AN UNPROFITABLE HERD.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16606, 18 July 1914, Page 16

AN UNPROFITABLE HERD.

A dairy journal in America some time ajro published a letter from ono of its correspondents in which he gave a very complete statement of his herd and asked what the trouble could be. The journal in question requested its readers to give their views on tho subject. A number responded, and extracts from their letters are given : No. 1 said:—"l don't think that man has the cows to do .the business with. Just think! To milk three cows before he has a ten-quart pail full. One cow at deast ought to give that much. This man ought to get a milk scale and tester and_ find out what his cows are doing. Now as to the teed, only maize stalks for roughage. Why not have lucemo hay? Then he feeds a little over 221 b of grain (this includes 121 b wet malt) for a ration and it takes three cows to get ten quarts of milk. Ho should put up a silo and get some good ensilage, so as to cut his feed bill down. Then he should get the very best bull that he can possibly afford, oven if he has to sandbag a couple of men to get the money to buy him with. In a few years he will be getting thirty quarts a day instead of what ho gets now."

No 2 writes:—"lt looks to me like there were several things not up to present-day dairying, £9 per month for twelve cows for expenses is too much. It is also very evident he has a vf»ry poor lot of cows and only about rtrothirds fed." No. 3 writes:—" This is easy to account for. Why I He is paying out more than half of his gross income for labour. Ho should either keep what cows he can care for himself or more, say twenty, to .make it profitable to pay this amount for labour. His cows are not yielding what they should. I don't see how he can expect twelve cows that have been milked six to eight months to give more on an outlay of £8 per month for concentrates. Certainly he needs a siJo. Maize fodder as tho only roughage is pretty expensive stuff to feed, as it requires large quantities of concentrates of- the right kind to insure a large flow of milk. We are milking six purebred. Jerseys, all fresh hmt autumn, and early winter. Our tales from butter alone average £ls per month, nearly as much as his twelve, and we feed skim milk to pureorod calves, which is quite an item. We have two silos ten by twenty-four which hold enough feed for the herd twelve months. During the winter we have no hired help. My advice to this man is, if he has to have a man at £9 pe'r month, build two silo 3, fourteen by thirty, get eighteen or twenty good cows that will yield 301 b to 401 b of milk per day and then feed them so that they will give the 301 b or 401 b. He can't do it on 60 cents a week for concentrates. I think I hear him say that he can't keep that many on fifty acres of land. He certainly can if ft is all good tillable land. He says he hopes to build a silo this year. He should put it this way, I will build a silo this year or quit dairying,"