ascer.
tain what 1t has cost him to pro-
duce pound of butterfat during
this or any other season.
1t is more difficult problem
during the winter. The farmer
cannot weigh out his hay as can
be done at the experiment station,
but the farmer is usually very
| good at making estimates, and he
can easily determine for himself
how may days ton of hay will
keep, say ten or twenty COWS. h.
knows what this hay is worth on
the market, and what 1t should be
worth on the farm. He can ap
proximate very closely the amoun n
of corn or other concentrates ht
feeds to his ten or twenty cows
and he knows what that is wor,i
on the farm.
Knowing the amount OF butter
fat he sells. or the amount of bnt
ter, if he sells his product in tha
form. he can determine with pract
ical accuracy what it has cost him
to produce u pound either OF butter
or butterfat He can very easil,
change pounds of butter to hut or
fat by rem m bering that SIX pouod
of bu,terfat are equal to from sew
en- to seven and a half of butter.
WaIlace's Farmer would v"r
much like to have estimates tron
farmers who give more or less at
tention to dairying as to what i
has actually cost them to produot
butterfat or butter during the las
season, This is not merely a ma
ter of idle curiosity. Ifthe farme
is to succeed in da,ry,ng, or any
thing else, he must know what h'
product costs him. We are quit
sure that Il carefully made estlmat
of this character will open b
eyes toa number of things
which they are closed now ii
will be very likely TO find that b
butterfat is costing him too mucs
and that he is not making nearl
80 much money as he thought h
was.
Farmers who are feeding the
cows corn and timothy hay dur'n
, the winter will invariably fin
, that they are paying u very larg
, price for butterfat; while the farm
ers who are feeding corn and a
falfa hay or clover hay will be su
prised to find how cheap they ar
producing it.
Our present object is to set at
readers who are more or less
f the dairying business To thinkin
, lf,r tb.r, selv,s Tho informatil