Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1909-02-26
PRESS BULLETIN NO. 70.
Improvement Of Dairy Herd
--Co-opsrative Breed
ing Association

Ihe common cows OF Minnesota
kept for dalrying average only 100
pounds of butter yearly. Common
COWS Of the dairy type kept on the
Northeast experiment. farm have
averaged 800 pounds of butter yearly.
Dairy bred cows kept on the expert
ment farm at st. Anthony Park have
averaged 300 pounds of butter yearly.
Between the common cows of the
state anG the common COWS kept on
the N. E. experiment farm there is
difference Of 80 pounds Of butter a
year, or cash difference of $22. so.
This is due to difference in care and
feeding, and lack of judicious selec-
ton on the part of the farmer. Keep
| ing cow regardless of her type and
performance.
Between the common COWS Of the
state and the dairy bred COWS kept by
the experiment farm at st. Anthony
Park there is difference of 40 pound
of butter yearly or cash difference of
$35 due to lack Of breeding along
with other causes mentioned feed
ing, care and selection.
No further. argument is necessary to
show the Importance of improvement
in the dairy herd OF the average farm.
Improvement must begin with better
feed and more of 1t. Clover and
fodder corn and oats must replace the
marsh hay. for winter iced, and the
brush pasture must be cleared up and
d1sked and s0Wn to clover, timothy
and blue grass for summer feed.
The barns must be SO constructed
that the COWS will be comfortable dur
ing the half year they must be kept Ill
doors, and the dairy work so
systematized that the feeding and
milking is done with regularity.
The dairy COW that will produce
six eight and even ten thousand
pounds OF milk in a single year is the
greatest improvement on nature that
has been made, and she won DO 1t
unless she is protected and fed and
cared for just IN proportion When
her conditions are similar and some
times worse than those Of the wild
cow under natural conditions on the
plains she Will go back to what nature
intended her to do, give milk enough
for her young.
Better conditions does not mean
conditions so expensive that they are
impractical for the average farmer.
The log barn built by the farmer MIN
self for his few COWS may be made as
comfortable, and clearly, and is as
suitable for dairy barn as need be-.
The big barn and the big expense
don t necessarily make the profitable
COW It is in doing we'll, the little
every day details of dairy work, and
in having COW that is capable of
producing from $50 to 800 pounds of
butter year when her conditions are
made favorable to that production.
Improving the Breed There are
three essential parts to improving the
dairy herd: 1st. feed, care, etc., End
selection Of the individual COW that is
a good producer, and this can be
known only through keeping g. record
of the milk and butter produced by
each individual COW, and 3rd by using
dairy bred sire OF known da Try
; quality that will transmit this quality
to his heifers.
To get a sire that Will make I'M
provement II his heifers over the
! common COW, it is generally necessary
to 20 outside the neighborhood.
Unfortunately pure bred dairy herds
are scarce The cost Of a pure bred
sire is generally from SIS to 100, a
price that the average frontier farmer
| feels that he cannot afford to pay. BY
eight or ten farmers clubbing together
| the amount for each one to pay would
! not be as much as the cost Of scrub
animal, and one sire will do for eight
or ten Of the average herds as we'll as
! one.
To carry this cooperation still
further and to secure the greatest i'm.
provement at the least expense, 1t is
planned for all the farmers of the
F.. township to co operate and buy or
slres of the same breed, but unrelated
Have one sire for every ten herds.
and exchange from one community of
herds to another every two years so
that inbreedlng would not be
practiced. In this way the sires could
be kept for eight or ten years.
AS it is now the sire IS often dis
posed at 8 or years of age which is
only at the beginning of their greatest
usefulness, and power Of transmission.
The best heifers are from the mature
sires.
This plan OF breeding has already
been adopted by one community of
farmers in Northern Minnesota. the
farmer OF the meadow. cooperative
creamery association Of Berner,
Clearwater county
They bought 5 pure bred sires in CO.
operation under the plan previously
outlined. Within few years that
farming community will be noted for
the breed of cattle they have selected.
They are noted now for being he first
association of farmers in the state to
take up this plan of cooperative cattle
breeding. It is further worthy of note
that this association of farmers live
in a back woods section, twenty five
miles from railroad station. Their
local creamery is their market, and
when they haul load from there to
the railway, over their long road, 1T is.
a ton of butter, worth today some
$500.
Dairying is the industry for the
great majority of farmers Of North
eastern Minnesota and wa si10nld ali