Morris tribune., 1909-10-02
Cow Testing Associations.

(Notes Furnished by the Minnesota
Farmers Institutes.)
/ The first cooperative COW testing
association was organized Jan. %
1896 in Denmark for the purpose OF
investigating and recording the feed
ing. as well as the milk and butter fat
yields, of the individual COWS in the
herds.
This association has been so success
full that today, instead of a few as
sociations with few COWS, there are
more than 45O associations with over
17O, 900 COWS. The average yield per
cow has been increased from 5,451
pounds of milk, averaging 3.3 per cent
butter fat, to 7,776 pounds of milk +,
averaging 1862 per cent butter fat.
Minnesota dairyman need not be
ashamed to initiate in so good cause.
The average yield of the Minnesota
COW is approximately 1000 pounds
milk and 1876 pounds butter fat, while
the writer has records of several COWS
whose milk yield for the past year
was below 1000 pounds and several
that exceeded 1000 pounds. If dairy
man wishes to improve the produc-
tiveness of his herd, there is only one
way of doing it, provided they are
properly fed and cared for, namely;
to weed out poor producers and re-
place them with profitable ones. Such
cows, however, are rarely found on
the market, except at very high
prices, and the average dairyman will
find that, if he wants good COWS, he
must raise them himself. The most
economical method he can adopt then
is to purchase sire of pronounced
dairy qualities and raise the calves
from his best COWS and with them re-
place the COWS that prove unproft-
able.
But in order to do this, he must be
able to tell the good COWS from the
poor ones. He must know three
things about each individual. First,
how much milk she will give in
year; not in month, because she
must be fed year. Second he must
know the richness of the milk. Third,
he. must know how much it cost to
keep the cow year.
The simplest method of obtaining
these facts is for few farmers in a
community with a sufficient number
of COWS to organize and hire a COM
petent man to do the testing. The
expense to be paid prorata by each
man in proportion to the number of
COWS he owns. 1t is desirable to have
a sufficient number of COWS in the as
sociation so that the expense will not
exceed $1.OO to $1.50 per COW per
year. The tester visits one herd a
day. He arrives in the afternoon,
sees the COWS MIXED, weighs the milk
and takes sample from each COW.
This is repeated next morning. He
tests the milk from each COW and fig
ures out the value of the butter fat
and suitable ration and leaves these
with the farmer. This farmer then
takes the tester and his outfit to the
next farmer. He gets to each farm
every month, so that the farmer has
records. At the end of the
year, the tester figures up the yield
of milk and butter fat and the value
of the same, the cost of feed to main
tain COW each year and the profit or
loss on each individual in the herd,
and furnishes every patron with this
record.
One of the greatest values of testing
COWS for the first year at least is that
it gives the facts needed to feed in
telligently. Only when cows are in
good condition and properly fed can
they do work up to their capacity
When they have been in good condi-
tion and well fed for year, their re-
cords as shown by the test will enable
one to Gull out the unpr ofitable COWS.
CARL GAUMN1Tz.
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