No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 561 



year, one cow; and as well as making good butter fat this year I 

 have six cows that in nine months gave me about G,000 pounds of 

 milk apiece. I have just a few figures. They only run over nine 

 months; this year's record beginning -April ]st and continuing to 

 January 1st. Probably the part that would interest you the most 

 is that my commercial feed in that nine months for fifteen cows 

 has cost -fSSO.OO, or f2o 1-3 per cow for nine months; that is, com- 

 mercial feed. In addition to that 1 am feeding ensilage for half 

 that time probably, and the cows are on pasture the rest of the 

 time, feeding some with haj and second crop hay. In my year's work, 

 in counting the feeds of the cows if I put so many loads of hay or 

 second crop hay in the mow I charge it to the dairy. I don't weigh 

 what they eat each day or each feed but it shows the year's work 

 in that way. 



As to milk testing associations, I have two cows that have been 

 tested since the 1st of April for the advanced registry and the tester 

 that comes there is required to be there two days. While he was 

 there I made use of him in testing all my grades, and in that way 

 I think I can keep a pretty correct record of what they are doing. 

 I have not the record with me but in that nine months from fifteen 

 cows we have churned and put to market 4,202 pounds of butter. 

 In giving the dairy average for the butter we don't give that average 

 for the full price we get. The highest price we average is 37 cents 

 while at the retail market at Philadelphia it is bringing 43 cents. 

 The lowest price has been 32 cents. Last year's work, atfer counting 

 all the feeds we raised ourself and the commercial feeds that we 

 bought and charging the labor and also giving credit for the manure, 

 my profits were |50.0() per cow. Last week I had the tester there. 

 The lowest test in the herd was 400 for one cow and the next lowest 

 was 520 and 1 have cows running from that on uj). I may say the 

 cow I bought for $30.00 and started with was from a man who was 

 selling Jersey and grade Guernsey. He brought a sample of milk 

 fi-f>m each cow to Philadelphia to have tested so that he wotild know 

 which cow to sell and this was the highest test in the flock. He 

 thought she did not give any milk and he would not keep that cow 

 so he sold her to me. Her offspring, children and grandchildren 

 and great grandchildren have all l)een testing 5 and over right along. 

 In fact, a granddaughter tested last week, Avhen milking ten days 

 onlv, and her test was 5.30. She was a heifer with second calf and 

 at that time giving 28 to 30 pounds of milk a day and had only 

 freshened ten days before. I think it is an advantage for dairymen 

 to raise their own stock, as T have proved conclusively in my own 

 case and, of course, we have the skim milk there all the time to feed 

 the calves. We feed on skim milk until four months old. I may 

 add further, I have been feeding six heifers in addtion to my milk 

 cows, I simply feed the heifers — so that three heifers get al)out the 

 same amount of feed as one cow. I have not been folloAving it closely 

 because I don't know how many pounds of milk the cows are giving. 

 In other words, I feed for butter fat rather than milk. Some cows 

 not giving as much milk give more butter fat. That is what I am 

 after and feed f<ir nnd in my feeding operation I try to feed a cow 

 such a ration as will keep her in average flesh ; if laj'ing on flesh 



36—7—1910 



