Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-04-03
who owns BEST
iowa DAIRY COW?
w. w. MARSH DONATES $1,000 Tc
BE GIVEN AS CASH PDIZES
IN A CONTEST.

Who owns the best dairy COW i'll
Iowa?
That's what Iowa and the world
would like to know.
Not who has the best show COW
Not who has the best Holstein, or
Guernsey, or Jersey, or Ayrshire, or
Brown Swiss, or Shorthorn, or grade
But who owns the Iowa dairy COW
that will produce the most butter-fat
in years milking test?
! w. w. Marsh of Waterloo, an enthll-
siastic dairyman is helping us to get
an answer to the question by contrib
uting 81 900 to be distributed as cash
cows in Iowa. And by dairy cows is
butter-fat, irrespective of breed
At Des Moines last week a prelim-
mary meeting was held and tempo
rary organization formed with the fol-
lowing officers: H. G. Wallace, Des
Moines, president; E. R. Shoemaker,
managing editor of Kimball's Dairy
Farmer, secretary; Prof. c. F. Curtiss,
of Ames, treasurer.
1t has been suggested that the or
ganization be known as the Cow Gull
ture Club.
| The $1,000 prize money is to pc
given to owners of the COWS in Iowa
producing the greatest amount Of
butter-fat In years test.
The details of the plan of operation
are to be worked out and announce
ment made very soon by a committee
composed of Prof c. F. Curtiss, Prof.
G. L. Mckay and E. R. Shoemaker.
Any farmer in the state may enter
one or more COWS in this contest, and
absolutely the only expense to him
will be the cost of meeting represen-
tative Of the Iowa State College at his
railroad station once month, taking
him to his farm, keeping him there
for sc hours and returning him to the
railroad station. Besides this, of
course, there will need to be a few
dollars outlay in the purchase of milk
scales, milk bottles, etc.
The representative of the Iowa
Dairy School will go to the farm once
month, see the COW MIXED three
times in succession make a record OF
the second and third milkings, take q
sample and test the cows milk for but
ter-fat
The $1,000 cash prizes will probably
be divided as follows: For the COW
producing the most butter-fat. $3.50;
a second prize of $3.50, and a thirt
prize Of 500. Then the remaining $500
will be apportioned to owners of the
10 next best COWS according to the
amount of butter-fat produced by eaci
COW.
w. B. Barney, president of thu
Iowa State Dairy association has Civ
en- assurance that his association will
be glad to present prize cups to thu
| owners of the three best cows, and al
!, effort Is now being made to get tn
: various breeders associations, such a
: the Holstein, Guernsey. Jersey, Ayl
shire, Brown Swiss, Shorthorn, etc
to duplicate at least the first three
prizes. provided the winning COW b
: of their breed.
2 1t Is a lamentable fact that the fal
= mers of Iowa are actually losing fror
;, $4,000, 900 to S30000,0 900 annually BIZ
g cause of poor cows and poor feet
n There are approximately million an
n a half dairy cows in the state. bu
a they are producing an average of les
= than $50 pounds Of butter-fat per yea
+ Cows in European countries and |
d various parts of Iowa and other ives
d ern states are making 300 to 900 {
y more pounds Of butter-fat year.
s In spite Of the fact that the averae
e production of the Iowa COW Is yer
a low, there are on the farms of tn
e state COWS that are producing r
1t markably large amount of butter-fa
4, of which people know little or not
N ing.
is And this contest Is being establis
ed to find out how MANI such dali