INSTITUTE PAPERS. I07 



and he can feed the high priced grain ration accordingly, giving 

 the cows grain in comparison to the way they are paying for it 

 and as he finds by close study they need, to do good work. It 

 places every cow on her merit. One does not need to keep a 

 cow much over a year before he knows whether she is going to 

 be able to make a profit and if you have never kept records you 

 will be surprised to learn perhaps for the first time which cows 

 really excel in your dairy. It is not always the cow that begins 

 by giving a large flow of milk when fresh that makes the best 

 record for a year or a series of years. Sometimes it is a smaller 

 milker when fresh but one of the persistent sort, keeping up a 

 more uniform milk flow, that makes the most profit. 



Keeping milk records creates a desire to have a standard for 

 the amount of production of milk or butter every cow you keep 

 should attain, and promotes a study of individual cows. 



By watching the milk records, you will be inclined to study 

 the form of the cow that is giving the most profit and the con- 

 viction will be forced upon you that there is a certain style or 

 form or type of cow that augurs well for making a profit and if 

 you keep milk records for a series of years, or ask anyone that 

 has kept records, invariably you will find that a good dairy cow 

 has a special dairy type altogether unlike the beef type of cow. 

 She is a distinctly wedge shape, clean cut, active appearing cow. 

 Then again, keeping records quickens the interest of the laborer. 

 Your hired help will be more certain to get all the milk they can 

 from each cow. Your boys will take more interest in the de- 

 velopment of the heifer growing up to make your future herd. 

 You, yourself, will see that the heifer calves from the best cows 

 are raised and you will be inclined to start them well in life by 

 giving those heifers a good pure bred sire that will make such 

 decided improvement in the quality of the herd that it will not be 

 long before you start to raise dairy cows of only pure bred 

 ancestry. 



Such has been the general result of hundreds of men that have 

 begun keeping milk records. It also acts as a safety valve in the 

 running of the engine. The milk record tells first of all when 

 the cow's condition is getting out of order. Watch the record 

 and one can often prevent a serious loss of milk production by 

 taking the case in time and so keep the machine in steady run- 

 ning order. 



