The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-04-01
More and Better Dairy
Herds in The Northwest

furnish record blanks on application or
these may be ruled off without any
great trouble at home.
A dairy record sheet should be large
enough to have the names of the cows
written across the top, with room un-
oer each for writing the pounds of
mix. Down the right hand side of the
sheet the dates should be written and
there should be two lines for each date
so that the morning and evening milk
ings can be recorded. A small spring
balance scale can be used for weighing
the milk: The regular dairy scale has
W hands so that one may be made to
rest at zero when the bucket is on the
nook. Then there is no %subtracting of
the weight of the pail. The record
sheet should be tackled up in the barn,
near the scales, where it will be handy
TO put down at each milking just what
each cow has given. 1t then can be
told IN a short time which mes it will
pay to feed heavier, and also perhaps,
winch ones it would pay to send to the
butcher.
However, the keeping of the amount
OF milk each day is only a part of the
record. At least once a month there
should be samples of each cows milk
tested. All of the diaries and cream
stations are equipped with testers and
will be glad to do this for the patrons.
The proper way to make a test of milk
Is to take a composite sample. That is,
for two OF three days, at each milking,
the milk in the pail should be carefully
stirred and a small amount taken out
n put into a pint jar, which has the
cows name on it.. In cool weather this
could be done at each milking for three
or four days, and then this jar sent to
the cream station, or to some of the
high schools where they have testers,
and tested. The per cent of butter fat,
together with the yield Of milk, is the
real tesst of a cow. A butter fat test
alone means very little, because in a
herd where a large number of cows are
being MIXED, II cow gave milk aver
aging as per cent Of butter fat, and
produced 425 pounds of butter fat in a
year. Another cow in the same herd
gave milk averaging 5.8 per cent but
ter fat, but produced only 1877 pounds
of butter fat in a year. 1t will be
readily seen that the COW with the high
per cen of butter fat was very far
from being as profitable a COW as the
n with the lower per cent. In fact,
the cow giving the high per cent of
butter fat, after she is charged up with
the amount of feed she consumed dur
ing the year, left the owner in debt 81
while the other cow produced a profit
Of nearly $50. 1t will be seer that the
only way to know which of these COWS
was giving the most profit was to have
a daily record of their milk yield, and
also a test of the amount Of butter fat
there was in their milk.
The cost of producing milk must also
be considered as well as the quantity.
In a test made of a herd for seven
weeks where all the COWS were given
the same kind of feed, the cost for feed
for producing 100 pounds of milk
varied with the COW from 81 to rs
cents and the cost of producing a
pound of butter from 7 to Is cents. AS
a rule the heavy feeder in the herd is
the most profitable. That is, it takes
the same amount of feed to keep the
cows body alive, whether she gives rs
pounds of butter fat in a year or 400
pounds, and nothing is received for this
part of the feed. If the COW eats just
a little more than is required to keep
her alive, her yield will be small, and
the cost high, while if she eats a large
quantity above what is required to
maintain her body, she will give re-
turns from a larger proportion of her
feed. 1t is much cheaper to milk and
care for one COW giving 300 pounds of
butter fat in a year than it is to care
for three cows giving 100 pounds of
butter fat each year.
The dairyman who wants to obtain
the highest yields of butter fat must
feed right, take proper care of his
cows, test and weed out poor mes and
keep only those that produce high
yields of utter fat at low cost. These
will be the cows that consume large
amounts of feed and turn it into milk.