The Sauk Centre herald., 1911-12-28
FOR BETTER COWS
instructor Norsen Talks About
Intelligent Dairying
now TOIMPROVE BOSSY
Teacher of Agriculture in Saak
Centre Public Schools Makes
Practical Suggestions

Points in improving the dairy herd:
1st. Weigh and test the milk. The
first and all-important thing to con-
slider i'm that improvement of the
dairy herd is to find out what each
COW is doing. Now there is only one
way to find this out and be absolute
" sure and that is by using the scales
and the Babcock tester. Every up-tC-
date, progressive dairyman, is weigh
ing and testing the milk from his
COWS. You who have not been doing
this get busy or you will be left be-
hind by your progressive neighbors.
Begin now, don't put it off. Weigh
and test the milk from each of your
COWS. 1t takes very little time and
you will be surprised how your cows
differ i'm production. Some of them
will return you nice sum of money
every year: those are the ones you
want to keep, while others will re-
turn nothing for feed, housing and
care and will actually consume the
profit from your good cows.
2nd. Feed .b2ianced rations. To
weigh and test the milk is not all.
If you do not feed your COWS and feed
them in the right way they can
not be expected to return profit.
The milk has certain nutrients in
it called proteids, carbohydrates,
and fats. These are found i'm de.
finite amounts, varying only ac-
cerding to the percent ef~fat iH.s he
milk All food stuffs also have these
nutrients but they vary in proportion
in the various feeds. For example,
corn is rich. in carbohydrates while
bran and oil meal are rich in proteids.
Timothy and wild hay are rich in
carbohydrates: clover and alfalfa have
more proteids. Feed your cows a
combination of feed so as to furnish
all the different nutriments necessary
for the production of the nutriments
in the milk. Feed some corn, silage,
some clover hay, some corn meal,
bran and Oil meal. If one or more OF
these are lacking another combination
can be made very easily. In other
words, feed balanced ration.
3rd. Give proper care and comfort.
A dairy COW is very much like ma.
chine. She needs good care and at
tention. If that is not given her do
not expect her to do any better than
your binder or your automobile with
out the proper care and attention.
Set certain hour for milking and
stick to it. In winter do not let your
COWS out in all kinds of weather. Do
not give them ice cold water to drink.
Donot allow your cows to become COW
cred with manure. Give her some
clean straw for bedding; you will have
cleaner milk and more of it. Be pa
tient and kind. Promptness, patience,
kindness, cleanliness. should be every
dairyman's slogan.
4th. Put pure bred sire at the
head of the herd. The sire is half the
herd. The law of breeding tells us
that ancestry counts fifty per cent.
Further, the sire must be good indi-
yidual. He should have as many of
the dairy characteristics as possible.
He should be sharp on the top of the
shoulders, he should have prominent.
strong and straight back line. His
body should be long and deep. He
should have an abundance of strength
and yigor. Such sire has the ability
to imprint upon the offspring the char
acteristics of the parents, such as
type and milking qualities and that
is what is wanted.
5th. Breed from the best. All high
ly improved plants and animals have
the tendency to revert back to type.