The Sauk Centre herald., 1909-03-04
INT DAIRY HERD
Suggestions Of Importance to
Breeders Of Cows
now TOIMPROvf STOCK
Bulletin Issued by A. J. MCGUIRE
.Supt. of the Northeast Expert
ment Station

| The common COWS or Minnesota kepC
for dairying average only $50 pounds.
of butter yearly. Common COWS OF the
dairy type kept on the Northeast
Experiment farm have averaged $50
pounds of butter yearly. Dairy bred
COWS kept on the Experiment farm at
ST. Anthony Park have averaged over
300 pounds of butter yearly.
Between the common COWS of the
state, and the common COWS kept on
the N. E. Experiment farm there is a
difference of 80 pounds of butter a
year, or cash difference of $22.5O.
This is due to difference in care
and feeding, and lack of judicious Sc
lection on the part of the farmer,
keeping cow regardless of her type
and performance.
Between the common COWS of the
state and the dairy bred COWS kept on
the Experiment farm at St. Anthony
Park there is difference of 40 pounds
of butter yearly, or a cash difference of
s35, due to lack of breeding along
with the other causes mentioned:
feeding, 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 it. Clover and fOd-
der corn and roots must replace the
marsh hay, for winter feed, and the
brush pasture must be cleared up and
disked and sown 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
i'm doors, and the dairy work SO system
iatized 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 yearis the greatest
improvement on nature that has been
made, and she won't do it 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 plans she will 60
back to what nature intended her to
4, do, give milk enough for her young.
Better conditions do not mean con-
ditions SO expensive that they are inn
practical for the average farmer.
The log barn built by the farmer him
self for his few COWS may be made as
comfortable, and cleanly, and in every
way as suitable for a dairy barn as
need be.
The big barn and the big expense
don't necessarily make the profitable
COW. 1t is in doing we'll, the little
every day details or dairy work, and in
having COW that is capable of pro-
ducing from go to 300 pounds of butt
er 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., 2nd
selection of the individual cow that is
a good producer, and this can be
known only through keeping a record
of the milk and butter produced by
each individual COW, and 3rd by using
a dairy bred sire of known dairy quail
lily that will transmit this quality to
his heifers.
To get sire that will make i'm
provement in his heifers over the
common COW, it is generally necessary
to go outside the neighborhood. Un-
fortunately pure bred dairy herds are
scarce. The cost of pure bred sire is
lgenerallysfrom s75 to 800, 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 ami
NAL, and one sire will do for eight or
item of the average herds as well as
lone.
To carry this cooperation still furth-
er and to secure the greatest improve
ment at the least expense, it is planned
for all the farmers of the towship
to cooperate and buy or ) sires of the
|same breed, but unrelated. Have one
sire for every ten herds, and exchange
from one community of herds to anoth-
Ter every two years so that inbreeding
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
disposed of at or years of age which
is only at the beginning of their great
est usefulness, and power of transmits
sion. The best heifers are from the
mature sires.
| This plan of breeding has already
been adopted by one community of
farmers i'm northern Minnesota. the
farmers of the Meadow Cooperative
Creamery association of Berner, Clear
water county.