Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-06-14

by Charles D. Woods, director Of tn,
Maine Agricultural Experiment station
at Orono:
| About twenty-five years ago when
the Babcock method Of determining
the per cent Of fat in milk was being
perfected. the Maine Agricultural Ex-
pertinent Station made many studies
with the method, and through the
work of the Station the plan for pay
ing for cream on it's butter fat content
was established in the creameries Of
the State.
| The method is simple Of operation
and since its introduction it has been
within the reach OF every intelligent
dairyman to know exactly what his
cows are doing in the way Of produc-
ton. All that is Ieeded is to weigh
and record the amount Of milk pro-
duced at each milking, and once or
twice a month take samples of the
days milk and find the amount of fat
it contains. Obviously the weight OF
the milk for the month, multiplied by
the percentage of milk fat it contains
gives the pounds of butter fat the CO .
produced within the month. The sum
of such records for twelve months
shows how many pounds of milk the
COW gave and the pounds of butter
fat it contained. These data indicate
beyond any peradventure whether a
given COW is good or poor COW,
whether she can Or cannot be pront-
ably kept, and whether she is a suit
able animal TO BE- used in breeding
with the hope of improving the herd
II does not require chemist to oper-
ate the Babcock test. nor Goes IT re-
Quire much of mathematician 10
make the daily records and compute
the monthly and anrral yields of milk
and butter fat. But for all OF that
there is only here and there a dairy
nan that keeps ,ncse records.
To overcome this deplorable lack CT
attention TO the fundamentals of
profitable Gairyinc departments Of
agriculture and agricultural colleges
have been active in arranging So
calico COW testing associations. Inc
tester in these associations sees to. II
that the mixers al each farm in the
&ssccial ion keep record on suitable
tlcrks Of ne weight CT milk produced
Il lach milking: ONCE month TIC
tester spends two days with each
member and at tlit time samples ana
aralyzes the milk tom each COW, ADDS
m the milk sheets. and computes the
butter fat Weld for the month. He
also weighs the ?ay and other rough
age. and the grain fed for day. ana
from these weights, and by means o.
tables OF composition Of feeding stu1Is'
he is able 10 COMPUTE the nutrients lee
and the cost of tn, iation. Al the eno
of the wear he is arlc to give the own
err of the herd the rumber OF POUNDS
of milk ard butter fat produced pN
each COW, the welE MS and cost Of fooo
fed. the cost Of the food required oF
this COW 10 produce a pound OF milk
and pound of butter fat. Inc own
er knows his labor costs and the value
Of the manure produced from his herd
iAveragins this for all the COWS, SHOWS
him whether a given COW is or is not
profitable animal, and whether ne i
conducting his dairy business on
paving basis and suggests where saw
ines can be had in feeding. and no"
he NAV weed out his unproductive ami
mails and build into his herd other ana
more profitable animals.
While these facts can be readily as
certained without outside help. eXper'-
ence has demonstrated that COW test
irg associations a.e necessity IN or
Ger to get other than the exceptional
man to make thesa records and keep
the necessary check on the dairy bust
mess. The impor >nce of the work OF
these associations car hardly ne over
estimated The data thus furnished
1.-THE owner make it possible for him TO
carry on his dairy work intelligent!y'
and gives him a knowledge that Is
fundamental to profitable business.
The introduction of the Babcock
test and the use of scales and the
iccnseouent ability to know exactly
what a COW is doing, has led in the
case of pure bred stock to the placing
OF a value on strains within a breed
due to a knowledge Of their productive
Icapacity. Breeders were not slow to
avail themselves of this method Of
demonstrating the value of COWS ana
their offspring they had for sale. This
lied to showing thet certain COWS were
far superior to others of the same
bred as producers Of milk and of but
ter fat. Occasionally animals were
found that had records that did not
seem possible and the alleged findings
OF the owner were looked upon with
suspicion by the would-be purchaser.
II, therefore, became necessary to nave
disinterested referee, so that the
vould-be purchaser might know
whether the claims were we'll founded
or not This led to the so-called adj
vanced registries IF the leading dairy
cattle breeds. These were put into
the hands of the experiment stations
and agricultural colleges as the disin-
terested referee.
| The actual work in the case Of ad-
vanced registry IS rot very different
from that of the COW testing associa-
ton and the facts to be ascertained are
practically the same in each case. But
the object in view is very different.
The work of the tester of the COW
testing association is to furnish facts
to the owner of the animal from which
he can judge whether he wants to re-
tain her in his heri or not, and wheth
er or not he wants to use her as