The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1916-09-01
Winter Dairying

the spring, a number of farmers in
Northwestern State said positive
ly that winter dairying did not pay
in that section. The agent of the
neutrality-suspicious., therefore,
Investigated number of farms to
determine whether it was the best
practice in that region to have cows
freshen in the spring because there
is then plenty Of grass, and grass
is cheap feed" He found that
the spring-freshened cows gave
milk for a time, while the pasture
was good, but as hot weather and
flies came on, the flow gradually
decreased until by fall they were
usually dry. AS the owners
thought it did not pay to feed dry
COW, the cows were allowed to
browse around all the fall, picking
up what feed they could, and in
many cases they were forced to
"rustle" around the straw pile ALI
winter. As result, in the spring
many cows emerged with ribs show
ing and were considerably weaken
ed by the time they freshened.
They therefore got poor start in
the season. and in many cases their
milk records the following year
were still lower. 1t was not sur
prising, the agent points out, that
the average cow, so mishandled,
could produce only about $50
pounds of butter fat year.
Many so-called scrub cows, the
agent points out, if freshened in the
fall and given the right kind of
feed and treatment during the win
ter before coming on grass for the
latter part of their lactation period
would prove to be money makers.
This opinion seems to be supported
fully by the records of the cow
testing association in the same gen.
eral locality. These records show
that the average farm COW that
freshens in the fall not only pro-
duces more milk and fat, but also
is more profitable to keep. In one
county many cows which freshened
in the fall won a place on the as
sociation's honor list for January
and continued to produce heavily
during the winter. When grass
came in the spring these same cows
picked up their naturally waning
milk flow and finished up with a
good yearly production before going
dry late in summer. What is still
more important, however, from the
profit point of view. is that the fall
freshened cows produced the larger
part of their records while milk
prices were best. With the COM
mon idea that grass is cheap
feed," therefore. this agent would
couple the fact that "butter fat is
usually cheap at the same time"
The highest January record of
this association was made by COW
which produced 1870 pounds of
milk, or approximately 200 gallons,
81 per cent test, or 81 pounds of
butter fat. Her milk, however,
was sold on a city milk route and
brought 20 cents a gallon, or ap-
proximately $40 for the month.
On the other hand. if the owner
had sold his product on a butter
fat basis he still would have re-
ceived $500. AS it cost him $5.37
to feed the COW, his profit on a
butter-fat basis would have been
1888.
On this farm the cows get prac-
tically all the alfalfa hay and corn
silage that they will eat up clean,
and in addition a grain mixture of
equal parts of rolled oats, bran, and
shorts. Each of the heavier pro-
ducers gets about ten pounds of
this mixture daily. In addition to
being we'll fed, the cows stand COM
fortably sheltered in warm barn
most of the time and have access
to plenty of good water.
During the month SIX cows in
this herd averaged 54.8 pounds #
butter fat, worth more than SIG,
while the feed cost was approx
mately $5.37 apiece. The records
kept by the COW tester gave the
dairyman exact knowledge of the
cost of feed and production in the
case of each animal, and thus en-
abled him to Gull out "boarders"
and regulate his feed in proportion
to the milk production of each COW.
The association record for the farm
err, however, seemed to establish
the fact that, in the region men
toned, winter dairying can be
made to paw.