EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 297 



VALUE OF THE PRODUCTS, COST OF PRODUCTION AND PROFIT. 



Besides keeping records of the amount of milk given by each cow, daily 

 records were made of the amount of feed consumed by each, so that the 

 entire cost of food for each animal for the year is known. While it would 

 be possible to give the other items of expense entailed by the herd, as cost 

 of care, etc., these are purposely omitted as is also the value of calves and 

 manure. In dairy operations these two groups of items are commonly 

 considered as balancing each other. This they have approximately done 

 in the present case. But as the major item of expense in maintaining a 

 dairy cow is her food, and in view of the extremely intimate relation of 

 food and product, we have eliminated all minor matters in order to better 

 contrast these tw^o main features. 



Instead of crediting the herd wdth the money actually received from the 

 sale of the butter at the college dairy, although more was really received 

 for it than is credited here, the price of butter is fixed at 20 cents net per 

 pound for the entire year. By 20 cents net is meant that this price includes 

 the cost of making. Skim-milk is valued at 20 cents per cwt., this being 

 the price charged for it in experimental feeding conducted at this institu- 

 tion. The values assigned to these products as well as the prices charged 

 for feeds are considerably at variance with market prices for the past few 

 years. However at the time the first report was issued they represented 

 market values fairly well. Since they were used in that report they will 

 be retained in this for convenience in comparison. It will be borne in mind 

 that while receipts for product and cost of foods are both too low the figures 

 representing net profits are much less distorted. 



The value of the products of each individual of the herd, as well as cost 

 of production and profit are shown in Table II which follows. In column 

 two will be found the value of butter, in column three the value of skim- 

 milk, while column four gives the total cost of food for each cow. The 

 return for every dollar's worth of food consumed by the cow is shown in 

 column five, the food cost for every 100 pounds of milk produced in column 

 six, and the food cost for every pound of butter in column seven. Column 

 eight gives the total value of products of the cow, being the sum of columns 

 two and three, while column nine shows the profit or loss over food for the 

 entire year. 



In considering cost of food, the entire amount consumed by the animal 

 during the whole year is taken, and not simply the portion eaten while in 

 lactation. 



