Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1913-01-18
ARE THEY SELF-SUPPORTING?
That is the Question Being Asked as
to California Dairy Cows.

!
Are all your cows earning their
keep: That is the question the Uni
versity of California is asking the
| dairyman. The way to find the ans
wer Is to weigh the cows milk and test
| it with the Babcock tester, thus hnd-
ing out how much butterfat it con
tans. Not herd has been tested in
! California but that the owner discov-
| cred that some of his cows were not
worth their feed. Yet, probably not
| one III fifty of the dairymen in Cali
fornia tests his milk regularly or
knows how many cows he has that
are consumers instead OF producers OF
wealth.
The way out is the forming OF COW
testing associations. Groups OF dairy
men, owning together from 700 to 1900
cows, can organize and employ a man
to test monthly the milk of each of
their COWS. His records and reports
! help the dairyman to get rid OF in
efficient COWS, and to breed up inn
proved herds, and the gain in profit is
1 likely to be hive times as great as the
cost OF the testing
/ How to start and how to operate
such a testing ASSOCIATION Is set forth
I by Prof. Leroy Anderson of the Uni
versitv of California in a bulletin on
Three Years Work of the Ferndale
| (Humboldt County, Cow Testing AS
sociation." obtainable by any one by
writing to the College OF Agriculture
at Berkeley.
Denmark. with about the same pop
ulation as California, but only tenth
the area. has more than five hundred
such milk testing associations, the
first of which was started in 1895.
/ Sweden, only little larger than Cali
! fornia, lut with twice the population,
| has nearly seven hundred. And Cali
fornia has only threat Modesto,
Tulare and Ferndale If the dairy
men would organize for this work all
up and down the State the movement
would in few years add millions to
their annual profits.
What happens in the Ferndale dis
trict points the moral In eight herds
there, counting some SIX hundred
COWS. for which the association milk
tester has kept records since 1869, the
average yield of butterfat per COW in
creased iii three years from PSI pounds
per annum to POI .5-a gain OF 40
pounds. or an average gain OF ST. per
COW per annum. One member raised
his average per COW from $50 pounds
per annum to 335 pounds. When the
testing began he found that "Scary'
was producing at the rate of only l4S'
pounds a year. Jennie" at so and
Lousy" at $50, whereas COW that
does not produce 2G0 pounds year
OF butterfat eats more than the value
of her milk. So "Scary' and Lousy
went into the sausage machine, and at
the end of the third year the poorest
I yielder in TIE herd gave 2ll pounds OF
butterfat. while Fritz was giving All,
"Pansy" 467, Dina" 456 And these
cows that gave over $50 pounds OF but
terfat year cost practically no more
to feed and care for than "Scary' and
Lousy" which gave only a third as
mich, ard had been heavy drag on
their owner instead of a help.
There ought to be hundreds of such
assoc ations in California. instead of
three. Any neighborhood that has
twenty or thirty dairymen owning
among them a thousand cows. more or
less. within five miles, say, of com
mon center. can well afford TO start
"a milktesting association--nay. more.
cannot afford not to. Any community
that wants to do this can have the
/ UniverSity's advice and aid. for upon
request from a local committee any
where in California the University will
gladly send one OF its agricultural fac
ultv to help such local association
to start on the right lines.-Live Stock
and Dairy Journal.