Evening star., 1925-06-22
DAIRY COMPETITION
STEADILY GROWING
Special Tests Made to Help
Increase Milk Supply All
Over Country.
BY j. c. ROYLE.

American cows have to be ambitious
and efficient as well as contented IL
they are to compete successfully with
the dairy herds of Holland, Switzer-
land. Denmark. Canada and New Zea-
land. With that idea in view. the
United States Government through
Its newly organized Bureau OF Dairy
ing, Is speeding up the organization
OF cow-testing associations. the object
OF which is to build up the average
production Of milk among the 24,o00,-
600 bovine mixers In this country.
732 Testing Associations.
There are now 1872 cow-testing asso-
Citations. according to the research de
partment of the National Association
OF Farm Equipment Manufacturers,
which has just made a survey OF the
dairy industry. These are located in
38 States and about 307 900 cows now
are on test. Wisconsin. with heavy
investments in dairying, has the
largest number Of associations. Cali
fornia is second and leads the world in
the number Of cows that have pro
duced l 900 pounds OF butter fat apiece
A year.
Advantages Abroad.
The European dairy industry not
only has cheap labor but it's cows
produce nearly double the amount of
milk of those of the United States.
This gives Europe big advantage
in putting its butter and cheese on
the worlds table. New Zealand has
cheap fodder and is making full use
of the milking machine to save man
power.
California, with all-the- year around
outdoor pasturage available. has the
biggest advantage in meeting the COM
petition of the foreign producers, as
feed costs, that are based on pasture
as the source of the main ration, are
low.
Machines Little Used.
The European dairy maid. celebrated
in song, picture and story, is being
matched against American machine
methods. On the other side of the
Atlantic the entire industry is run
on hand labor. including milking,
pumping water. mixing and carrying
feed and lifted gathering and spread
ing fertilizer and raising and han
ding the feeds. Only one man to 10
or II animals is needed TO care for
the American COW.
The American farmer now is using
milking machines, individual drink
cups for the cows. feed and litter
carriers which run on tracks almost
like cash carriers in a department
store, traclOrS, leeO grinders nay
leaders and other kinds of mecha nical
equipment. This gives him the ad
vantage in labor cost per COW. EN-
perts declare that with cheap labor
neutraliZed in this way, the one thing
necessary is get the bulk of the COW
population into the testing associa-
tionS.
Higher Production Needed.
POund.a -day butter fat producipp
, herds are becoming common and the
bovine aristocracy now depends not
| only on pedigree. but on standing in
the advanced registry. registry of
merit and ,000-pound-b butter fat pro
ducers.
Denmark long ago took the lead in
the test movement. There groups of
| neighboring farmers hired a man to
visit their herds and give instructions
in better feeding while testing the
milk flow for volume and butter fat
content. As a result they were en-
abled to weed out inefficient cows and
send them to the butcher, while the
highest producers We're kept for
breeding purposes. In this way
average per COW production of the
| entire country was doubled and the
profit per COW multiplied by four
The effect on the industry. which
does an annual business totaling
close to $4,000 900 900 in manufactured
and farm value. is shown by the rec
ords of the Federal Bureau Of Dairy
ing, which indicates the process of
| raising a COW from the 10O-pound "a
year butter fat class to the 500 0-pound
class multiplies by 20 the profit de-
rived from her by the farmer.
(Copyright 1921