Montana farmer-stockman., 1956-01-15
= s
DoY-to-DdY Operations
Of q DoirYmon-Feeder
By ALBERT KING
CULLING is A continuous year 'rounC
nrooran1 IN NV farm Tn ordar IN roal;7.
By ALBERT KING

program on my farm. In order to realize
the maximum return from dairy herd
l find that it is necessary to Gull con-
tinuously. have set up what l choose
to call minimum standards for my herd
and in striving for improvement it has
been necessary to lay down some rather
hard and fast rules.
The average production per year for
this herd of dairy cattle which is
straight Holstein averages $50 pounds
of butterfat. l am not satisfied with
this yield and figure that in a couple of
years l can have herd of 40 cows
averaging over 400 pounds of butterfat
There are a good many things to
consider when pointing to good lock-
ing dairy COW and saying: "There is a
GULL Well take her to the auction Mon
day." AS a matter of fact, most culls
are good looking COWS because instead
of producing milk and butterfat their
feed is converted into body fat and they
have sleek, trim appearance. The
only true guide that can be depended
upon in culling is the number of pounds
of milk and butterfat produced by
cow in year.
In order to get this information we
must have records and the only prac-
teal way to obtain accurate and i'm
partial records is from the Dairy Herd
Improvement Association.
Last week 1 sent two good looking
cows to the auction. They weighed 1,224
pounds each and brought $3.50 per hum
dredweight or gross return of 1902. SO
for two cows. The deducts took a small
share of this check for commission,
trucking and brand inspection so that
the net return was even less than 500
per cow. The total return of the two
cows, plus a $50 bill was just enough
to buy one replacement which hope
will be better than the culls.
The reasons for culling these particu-
lar two cows are obvious when the
records are checked and a tabulatior
made. Number 1 was low producer
in her first lactation, yielding only 16I
pounds of butterfat But she was a gooc
looking heifer, her dam produced 0vel
400 pounds of fat and so 1 decided she
should be given another chance. In hel
second lactation she did show some
improvement and produced 289 pound!
of fat. This is far below my STANDARD
of $50 pounds, however, so when she
was ready to dry up, to the butcher sht
went
The number Gull COW has differen
performance record and was culled TO
an entirely different reason. In tire
lactationS she has produced 800, SO
and 1856 pounds of butterfat, respeC
lively, and in that time she has pre-
diced three heifer calves. The probler
with her is that she is hard to milk an
she upsets the entire routine in tn
milking parlor because the operator ha
to sit down and almost milk her b
hand and even by so doing it takes NOR
time than is required to milk two c
three of the regular cows.
Feeding according to production
which in my case is one pound of graf
to four pounds of milk, and using accV
rate, reliable records supported by il
innate knowledge of cows perform
ance provides the best basis for cullin
the dairy herd. I think it's better
have 8 cows producing $50 pounds
butterfat each than to have a Gov
nrndl1cine only $50 mounds each. There