Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1914-03-11
A Prize Essay by X. JOHNSON,
Dassel, MINI.

in an intelligent and thorough way
cannot fail to make rapid strides to-
ward improvement, and the lettering
of his bank account Dairying is one
of the most paying branches of farm
ing. Under fair circumstances, the
dairy COW will generally give two dol
lars worth of butter fat in return for
every dollars worth of feed given her.
You will have to admit that that is
really a good investment.
But to accomplish this, we must give
our dairy COWS the right attention.
Let us compare two systems of dairy
ing briefly; one of these as it is gen.
orally carried on, where no special
care is given, and the other, where
special efforts are made to do things
as they should be DONE
In the dairying on our home farm,
we have a history when covers both
sides. Years ago, before we comenc-
ed keeping records and feeding bal
anced rations, we did not get much
satisfaction out of COWS. We took
about as good care of them, we thought,
as anyone else did, but the returns
were very poor. Our creamery returns
for the year beginning October list,
1907, and ending October list, 1908, in
dictate that we hauled to the creamery
1875 pounds of butter tat, for which
we received 1868. We had II COWS,
which came in fresh at different times
of the year, mostly in the spring and
summer Our herd bull, always non
descript, or if of any type at all, more
of a beef type than a dairy type, was
allowed to run with the COWS the year
round Our barn was good and warm,
though not convenient, but no special
care was given in feeding. Lowland
slough hay, and corn stalks was the
principal roughage; and when we did
feed any concentrates, it was generally
of whatever kind we happened to have,
and we fed all COWS alike. No attempt
j
Of. The COWS were allowed to remain
outdoors most of the days in the win
ter time, were compelled to drink ice
cold water, and we had a great time
fighting lice and vermin on them. They
came out in the spring shaggy, lean
and run down. How does this picture
,fr 8,,1
it on many farms? Investigate little
and you will find that their dairy &C.
counts look just like their cows-run
down.
At that time our COWS averaged 1875
pounds of butter fat per year, worth
$33. Then began to study and read
a little on dairying. Did you get that?
-"study and read" This is the first
thing one has to do. I saw that things
could be done better and we could get
more out of our cows. began to wake
up. talked it over with my uncle
and decided to get scale and a Bah
cock tester, and some bran, and feed
our COWS better. He thought, like a
good many of us have thought, that it
would pay to feed those old COWS, and
that the scale and tester seemed a
little high-priced. Finally we agreed
to make trial. Fortunately, several
of our cows came in fresh that fall
We then began to weigh the milk from
each cow, make occasional tests, and
figured out carefully balanced rations
according to Prof. Hackers feeding
standards. The results showed at once.
Our next creamery check following
was $50, while the highest that we ever
had received before was a little over
$50. In one month we paid for the
bran, the scale and tester. and then
some. 1t opened my eyes like nothing
else could And that, we believe, is
generally the way with us farmers,