Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1915-11-03
IOWA CREAMER|ES
HAVE LARGE OUTPUT
Almost Ninety Million Pounds OF
Butter Turned Out Past Year.
TOTAL AMOUNT CHEESE
WAS 80, 1884 ,798 POUNDS
Commissioner Barney Is AdvOcat-
ing the Use of Better Cows,
Says Fewer Cows and
Better is the EcOnO-
mical Policy.

Des Moines, Nov. deputy
Dairy Commissioner Ben C. Iliff
has just completed totaling the re-
turns from all of the creameries for
the amount of butter made in the
year from July 1, 1914, to July 1,
1915, and the total number of
pounds is S5,5S4,796 pounds. The
total amount of cheese was 704,463
pounds This is falling off in the
total amount of butter of the pre-
ceding twelve months of 3,2S1, ,125
pounds, for in the twelve months
ending July 1st, 1914, the total
amount of butter made by the
creameries of Iowa was reported as
92,S65,921 pounds.
| This falling off is due, says Mr..
Iliff, to the fact that the fall of
1914 was exceedingly dry and the
lack of pasturage reduced the milk
flow. The luxuriant pasturage Of
| this summer season and fall will
show on the report of next year as
the dairy Office computes it's year
from July 1st to July 1st.
Commissioner Barney is advocat-
ing the use of better cows and says
that fewer cows but better ones is
1.-THE economical policy. Most sur
Iprising results have been obtained
where experiments have been car
lried on to determine the exact
amount of butterfat given by indi-
vidIal cows" declares Commission
er Barney. For instance, the
leverage Worth county COW at the
present time produces 157 pounds
,of butterfat annually, while in a
number of herds tested the best
averaged 2S5 pounds of fat per
COW, while the poorest gave 52.4
pounds. Figuring butter fat at 80
cents per pound and the average
cost of keeping a cow at $500,
each of the cows of Worth county
gave net profit of $12-10. The
best hegd tested gave butterfat val
ued at $3.50 per cow, or net
profit of $50.50 each, and not a
pure bred cow in the lot. The
poorest herd produced butterfat
worth $15.72. showing a loss of
$14.2S per cow. Compare these
figures with the butterfat record of
Finderene Holegin Fayne, a Hol-
stein COW which recently completed
a twelve months test, giving 24,-
l612 pounds of milk which contain
ed Lie pounds Of butterfat, which
at 80 cents per pound was worth
$234.8O.
1T is not to be presumed for an
instant that the average farmer
could come anywhere near dupli-
eating this record. but a careful
study Of results covering a period of
ten years would indicate that Iowa
has great future as dairy state.
Figures obtained from twenty-one
creameries in Fayette county, indi-
cate that the average butterfat pro-
duction per COW has been increased
Al pounds within ten years. while
I25 Bremen county creameries re-
port figures showing an increase oi
fifty pounds per COW for the same
perOd.
when we consider that these
averages cover an entire county and
keeping in mind that great many
farmers have made little or no ef-
fort at improvement, these figures
indicate a wonderful development
in certain communities. AS an ex
ample Of what is a possibility fol-
Iowa, let us consider the output oi
lbutter in Bremen county, which
amountl to s.ass,27S pounds an
nually, making an average of 1850
pounds per square mile. If the en-
tire state OF Iowa produced butter
at this rate our annual yield wOult
be 42O,71O pounds. worth $126,
213,195. or more than four times
our present output"