The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1910-03-17
FOR oAlRYMEN
An Expert on Dairying offered Some
Good Suggestions to Improve
the Business.

&Aoou AASAO III g O.
men gathered at the court house
Tuesday afternoon and were address
ed by Professor c. Larsen, head of
the dairy department at Brookings
and A. T. Rygert, state dairy inspect
or. The meeting was full of interest
for those present and the time was
very p%rofitably spent. Many items of
great value were brought out by the
two speakers and the dairymen at
the close evinced considerable inter-
est and took part in a general discus
sion.
Professor Larsen devoted his time
to a discussion of the dairy COW
which he regarded as the foundation
of the dairy business. The duty of
the COW is to convert inexpensive
farm products into an expensive pro-
duct as a food for man. A dairy COW
to be profitable should return So of
food value for every 81 fed her in the
way of hay and grain. Among all of
the animals on the farm the chicken
is the most economical converter of
food products. Following the chicken
comes the dairy COW, then the sheep
and finally the steer raised for beef
purposes. On expensive land, where
the feed is high and the room is
lacking, the dairy cow is the animal
that pays the expenses with a reason
able profit.
AS one means of making a profit in
the dairy business the professor ad-
vocated keeping a close account of
each cows individual record. total
expenditures, and money received.
Any storekeeper with only a fraction
of the capital invested will hire a
~bookkeeper and take occasional in
voices for the purpose of keeping in
close touch with his business and his
progress. Figuring land, buildings,
and equipment as capital stock the
farmer and practical dairymen should
maintain their affairs in a business
like manner.
By means of some plain charts the
professor showed the comparative
standing and profit of two COWS he
had owned while in Utah. One of the
animals cost $50 and the other $50.
In one year the more expensive of the
two returned a profit of IS per cent
as opposed to 4 per cent for the
other. Both were taken care of in the
same manner and the COW making
the biggest returns cost the most in
feed. In regard to the amount to
feed, the speaker said to feed a COW
so that she would return twice the
value of the feed in butterfat. An
other chart, the record of 10 COWS be-
longing to the college herd at Brook
ings, showed the profits of COWS
ranging from the common grade to
the Holsteins were from $19.37 to
$1OS.29 during last year. The COWS
were each given practically the same
feed, according to their needs, and
the difference was brought solely
through the grade of the animals.
This letter chart was enlivened with
photographs Of a number of the COWS.
1t being practically impossible for
the average farmer wishing to go in
to the dairy business to buy COWS with
which to start his herd, Professor
Larsen advocated that each farmer
or a group of the same to buy good
sires and that way eventually build
up a herd for dairy purposes. With
a pure bred dairy sire in a herd of
IA COWS in five generations the off
spring wuold be 96 per cent pure,
farmer or dairyman with a good
dairy COW will never part with the
same and the only available method
is to build up a herd through the
sire. In selecting the sire the profess
sor laid especial emphasis upon pro-
curing one from milk-producing an
cestry. Pedigree is not enough, it is
necessary that a dairy animal comes
from a milking strain n is able TO
transmit that quality. He urged that
when the herd is started the poor
COWS be gradually weeded out and
only the heifers raised which are
from the good mixers.
The cow-test associations which
have made such Roadway in the east
ern states and also in Minnesota,
Iowa, and Wisconsin, were highly
favored by Prof. Larsen as a practical
means of the farmers raising the
milk producing qualities of their
herds. The Department of Agricul-
ture is doing much to aid this move
ment, as also are many state legis-
latures. He described the method of
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