The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-14

A fire will not burn without fuel. an engine refuses to run without oil, and dynamo balks@s gansssA power The farmer who tried to winter his horse without feed evidently is not vonvers- ant with these facts. Hence the horse
 died Similarly the dairynlan who tries to produce "a regular and gener-
 ous flow of milk from a herd that is fed on hit-or- miss, hand-to-mouth style of ration, lives to learn. There are many unprofitable dairy cows in the country today because farmers are wasting labor and feed in attempting to transform low-producing cows into wage-earners or because dairymen are underfeeding the productive and over
 feeding the shirker animals ~in their herds.
 During the pediod of the war with grains in limited supply and high priced, the maximum of care should De exercised to prevent any waste of any of these valuable materials. Under existent conditions all farm roughages should be utilized to the fullest extent consistent with economic production. However. it is the height of folly to , starve the deserving dairy cows in or der to save grain Good cows must be fed and fed we'll Every effort | should be exerted to produce as much milk as possible and still to maintain the cows in the pink of productive 1 condition. Feed the profitable COWS
 to capacity according to their produc- ton. Gull the unprofitable cows from i the herd immediately. The manufac-
 ture of beef in the dairy barn does
 not pay even in view of the higf prices which fat cows now bring fol butcher disposition.
 KNOW WHAT EACH COW YIELDS l Every dairyman should know tn,
 daily production of each COW in his herd Such knoweldge can be gained only by i the intensive use of the scales and th'
 Babcock test. This is the era of tn,
 testing association, as such coopera | tive work is effectiye in the detection 1 of unprofitable cows as well as in pro 1 perly regulating the amount of fee' which should be supplied to each cow il 1 the herd. The records of one COW l testing association show that during two-year period the cows which re l ceived 1200 pounds of concentrate yielded an average income above tn cost of feed of $33 an animal, while tn
 cows which were fed between 120O an 1900 pounds of concentrates yielded a income in excess of feed costs of $4. The animals which were fed over 1Se pounds of concentrates earned ne [ figures illustrate the value of peter COW and better systems of feeding accordin to production.
 | The average Of the records of 4 lcow-testing associations shows rapi
 advance in income over cost of fee
 las the quantities of grain fed increased
 In this instance the cost of concen
 trates for the first lot of cows was Iapiece, while their income over cos of feed was $5. The concentrates for tn best lot of cows cost s3S, while thei net earning capacity was SIS. In
 jword, it would require a herd of 23 COW
 similar to those in the first group produce as much income over cost C feed as was produced by the averag lcow of the last group.
 common fault which exists anon
 many dairymen who are unfamiliar wit the value of cow-testing work is tha they fail to feed grain to their dr cows. When grain is fed 1t is dishe up with scoop shovel and all tn lcows are fed alike regardless of pro lduction. Under such a method of mar , lagement good cows are underfed whil comparatively worthless individuals al
 parasitic on the profits of their mor
 industrious mates Where such cond , tions exist it is for paramount in , Iportance that the farmer locate and dis
 pose of the poor cows while he shoul
 )feed the remainder according to produe
 ition in order that the income over COS
 of feed may be increased. >
 Much grain is wasted by feeding it