The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-12-22
KEEP cows RECORD.
Value Of Cow Testing Associations DEM
Onstrated.


That the appearance Of a dairy COW
cannot be depended on to Indicate her
production of milk IL illustrated by
demonstration conducted under the aus
pices of the dairy division of the depart
ment with herd Of nine cows at the
national dairy show held recently at
Springfield, Mass.
A years record of milk and butter fat
already had been made for all the cows
of the herd. During the show complete
records OF production and feed eonsump-
tion were kept and in every case the pre-.
vious records were duplicated. Some OF
the cows were of poor dairy type, yet
were good producers; Others were OF good
dairy type, yet were poor producersi
still Others OF similar appearance had
greatly different records OF the last
named class were Nos. $ and 0. Many
experienced stockmen selected No, y rs
the better of the two, but the records
showed that for the last year No. ) gave
s,4i5 pounds OF milk and $40 OF fat com.
pared with 1870 pounds of milk and lVo
of fat for No. o. This served as an OBJ
iect lesson to the hundreds of people who
daily viewed the demonstration that
good dairy type is not always associated
with large production and that poor
dairy type does not indicate lack OF large
yield.
"What does Il cost to keep recordsp
was common question of the dairymen.
In testing associations, where the
above quoted records were made, the
charge is $3.50 month for each COW.
and in addition the board of the tester
for one day each month. With feed, la
Dor and livestock so high, 1t certainly is
imperative to eliminate every unneces.
sarv expense like the "boarder" or "rob-
Der" COW that fails to pay for even her
feed.
In the big room at the dairy show
where the cows were Sanctioned were
several hundred comfortable seats. Here
several times each day well known dairy
men from various parts of the country
talked to the large audiences on dairy
problems, illustrating their remarks with
the cows of the demonstration herd. rs
pecial emphasis was laid upon the value
of records in economical management.
carefully described and their many ad-
vantages explained. That IL was possible
to have high class bulls of the finest
breeding for the use of dairyman with
only a few cows seemed to many farm
ers as too good to be true, especially
when the cost was even less than in the
case of scrub bulls. In this connection
tbe charts that illustrated the conditions
at Roland, Ia, before and after the or
ganization of bull association, elected
much interest. At that place, Tor
yearly investment of $3.50 each, the
members have the use OF five S240 bulls
for 10 years.
On the walls of the demonstration
room were pictures of famous dairy ami
mails. charts showing results Of record
keeping, etc. Adjoining were skeleton
milk or dairy houses, with the sides only
partially finished, to show the construe.
tion; also model of dairy barn and
of silo In the milk houses was dairy
and man in charge an
swered questions on dairying and ex.
panied the construction OF these and all
other kinds of dairy buildings.
At regular periods demonstrations in
the sterilization of milk utensils were
given with the inexpensive farm steriliz-
err described in farmers bulletin 74s;
these demonstrations were well attended
There was also keen interest in every
part Of the demonstrations, as may be
Judged from the fact that about 5000
people listened to lectures and fully To-
900 viewed the exhibits.