Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-10-31
Business Principles Applied to Dairying.

In recent bulletin Professors
Humphrey and Woll, of the Wiscon-
sin Experiment Station, describe and
discuss the management and records
of the Wisconsin Univer 'ity dairy
herd during the past year. The herd
now contains representatives of the
following breeds: Jersey. Guernsey,
/ Holstein, Ayrshire and Brown Swiss.
II is kept primarily for Institutional
purposes, but it is also required to
return as much revenue as possible
through the sale of milk and cream
and surplus stock. Of necessity the
returns are not as great as they might
be if the herd was being managed on
wholly commercial basis. Never
/ theless, the record has been a good
one and may serve as good example
and a powerful incentive for improve
ment. The authors of the bulletin
point out the possibilities along this
line when they write:
g There are approximately mil
lion and a quarter of dairy cows
in Wisconsin, the products of which
yield at a conservative estimate an
annual income to the state of over
fifty million dollars. 1t is evident
to all who have looked into the
matter that this sum, vast as it is,
would be greatly increased through
the general adoption of better
sytsem of feeding and management of
the cows than that now practiced on
most dairy farms. A great improve
ment in the production of dairy herds
and the net returns obtained from
these has taken place of late years,
through the work of educational and
other institutions maintained by the
state for the advancement of agri-
culture. and through the example
of intelligent. progressive dairy
farmers found in nearly every com
munity.
In keeping record of the university
herd the year is divided into two
periods-summer and winter. Dur
ing the winter a careful record is
kept, both ct the amount and value
of food consumed and of the milk
and milk products returned. During
the summer only an estimate of the
! feed consumption can be taken.
From the comparative standpoint
it will be- of interest to note the
character and quantities of feed fed
during the winter and summer.
The roughage fed to the COWS
! during the winter periods consisted
of corn silage and mixed hay, largely
timothy and clover. with occasional
feeding of sugar beets. The grain
was made up of variety of different
feeds: wheat bran, corn meal, distil-
lers' grains, oats, oil meal and
brewers grains.
The standard grain mixture fed
during the past year was made up
of wheat bran. corn meal and dis
tillers' grains in the proportion of
3 3 plus. The general practice
followed was to feed as many pounds
of grain daily per COW as shs pro-
duced pounds of butter fat during the
week Tor one-quarter to one-third as
much grain as the amount of milk
gwen, according to its quality The
cows received, in addition to this al
lowance of concentrates, as much
silage and hay as they could eat mp
clean, twenty five to forty five pounds
of silage and four to six pounds of
hay being the usual amount eaten
daily.
During the summer COWS were
turned to pasture and only received
supplementary feeds of hay. corn
silage OIL green corn when conditions
seem to require it.
The average production of the
twenty seven cows in the herd was