Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1912-01-05
GOOD COWS PAY BEST RETURNS
Profitable Dairying Requires That
The Poor Cows Re Weeded
Out.
BY DR.. E. n. Maxon, President c
the Conrath Commercial Club.

In the excellent article by Mr.
James Farley which was published
in last weeks News-Budget, he cites
i the experience of Mr.. William Guth-
rie with two COWS that had, evident
ly, paid for themselves, and more too,
! in few months time.
! This experience is brought out
by my relating a story given me by
Mir. B. Frank Mcmillan, of Marsh
field, and is as follows: man had
bought 40 acres Of land had horse
and COW, being good worker, soon
had a fair clearing on his place, when
he came to Mr. Mcmillan with the
statement that he thought that he
| could keep more COWS on his place,
thought that he ought to do 50, but
didn't have the money with which tx
buy the COWS. He thought that he
ought to have five more COWS. MIR.
| Mcmillan told him that he would
lend him the money, If he would give
him back a chattel mortgage on the
| six COWS, pay seven per cent inter
est for the money, and give him
| every second and third check re-
| ceved from the creamery until the
obligation was discharged, keeping
the first check for his share, or one
third. The man agreed to the ar
rangement and before the season
was over had squared the account
the COWS having paid for themselves
| have repeatedly said to the mem
bers of the Conrath Commercial club
that / believe the basis of our farm
I wealth is the dairy farming carried
IN along the most scientific lines.
A year ago Prof Frasier, Of the
| University Of Illinois, said in my
| 1earing that one third of the COWS
)f the United States are kept at
positive loss to the owners, one
third are questionable as to profit
Or less and one third are known tC
produce a profit
l have said to our members that
ny belief is that a COW that is not
bringing her owner more than $50
per year is kept at a loss. | have
cold them of the returns to many OF
the members of the Barron Creamery
which | understand to be $50, 500,
or even 500. per COW per year.
The fact of profit is not proven
very clearly to my mind by either
Of the experiences related in the
above stories If we know the re
turns for the whole year, as we'll as
the value of all feeds given the cows
during the year, we could easily de
termine in just which of Prof. Fras
ier's three classes they belong, unless
there was a feature that placed them
in the middle class.
Mr.. John T. Pritchard of this place
may be cited as an exponent of the
class of farmer that | desire to see
predominant in our locality. In cit
| ing him | do not wish to under-rate
any other farmer living here, for it
| is most encouraging to know the in
| terest which our farmers are mani
| testing in the advanced lines of sci
entific farming. Mr.. Pritchard has
herd of Guernsey COWS, which he
tests Systematically with the Bah
cock test, and knows just exactly
what the value of the product of each
COW is He has just added to his
herd some choice samples of the
breed He knows day by day that
each COW is making money for him,
and just how much. Isn't this meth
cd much more satisfactory than to do
whole years work, feed lot OF
valuable feed and have a lot of mon
ey invested in COWS, and the profit
or loss can not be reckoned until af-
ter the years balancing Of accounts?
Let us consider the case OF Mr..
Guthrie for a few moments. The
| calves anu plSS COuQ nave DCCh
bought, no matter what class of COW
he had bought.
| understand that S.. per month or
$50. per season is a fair valuation for
pasturage for COW, and as good hay
is now selling at SIS. per ton, |
think fair valuation would be $12.
and l understand that three. tons per
year are necessary to winter a COW,
so we must charge her with S36.
Which makes a charge against the
cow of $685. This is not allowing her
any bran, shorts, or other mill feed.
This estimate makes a charge againSt
our two COWS of 1922, and Mr.. Guth-
rie informs me that his checks up to
a certain time this month had been
lS114 1t yet remains for the cows
to bring in further checks to over