PROFITABLE MILKING COWS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1676, 13 April 1904, Page 64

PROFITABLE MILKING COWS

A a the margin of profit in dairying 1 toeqomes smaller, the importance oi keeping cow’s which turn i—.air food to g-00-a account increases. “Hoard's Dairyman” give© an interesting account of some recant investigations upon tire subject, from ■vvmich cnii loijiwing is an example: * Mr. A. J. Glover, 8.A., has been making an investigation of various herds* of bows in Illinois under the direction of the College of Agriculture of that State. Mr 1 . Glover .gave many of the results of these investigations which were mane on the game lines as the cow census reports repeatedly given. His work has been condensed in a bulletin. On© of his deductions will fit right in here very wen. He ©ays: —“Soane of the herds-returned their owners a good profit, others a small profit, and one herd was kept at a loss. Fix out of these eight nerds contained cows that did not pay for the food they -o.nsumiad. In estimating the profit or o«s .©n a oow, it was estimated that a calf paid for her keep while dry, and hat the skim milk paid for labour. The cow that yielded the largest product gave 89411 lb of milk, and mad© 4721 bof butter. The poorest oow produced 14821 b of milk, 681 b of butter, and the average production of all the herds, except Gurler’s (D), was 47211 b of milk, 3.6? per cent, fat 1731 b oi butter fat, and 2021 b of butter. The most profitable cow gave a net profit of «£ll 9s 3d, and the poorest cow was Kept at an actual loss of ,£3 11s Bd, the average net profit was <£l I9s 2d. These facts and figures do not need much comment from us. We will simply pay that the profitable cows were found in * the hands of men who gave thought and study to the business, the unprofitable ones were owned bv men wno don't believe- it pays for a farmer to -make an effort to be &'well-posted, intelligent man. That is the situation ail over the land. Wherever we have taken a “cow census” it has been the same;"poor cows, poor returns, and ignorance have gone together. How some men do love to work for nothing and board themselves.