Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1911-06-15
POOR cow A BURDEN
DAIRY TEST ASSOCIATIONS ARE
DOING GOOD WORK.
How Some Iowa Dalrymen Arc Get
ting Rid Of "Star Boarder" Cow
Reduces Doubt and Uncertain
ty to Minimum.

Reduces Doubt and Uncertain
ty to Minimum.
r. x. BLISS. Iowa Extension Depart.
ment.
The dairy test association gets rid
OF the poor COW; improves methods
OF feeding and management; builds
up market for surplus stock; and
reduces doubt and uncertainty to a
minimum. 1t is the application of
SOUND business principles to the dairy
and will do more toward increasing
pronts from cows in ten years than
haphazard individual effort can do in
forty.
The method of organizing a COW
testing association is simple. Several
farmers Casually 26) agree to pay a
certain sum of money to have their
COWS tested. The cost is generally
81 to S1.50 per year per COW, depend
ing on the number of COWS in the
association. A minimum charge of
$40 is made for the years work.
One man, the COW tester, gives his
entire time to the association. He
visits one herd each day and hence
ls able to visit each herd once each
month. He usually arrives in the
afternoon and weighs the grain and
rough feed each COW eats night and
morning. He weighs the milk that
each COW gives night and morning.
takes sample of it and tests it for
butterfat. For one day each month
the tester knows how much butter
fat each COW has produced, and now
much 1t cost to produce 1t. He null
uplies this one day record by the
number Of days in the month and
records the same in the record book.
An extra copy of this report is left
with the farmer The tester makes
twelve visits to each farm during the
year. At the end of that time every
fermer in the association knows ap-
proximately how much butterfat each
COW has produced and how much 1t
| cost to produce 1t.
The result is that the rule of exact
ness replaces the rule of guess. In
fact there is no need for guess work
at all. The low producing COW goes
to the butcher shop and the high
producing COW is kept in the herd.
He1fers from the best COWS are re-
tanned. Bulls are selected from high
producing cows. Sound business prin-
ciples are put into operation and
profits are CORRESPONDENCE increased
The tester himself becomes dairy
specialist. He sees the business not
from his own viewpoint alone but
from the viewpoint of Is practical
farmers. He knows exactly what
| each man in the association is feeding.
He has the different rations all copied
neatly in his note book. 1t is each
farmers privilege to study what ey-
cry other farmer is feeding.
Occasional meetings are held for the
purpose of comparing notes. In this
way the man with the low producing
herd gets valuable suggestions from
the man with the high producing herd.
A friendly rivalry is encouraged, for
no man likes to be at the tail end of
| the procession. Therefore the care.
less farmer adopts some of the meth
DDS OF the careful one. Better feeding
methods prevail. Cracks in barns are
nailed up. Manure is hauled cut and
buildings are kept cleaner and in a
more sanitary condition.
The spirit of improvement spreads
from the members of the association
| to their neighbors and the whole
community is benefited. The cooper
| alive spirit between farmers is en-
| couraged, people learn to work to,
| gether for the good of the commun-
ity, and this all finds expression in
better roads, better schools, and bet
ter social conditions in the country
| Iowa has four of these associations
In operation at the present time The
most striking fact brought out in their
work is the remarkable variation be-
tween individual COWS kept under sim.
liar conditions. Practically every herd
had both good and poor cows in it
| The best one-third of the cows in these
associations made an average net
profit of about $51 per COW, while the
4 oLS-lLiIO GUNS uldu6 q uGt
profit of $40 per COW, or difference
OF over $50 in profits between cows
1t is worth while to find this out
| Moreover there are such differences
in every herd.
| If man owns scale and Bah
cock test outfit he may test his herd
for himself, but this most men will
not do because of the time and care
| that it takes. Besides it can be done
| more accurately in most cases by ar
expert tester. Where each man does
his own testing there is lost also the
benefit of cooperation and mutua
help and the advantage of the "get
together" spirit Of the test associa
tons.
Perhaps you, or at least your boy
looks on milking as drudgery. Re
member that drudgery is labor with
out thought" Increase the Interest
Of your boys in the COWS and the
drudgery will disappear. Divide the
cows up between the boys or III,
hired men and offer prize to tn,