Meade County news., 1917-09-13

prepared by the United States Depart
ment Of Agricnlture.)
The dairy cows of the United States
now number approximately 22,O0O,OOO.
The milk, cream and manufactured
products, as butter, cheese, ice cream,
condensed milk, etc., from these cows
have an estimated value of nearly ST.
000,000,O00.
In nearly all herds of which records
have been kept it has been found that
individual COWS differ widely in pro-
duction, even with the same feed and
care; and this difference exists among
all kinds of grade and purebred dairy
cows, as well as among cows Of COM
mon stock. In 1916 in Wisconsin's At
cow-testing associations, out Of 1900
cows tested, 1875 were disposed of as
nprofitable-abOut one in every five.
Using this proportion in the total num-
ber Of dairy cows in the United States,
4 100000 COWS would be eliminated as
improbable. 1t seems only sensible,
therefore, that the dairyman should
make every effort to discover the I'M
profitable COWS and weed them from
the herd. Through the keeping Of rec
ords the Improbable cows can be de-
tected and eliminated and the profit
able cows kept in the herd for breed
ing purposes. The next step is to per-
petuate these good qualities by using
a registered bull of dairy merit. But
| that Is another story.
FaIacious Belief.
Many dairymen' believe that they
can pick out their best producing cows
without keeping a record. The fallacy
of this belief is demonstrated every
day by the records of the cow-testing
associations Throughout the country.
Seven cows maintained on dairy
| farm are taken as basis for the rec
ord-keeping work to be illustrated.
While the cows are all grade Jerseys,
they possess individual characteristics
that affect materially their net profit
to the owner. Is it possible to tell by
looking at these cows how much milk
they will produce in one year, what
it tests, and how much profit they will
return to the owner?
The first step in determining the eff
ficiency of each COW is the keeping
of debit and credit account, in which
the COW Is charged with the cost Of the
hay, silage and grain she consumes
and credited with the value Of the
milk produced. The dairyman can
keep such a record at very little ex-
pense. To begin this work he must
have a milk scale and supply Of rec
ord sheets. A spring balance, or milk
scale, made especially for weighing
milk, may be purchased from any
dairy-supply house at approximately
SO. Sample record sheets may be OBJ
tanned through the state extension de-
partment, or through the dairy divi-
sion, bureau Of animal industry, Unit
ed States department of agriculture.
On the monthly milk and feed record
sheet are entered the names Of the
cows and the weights Of the different
feeds consumed and of the milk pro-
duced at each milking. A ten-day
period has been found to be convent
ent unit of time in the feed record,
since changes in feed rarely are made
Oftener. The milk is recorded at each
milking and totaled for the month. For
the period that the cow is dry 1t Is
nevertheless necessary to keep the rec
ord of feed consumed. 80 that the to-
tai cost Of iced for the year may be
considered N determining the profit or
loss.
Weighing the Milk.
The milk scale is graduated in
pounds and tenths, so that it Is easy
to add the figures on the milk sheet.
The dial has two hands; the black one
indicates the actual weight, while the
red is adjustable and can be set at any
desired weight. The empty pail or
weighing can is hung on the scale and
the red hand set at zero, and the black
hand indicates the weight of the pail.
When the milk is weighed in the pail,
the red hand indicates the net weight