The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1916-03-22
Dairyman Tells
How Association
MAY Be Formed
Redwood Falls Community May
Easily Have Contrasting AS
ISOLATION Formed Soon
COST is SMALL
Prof. Mckerrow of State De-
partment Will ASST in Form
ing Organization

At the meeting of the dairy
men and creamerymen OF Red
wood and Renville Counties, held
at Redwood Falls February p,
there was considerable interest
shown in the proposal that cow
testing association be started in
this vicinity. Since the meeting,
the officers and members of the
association have continued to be
interested and from one OF the
officers, The Gazette obtained the
following information on the
subject.
Work Done
"Cow testing associations are
running in several parts OF this
state and they are very success
full. The work Of one Of these
associations can be classed under
several heads. The first and
most important feature is to
weed out the boarder cows. Find
out the cost of production, COM
pare the value of different feeds
and the last and really one OF
the most important things is to
find the value of a good sire.
"The work is done as follows.
sTwenty-six men are required to
make UP an association. by
reading the Membership Agree
ment a little farther along in
this article you will see just how
this is done.) The tester is fur
nished by the state and he visits
each farm once a month. He
weighs the milk, tests it and
from this he figures the amount
of butter fat produced during
the month by that cow. He also
keeps track of the feed fed and
estimates the cost to keep the
cow that month. At the end OF
the year man can tell just what
it cost him to keep the cow, how
much she returned and the net
gain or loss.
THE COST
ct costs $3.50 per cow per
year to run them in this test
If a person has only S cows he
has to pay for 10, that being
the minimum that they will
take, the minimum cost to each
owner being $500. Of course
they will take as many as you
want to test running up tC
about 80 COWS. 1t is necessary
to get at least $50 to $40 cows
S525.OO being the minimum that
the state will start with. Each
man is furnished, free of charge
a herd book to keep the RECORD
in, also daily milk record sheets
and barn books. The members
are not required to weigh thell
own milk. 1t is weighed only
when the tester visits the farm
and then the tester usually does
the weighing himself and flg
ures the 80 days production
from this days weights. Oh
course every man can weigh the
milk every day and it would be
much better if he did and it il
very little work.
"The members are supposed
to feed approximately a certain
amount of feed to each cow &C
cording to her production. The
tester takes these weights while
visiting the farm and in thai
way gets an approximate amount
consumed by the cow for the
month.
Another object is to get gooe
sires and keep them in the coun
try. A man that uses one for
few wears win have some heif
ers and if these test up good al
effort is made to have some 9th
er member buy this s;re and us'
him. In this way a good sir
can be kept and used all his lift
in one community were he cal
do the most good.
Start One Here
eve would like very much tt
get an association started here
Any farmer that is interestet
can get any other information
that he wants in regard to thi
by phoning, writing or TALKING
: to Glenn Gold who has all tn
. material from the state. l
enough men can't be signed VI
around Redwood Falls the test
fCcr+;nuad an last ua1e)