HOW TO HAVE PROFITABLE COWS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 5

HOW TO HAVE PROFITABLE COWS.

11. B. Gurler, a veteran creamery man of eminence, gives in the first chapter of his hook on “ American Dairying” a very forcible argument in favour of a good cow. lie rightly regards such a cow as the foundation of the whole dairy business. Success depends more on the herd than any other one point. Much, of course, depends on the feed and care, but the best of feed and care will not make a cow that has a capacity for only 125 pounds of butter annually a profitable one. A V Kit A OF. COW' IN THE UNITED STATES. When we think that the average of the 10,500,000 cows in the United Elates is only 130 pounds annually, according to the census, is it noc time to be thinking how to improve in this work 1 There is no doubt as to there being room to improve, as there are herds in the United States that average 400 pounds and above per cow annually, and herds in nearly every community in the dairy sections that average 300 pounds of butter per cow annually. These 300 to 400 pound dairies should he object lessons to all dairymen. What one dairyman or dairywoman has done another can do, and, probably, a little better can be done, it is certainly well for us to try to excel in whatever line we are working. I shall not advise, all dairymen to sell their present herds and buy registered cows of some of the dairy breeds. This is all right for those who can seo their way clear to do so. I believe it is wise to breed registered animals when a person i 3 so situated that ho can.

What every dairymen can do to improve his herd is to test individual -•cows, and dispose of such as do not

come up to a particular standaid. This standard will vary indifferent localities, depending on the cost of feed and labour and on the value of the products, COST OK FEEDING COWS. We should not take any other person’s figures or estimates lor this, but should know ftom our own work what it costs to feed a cow for one year The cost of feed and labour and the interest of the investment in the cow we will suppose is 32dois to feed a cow a year, ami 12’50'lols for labour to care for her, and 2 uOdols for interest. We now have 50dols charged up against the cow. Now, what shall we find to put on the other side of the account 1 ft is very plain to lie seen that the 130-pound cow is not in this race, as her butter will have to sell for 32 cents per pound to leave a profit. VALUE OF SKIM MILK. We will allow lOdols per cow for the skim milk, and we have a balance of -lO luls to be [laid for by the butter before we have any profit. We will suppose as much butter is mads in winter as summer, in which case the average price, after paying for making the creamery, will lie about 21 cents per pound. Now, it will require 100 pounds of butter at 21 cents per pound to balance the -lOdols and leave us whole. fn this case the cow that makes 190 pounds of butter per year does not make us any profit. In my experience I find no profit in a 200 pound cow. I might have lOOofthem on my farm, and not make 250d01s per year on the svhole lot of them. Now, please tell me what is the sense in keeping such cows 1 We would not keep a horse that could only do work enough to pay for food; neither would we keep a man who could only do enough to pay for his board. But yet most of us keep a dairy of cows one fourth of which actually run in debt. There is no excuse for this at this period of the dairy work. Before the introduction of the Babcock test there was some excuse for a dairyman not knowing what each individual cow was doing for him, though even then there was not sufficient excuse for this condition, as the cows could be tested by the churn. That requires a great amount of work, but it paid. COMPARATIVE PROFIT.

What I wish to bring out is the comparative profit of cows that make 250 pounds and those that mako more. The 250 pound cows leave 50 pounds for profit and the 300 pound cows leaves 100 pounds for profit, or twice as much as the 250 pound cow, and is worth twice as much. The 350 pound cow is worth three times as much as the 250 pound cow, and six”times as much as the 225 pound cow. This is supposing that one cow consumes as much as the of her. This may or may not fie the case, but whether if is or not it docs not in any case make an argument of sufficient weight to be considered when comparing 250 pound cows with 350 to 400 pound cows. The question of the ability of cows to produce the most from the food consumed is an important one, and should be followed as soon as wo can reach it.

COWS IN DEBT TO US, But first let us weed out the cows

that are getting in debt to us, and tbe number of such cows in the country is alarming. I believe a majority of the cows in the United States could be made profitable by proper food and care, but the majority, as now fed and cared for, are evidently not profitable. The last United census estimates the average amount of milk per cow annually at 2883 pounds, which, it would be fair to suppose, would make 130 pounds of butter. Ido not know of a piste in flic United States where a’ 130 mm ml cow can be made profitable. ‘ AUK OF HR KICK I practice breeding my heifers so that they may drop their first calves at two veins of age. iam confident that they make better cows to come in milk at two years of age than later. '.l hey should lie handled from the time they are calves, so that they may not be afraid of the person caring for them. Whoie this is done there is very little trouble when they drop their calves, inil, if they have not been so handled, and are afraid of the person caring for them and their surroundings, they suffo - much from fear, and much pat idle.: will be required to overcome their bar and teach them to be quiet v. lu'ii being milked. ESTABLISH THE MILKING HABIT. Care should be exercised during their first milking period to establish or fix the habit of milking as long as possible. If they are allowed to go dry too early in their first year of milking they are more likely to do the same the succeeding year, and the habit is soon fixed. They should be milked to within two months of their dropping their calves. This is the kind of work that has developed and made it practicable to secure the large yield of butter from tbe cows that we so frequently obtain. Do net force a cow dry. If she persists in milking the whole time let her have her own way about it. Drying off a persistent milker requires more care than the average milker will give to it. I have had such cows forced dry, and when fresh again found a part of the udder injured so as to be useless, and i had a three-teated cow as a result.— Ad da 1 1 hi ()bs-i rvor.