Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1914-05-02
THE VALUE OF GOOD MICH
cows.
Very Few Farmers Really Know Pro
ductive Qualities of Their Herd.

How many farmers and COW owners
have correct realization or appre-
cation OF good mich COW? The
Importance of quality in the cows
cannot be carelessly overlooked by
any COW owner who depends upon the
milk product to help pay the expense
OF keeping the COW and handling the
milk In seasons when feeds are cheap
the question never comes up with the
farmer and average COW owner wheth
er the COW is a profitable animal or
not, especially if she has. produced a
good calf. 1t is presumed that she is
| paying her way, of course, and no ac-
curate tests are made as to her yield
of milk or butter.
1t is fact that very few farmers
know anything positively about their
cows in the matter of production.
They know that some cows produce
more milk than others, that some
cows continue in milk flow much
longer than others; but as to actual
statistical evidence of what each COW
is capable of doing they have never
tested them. The usual method of
handling the mich COW on the farm
is to milk the entire lot of cows and
keep no separate account of yields
This is where the farm dairy or even
the owner of few cows may labor
under great disadvantage in keeping
COW that is not profitable
Among the dairymen and farmers
| who are devoting some attention to
| milk production there has been great
evidence of reform in the last few
years in the matter of mich COW
| quality. There has been more or less
| attention given to getting cows of
| quality and quantity, and culling out
the light and poor quality mixers.
This is matter of business, pure and
simple; but the farmer who is not
especially interested in the sale of
milk or butter is not yet aroused to
full sense of the importance of the
milk yield.
The present high prices of all kinds
of feed are causing COW owners every
where to figure how they can lessen
the expense of carrying these cows
from one year to another at a profit
The best of cattle judgment has de
cided that the COW not employed in
raising her calf should be paying part
of her board by the production of
milk to go into some form of com
mercial product Thus we see the
beef cattle breeders are taking great
pride in the claim that their breed can
be of service as milk producers as
we'll as raising the big beef calves.
In the towns and cities where the
mich COW costs for every mouthful
of feed she eats-hay at $40 to SIS
per ton, bran $24 to $28 per ton, with
all other varieties of feed at proper
tionate prices-she must be a good
mixer in both quantity and quality
or she will return an expense rather
than a profit to her owner. The COW
that has habit of drying up, or go
ing dry" as the expression is gen
orally used, for period of three or
four months before coming in fresh is
certainly not profitable animal to re
tain in the dairy or to depend upon
for the family COW. There are too
many of these short-time mixers to
make dairying and the family COW
business highly profitable.
We will venture the assertion that
the larger per cent of all the cows
now used on the farms for milk pur
poses are not paying the actual cost
of food and care and attention at the
present prices of feeds, and that if
the feed they are consuming had to
/ be bought and paid for out of the
farm earnings they would not stay
long in the milk herd The good COW
is among the minority, but her num-
bers may be increased by careful Gull
ing and more rigid scale of require
ments by the COW owners. The best
of everything should be the ambition
of the farmer This should not be
confined to the mich COW alone, but
to all things pertaining to the farm
The mich COW on the farm should be
made one of the surest and largest
sources of revenue on the farm at the
prevailing prices for milk and butter
fat.-Twentieth Century Farmer.