Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1909-10-01
INSTITUTE CIR UL IS
Cow Testing Associate :.
They Are Paying In
vestmentS

The first CO. operative COW testing
osanciation was organized Jan. %.
1SoS in Denmark for the purpose Of
;nvastl eating and recording the feed
mo as we'll as the milk and butter
fat Yields, of the individual cows IN
This association has been SO success
tnl that today, instead OF few
associations with a few cows, there
ara more than $50 associations with
over 10. 900 cows. The average yleld
mar COW has been increased from 8, 45l
hounds of milk, averaging 3d. per cent
hntter fat, to 7,776 pounds OF milk,
averaging 852 per cent butter rat.
Minnesota dalrymen need not De
ashamed to initiate in SO good cause.
The average yield of the Minnesota
cow is approximately 1000 POUNDS
milk and 1855 pounds butter rat. Whlle
tho writer has records of several cows
whose milk yield for the past year
was below 1000 pounds ana se7 ge y
that exceeded 1000 pounds. II
dairvman wishes to improve enc pro-
ductiveness of his herd, there IS only
one way of doing it. provided tney
are fed and cared for, namely: TO
weed out poor producers and replace
them with profitable ones. Such COWS,
however, are rarely found on the
market, except at very high prices,
and the average dairyman Will hnd
that. if he wants good cows, he must
ra,se them himself. The most
economical method he can adopt then
10 to purchase sire Of pronounced
dairy Qualities and raise the caves
from his best cows and with them
ren1ace the COWS that prove un-
profitable. -. - ..,a+
no able to tell the good cows from the
40, ones. He must know three things
ahont each individual. First, how
much milk she will give in year !;
not in month, because she must De
fed a wear" Second, he must know the
richness of the milk. Third, no must
Lnou how much it costs to keep the
COW year. 4,;
those facts is for q few farmers IN
community with sufficient NUMBER
~ cows to organize and hire com
,atent man to do the testing. The
a1nense to be paid pro.rata by each
man IN prOpOAt1Ou w ~ no~o
cows he. owns. It is desirable TO nave
a sufficient number Of cows in the
ASSOCIATION 40 that the expense Will
not exceed $500 to $50 per COW per
YEAR. The tester visits one hero a
dav He arrives in the afternoon.
COOS the COW MIXED, weighs the milk
and takes a sample from eacn cow
iris ia repeated next morning. ne
+osts tho milk from each COW ana
f;onres out the value of the butter tat
and a suitable ration and leaves these
with the farmer. This farmer then
tatas the tester and his outfit to the
800 farmer. He gets to each farm
avarv month. SO that the farmer has
month1v records. At the end OF the
voar the tester figures up the ylald
If 1n;,k and butter fat and the value
~ tho same, the cost of feed TO
mainain cow each year and the
nrofit or loss on each individual IN tne
herd. and furnishes every patron with
One of the greatest values OF testing
cows. for the first year at least, Is that
il pives the facts needed to feed
inteilleently. Only when COWS are IN
oood Condition and properly led can
sfhev do work up to their capaclty.
When they have been IN good conol:
ION and well fed for year, their
records, as shown by the TEST, VIII
enable one to Gull out the unprontaole
~ Carl Gaumnitz.