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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Off. Doc. 



48.17 cents. With the poorest cow the one hundred pounds of milk 

 cost 134.1 cents. The following year, 1907, with the best cow the 

 cost was 00.1 cents and with the poorest cow 157.8 cents. In 1908 

 the cost for the best cow was 65.5 cents and the poorest cow 183.8 

 cents. One of the first cow testing associations in the East was at 

 Delhi, N. Y., formed in 1910, and they give some very interesting 

 results of that association work. For instance the creamery record 

 at that place shows that 535 cows in the Delhi Association have pro- 

 duced 270,179 pounds more of milk than 53G cows from the same 

 farms liad before the association records were kept. 



The Ithaca Association, in New York state, shows some very in- 

 teresting statistics through a series of four years as a result of the 

 Cow Testing Association. The following table shows the increased 

 profit over their feed: 



o 



2; 



First year, . 

 Second year, 

 Third year. 

 Fourth year. 



$13 36 

 19 62 



50 59 



51 73 



The difference between these cows was purely individuality. It is 

 very clear, therefore, that at the present price of milk the poorest 

 cow at the Experiment Station quoted above, together with several 

 others were being kept at a decided loss. They do not pay their own 

 feed bill alone to say nothing of labor and interest on capital and 

 depreciation. Facts such as these concerning every dairy should be 

 in the hands of the owner. It is a very easy matter then, to take 

 from the herd those which are unprofitable, retain those which are 

 maldng the profit and breed up the herd from the profit making cows, 

 headed by a sire that will increase their production in the off'spring. 



I know of only one way in which there is a hope of bringing about 

 this result, and that is by the formation of Cow Testing Associa- 

 tions. It is entirely possible of course for each farmer to make such 

 records himself, but the experience of years has taught us that the 

 average farmer is not included to attend regularly to such detail 

 work. However, throughout the country there is being organized 

 Cow Testing Associations which do give this information. 



Cow Testing Associations are organized very simply by a number, 

 usually twenty-eight dairy farmers in a given locality and the em- 

 ployment of a clerk whose duty it is to visit one herd each day, 

 record the amount of milk from each cow, test samples of milk from 

 each cow and determine the solid content, compute the cost of feed 

 given each cow and so determine the profit from each. Repeated 

 records have shown that monthly tests of this kind and this aver- 

 age throughout the lactation period comes very close indeed to the 

 actual number of pounds produced by each cow each year. These 

 associations are usually successful in that they bring about the ex- 



