104 



The Bulletin. 



The following table shows what a prominent dairyman in Sweden did by 

 following this rule: 



RECORD OF A DAIRY HERD IN SWEDEN. 



•One Swedish feed-unit equals 1 kilogram f2.2 pounds) mixed grain; 1.2 kilogram (2.6 pounds; dried 

 beet pulp; 1 kilogram i2.2 pounds) gluten feed; 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) hay; 1.1 kilograms (2.4 

 pounds) wheat bran; 4 to kilograms (9 to 13 pounils) straw; 0.9 kilogram (2 pounds) linseed cake; 6 to 

 10 kilograms ( 13 to 22 pounds) green clover; 0.8 kilogram (1.8 pounds) cotton-seed cake; 11 to 15 kilograms 

 (24 to 33 pounds) turnips. 



This man bought a 200-acre farm, paying for it $100 an acre. He paid only 

 $10,000 in cash, and gave a mortgage of $10,000 for the balance. With the 

 farm he bought 70 cow.s, and these cows produce on an average 7,320 pounds 

 of milli per year. You will agree with me that this average was cpiite high. 

 This man was a business man, and he instituted a system of records in his 

 stable, which was to tell him the actual worth of each animal as a business 

 proposition. lie joined a cow-testing association, and at the end of the tii'st 

 j-ear he knew how much milk ;ind butter-fat each cow had pnxluceil for him, 

 and decided that there were only 2S cov.s in his herd good enough to raise 

 calves from. He showed the courage of his convictions by disposing of all 

 the remainder of the herd. 



The next year he had 28 cows in his herd, producing 7,905 pounds of milk. 

 By the addition to tlie herd of the heifer calves from the good cows, he suc- 

 ceeded in seven years in increasing the number of the herd to 71, and the 

 production to 11,333 pounds of milk per cow per year. What he did, any 

 dairyman in this country can do. 



There are three things we must know about each individual animal : First, 

 we must discard the old idea that we can tell by the looks of a cow how much 

 milk she will give in a year. We have been selecting our cows by that method 

 for the last one hundred years, and we have reached the average production 

 of 14.5 pounds of butter-fat per cow in a year. This is not a very good argu- 

 ment for that kind of selection. We ought to do better than that. Of course, 

 we can tell in a general way by the cow's looks whether she was intended for 

 beef production or for the production of milk ; but we cannot tell in that way 

 whether she will produce 6,000 or 8.000 pounds of milk a year, and this 2,000 

 pounds of milk might make the difference between profit and loss on the 

 animal. 



There are three things we must know : First, how much milk does each 

 cow in our herd produce in a year? W^e must know this by the year, not liy 

 the day or the week. It is not a good indication, to know how much a cow 

 can do for a short time; for anybody can get a spurt on for a day or a week, 

 if it is possible to rest for the balance of the .vear. We must feed our cows a 

 year, and for that reason we need to know how much milk they produce in 

 that same length of time. 



Likewise, we need to know how much butter-fat they produce in a year, 

 because the butter-fat gives milk its market value. 



Last, but not least, we must know how much feed they consume, and what 

 it costs to keep them. We have not paid so much attention to the feed bill in 



