COWS—AND COWS!

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 153, 14 June 1932, Page 11

COWS—AND COWS!

WHAT TESTING AND CULLING MEAN.

In this (condensed) article Professor Eraser, of the University of Illinois, compares the profit from 25 good cows averaging 3021 b. fat with that from 875 low producing cows averaging 1641 b. fat. Believe it or not, the small herd makes as much profit as the large herd. Read the article and be convinced.

Here are 875 cows coming home to the dairyman. They are common cattle in America, because their production averages only 1641 b. fat a year. Since the average production of all the 24,000,000 dairy cows in the United States is 1801 b. fat a year, it is an exceptional dairyman who cannot claim a number of such low producing cows as his own. Cows do not usually come home in such large numbers, but the reason for bringing them home in this way is to deliver a message to their owners, a message which may be ol more value than the cows themselves.

Dairying, when properly conducted, is one of the most remunerative lines of farming. But, as a rule, the dairyman does not know the amount of profit or loss cow in his herd. The only way to know how much a cow produces in a year is to weigh and test her milk.

A good dairyman with a herd of 25 cows producing 3021 b. fat a year, the average of all dairy herd improvement association cows in the United States, would make about 35 dollars per cow or 875 dollars profit a year from the herd under average farm conditions. To make as much profit with cows producing 1641 b. fat a year, the average of about 50 per cent, of all the cows in the United States, another dairyman would have to keep 875 cows. The profit from the entire 875 cows is only 875 dollars, and the profit from 25 average dairy herd improvement association cows also amounts to 875 dollars. One of the good cows returns as much profit as 35 of the poor cotvs, and 25 of the good cows make as much profit as 875 of the poor cows. The largo herd returns not a penny more profit than the small herd.

The 25 good cows could be kept on an 80-acre farm and a comparatively small barn and a single silo would be sufficient buildings to house both the cows and their feed.

The following requirements are given just for fun for the benefit of anyone who might prefer to handle the 875 poor cows, as in effect many a dairyman is doing now with at least a portion of his herd.

“COST OF THE BOARDER.” To stock up for full business the first year, Mr. Dairyman puts from 50,000 dollars to 60,000 dollars in his pocket and goes to market. It will require one train of 44 cars to bring home his cows. Standing elose together, they would fill two acres of yard. In a favourable season, 1300 acres of good pasture ought to be plenty for grazing. To feed a ton and a fourth of hay per cow would require a rick 12 feet wide, 12 feet high, and two-thirds of a mile long, or twice around the four-acre lot—providing a great windbreak. Seven hundred and fifty acres of meadow should produce this hay. Thirty large silos would be sufficient to store the silage needed. All this would be required to make 875 dollars profit per year, exactly the same as the small herd makes. The men who drive up the 870 cows and milk them on a sweltering night in flytime would certainly realise that they were in “big business,” yet this is about the size of the “business” as to profit that is being done with the lowest producing half of the cows in the United States to-day. But instead of being gathered in great groups, the inherently low producing cows are scattered in many smaller herds where their poor production is covered up by the high production of the good cows in the same herd. The enormous herd of 875 cows could be managed very well on a 2600-acre farm of good land. One hundred and twenty 10-gallon cans would be sufficient to deliver the milk the large herd would give daily, whereas six cans would hold the milk from the small herd. A dairyman haying a bank account of 80,000 dollars or so could keep the 875 cows, but they are a bit dangerous for the common dairyman to handle. Yet he is handling them in smaller numbers and does not see the danger. He does not even know that he has several such cows in his herd. The only way for him to find out is to weigh and test the milk of each cow and determine the profit. And when he finds out, there is but one remedy—to sell the charity boarders to the butcher.