The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1913-06-11
Facts For The Dairy Farmer
Do You Keep the Cow. or Do the Cows Keep You?
(From The Country Gentleman

skill of a high order, or Is 1t simply
a side issue, an adjunct of farming
affording the women and children
the means of getting little pin
money?
Most people are likely to consider
it the latter. And SO it was in the
early days. when farming was car
ried on simply to secure bare liv-
ing. Today the farmer has become
largely commercialized. Many peo-
pie are farming for the purpose of
making money and under these cir
cumstances the questions of good
and poor COWS and good and poor
feed become vital. A COW that
does not pay a profit over her feed
and keep is an absolute drawback to
the commercial dairyman. because
he actually loses money on each
one of this kind in his herd, and
the more he has of them the worse
off he is. Success now depends al
most entirely upon the brains. the
the dairyman. Simply cutting down
expenses will no longer do.
Dairying needs readjustment. We
must, keep dairy cows instead of
just COWS. We must have dairy
knowledge instead of doing as our
fathers did. Most dairymen have
only q vague and confused idea as
to what really determines their
profits. Large sums of money
are invested in land. in extensive
and expensive buildings, costly
horses. tools and machinery. high
priced feed and labor. Then all this
outlay is turned to raising crops
that do not yield anything like the
amount OF digestible nutrients per
acre that should and could be OBJ
tanned. and to feeding and caring
for a herd of cows utterly unable
to return a profit because of inef-
nciency and poor care. The same
money and labor expended in an
Intelligent manner upon the same
farm and an efficient dairy herd
would return a most handsome pro-
tit.
The chief obstacle to progressive
dairying lies in carrying 1t on in
slipshod manner. without well bal
anced. intensive methods. Many
dairymen try to make money with
N1x,fr tx,, ,~rfp ftNIA
The milk producer must stop guess
ing; he must know for sure, what
will be the result of different oper-
ations conducted in different ways.
and then adopt the ones that will
return the greatest profit. 1t is the
net result from a COW that tells
whether she is making a profit or
not And no man. no matter how
good a Judge of dairy conformation,
can know what that net result is
if he does not keep a record.
Al great part Of the cows milked
each day are kept by men who are
simply COW keepers, not dairymen.
Even on what would be considered
good dairy farms there is frequent
ly aimless breeding. thoughtless and
shiftless feeding, care and housing.
All of which results in lack of suf-
ficient returns. What a picture is
the following. from a recent let
ter written by resident of Illinois:
"Within a radius of ten miles
from where have lived for thirty
years there are produced annually
at least 00.00O,0O0 pounds of milk
an average Of ten eight-gallon
cans day for every quarter sec.
tion-under conditions of such de.
plorable ignorance that cannot
find adequate comparison for them
Not one dairyman in twenty has
anything like a true conception OF
the production of his individual
cows. 1 cannot think now of one
who is making tests to know If each
COW is profitable. or the reverse
Again, where great ignorance such
as this prevails. great filth goes
with It hand in hand"
Farms have been made and lost
IN tho dairy hlfafue8S-bOth more