114 ANNUAL KEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Swiss cheese manufacture, American cheese manufacture, creamery 

 operation, and butter making. 



COW-TESTING ASSOCIATIONS. 



The study of cow-testing association records has been continued. 

 Two department bulletins have been published — No. 1069, Relation 

 of Production to Income from Dairy Cows, and No. 1071, Influence 

 of Season of Freshening on Production and Income from Dairy 

 Cows. From the lowest producing group of cows to the highest 

 producing group a gain of 50 pounds in average yearly production 

 of butterfat was always accompanied by an increase of about $16 

 in income over cost of feed. 



The average production of the 21,234 cows whose 12-month rec- 

 ords have been studied was 6,077 pounds of milk and 248 pounds of 

 butterfat, or about 50 per cent above the average of all the dairy 

 cows in this country. The records show that selection of animals 

 and better methods of feeding raise average production rapidly dur- 

 ing the first year or two that the cow-testing association is in opera- 

 tion, but the figures for subsequent years show small gains. This 

 indicates that there is still much room for improvement in the breed- 

 ing of cow-testing association cows. 



On July 1, 1922, there were in operation 513 associations, including 

 12,458 herds and 215,321 cows, as compared with 452 associations a 

 year previously. In the two States where this division cooperated 

 actively in this work the number of associations increased to a marked 

 extent. In Minnesota the increase was from 23 to 37 active associa- 

 tions and in Wisconsin from 103 to 127. 



COOPERATIVE BULL ASSOCIATIONS. 



The number of bull associations increased from 158 to 190, owning 

 857 bulls. These associations are formed for the cooperative own- 

 ership and use of good purebred bulls for the purpose of improving 

 the breeding of dairy cattle. Texas, Nebraska, and Ohio are new 

 additions to the list of States where bull associations have been 

 formed. Three men worked during the whole year in Minnesota, 

 South Carolina, and Vermont, each concentrating his work in one 

 State, Incidentally some work has been done in Illinois, Nebraska, 

 North Carolina, and Ohio, with the result that the dairy extension 

 specialist in Illinois has organized five new associations. In April 

 one man was put on to do bull-association work in connection with 

 the western office. 



Some of the most interesting features revealed by the investiga- 

 tions concerning bull associations are that an association always 

 provides, in place of the mixed lot of bulls of varied breeds and 

 value, uniform bulls as good as or better than the best in the com- 

 munity before ; that even the grade herds belonging to the members 

 look like purebred herds after five or six years of bull-association 

 operation ; that when properly organized the associations continue in 

 operation without much difficulty and the members become more 

 enthusiastic over the organization as time goes on. The greatest 

 problem at the present time, as in the past, is to speed up the forma- 

 tion of organizations. Disease control, as it applies to bull associa- 



