The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1947-04-18

We have often urged the development of
dairy farming in the county and we have
listened to many talks on this subject by
various civic and political leaders. The de-
STABILITY of high grade dairy farming is a
subject on which most of the influential peo-
pie of Jackson county-especially the city
folks-are generally agreed. In the same way,
all good c~hurchgoers are agreed on the desire
ability of the Christian virtues. These are
subjects on which there is little room for
argument.
But the attainment of a profitable dairy in
dustry has proved no simple matter. Year by
year we have advised one another in news
papers, in luncheon clubs, in rural-urban get
togethers, that we ought to build up some
good herds and pasture lands; we have made
extensive efforts to get a pasteurizing plant
started; and year by year we have seen most
of our speeches and efforts come to nothing.
What are the reasons?
Recently we received an excellent analysis
of the dairy problem from F. c.. Smell, who by
virtue of being one of the county's few sue
cessful dairy farmers is a competent witness.
Mr.. Smell discusses what he terms the three
missing links" in the problem, which we think
should be of interest to all interested in the
commercial and rural development of the
county.
Mr.. Smell points out that Jackson county
land is termed "sub-marginal' in Department
of Agriculture soil charts, and a man going
into dairy farming has got to realize that he
must pay attention to his business if he is to
make a success.
The extent of this handicap is suggested
in the following statment which he quotes
from the October, 1916, leaflet of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture.
THE average production per cow in the
U. S. in 1945 was 4,789 pounds, and will be
around 1850 pounds in 1916. Production per
COW ranged from a low 5000 pounds in Mis-
sissippi to over 1000 pounds in California"
Quoting from another article entitled Ten
Ways to Lose Money in Farming"
"On general farms where from 10 to 80
cows are kept, the usual situation is that the
herd has from two to half-dozen cows that a
farmer knows are poor producers. The aver
age milk production is less than 5000 lbs.
There is no real profit in handling these. 1t
takes the 5000 h.. COW to make a real profit
This factor of low production per COW is the
greatest single factor for failure in Missis-
sippi dairy farming. Mr.. Smell says. He offers
the following black and white statistics to
show how this works out:
''Three thousand pounds of milk per year,
which is the average dairy cow production in
Mississippi, at SO cents per gallon, the price
now paid at Biloxi pasteurizing plants (eom-
pared with 81 cents in Mobile areal would
yield about $l85 per year. Seven thousand
pounds, at the same price, would yield $432
per year, a difference of $247. Thus a dairy
farmer in California, take % cows as the
basis, receives $6,175 more per year from his
IS cows than the Mississippi farmer. The
S6,175 of course is not a net difference, for it
is very plain that the cost of feeding the
higher producing COW is greater than the
cost of feeding the lower producing COW. We
do not know what the exact net per COW