?98 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



ON WHAT DO THE DAIKY PROFITS DEPEND? 



By PROF. H. E. VAN NORMA>f. Department of Dairy Hasbandry. State College, Pa. 



The profit in a business is the difference between the cost of pro- 

 duction and the price received for the goods produced. It is the 

 proportion of the selling price Avhich may be used for enlarging the 

 business, or it may be paid to the stock holder, or proprietor as divi- 

 dends. Without exception, all our large and successful manufactur- 

 ing concerns maintain a considerable force and spend no little money 

 to secure exact information as to the cost of manufacturing, hand- 

 ling and selling their goods. In many lines the margin of profit 

 is so small that a variation of a few cents in the cost of production 

 means immense loss. 



I believe there is no business which will stand the losses and leaks 

 that most farm business establishments suffer and still yield the 

 owner a living. If with a reasonable outlay of time, labor, and even 

 money, and considerable proportion of these losses could be stopped, 

 and the profit proportionately increased, many farms which now 

 yield their owners a bare living would show a profit to be used for 

 the good things of life, the luxuries, comforts, and travels or enter- 

 tainment. 



My first point is, the dairyman should know what his cows are 

 producing in return for the feed consumed. Statistics show that 

 the average production per cow in this State is about 160 pounds 

 of butter per cow per year, which little more than pays for food con- 

 sumed, while Experiment Station figures, commercial herd records, 

 and many investigations carried on among creamery patrons show 

 herds that have produced from 225 to over 300 pounds of butter 

 fat per cow per year. In one community, Experiment Station 

 figures showed that G8 out of 100 farmers did not receive as much 

 for the product of their dairy herds as they could have received 

 for the food consumed had it been sold at market prices, while the 

 remaining 32, by the use of silage, clover hay, better grain mixtures, 

 care of the manure, attention to blood lines and the reading of dairy 

 papers, secured a handsome profit over and above the value of foods 

 consumed. 



There is not only a large difference in the production capacity of 

 different herds, but even a greater difference in the production by 

 individuals in the same herd. One cow will produce from 90 cents 

 to ll.OO's worth of milk for each fl.OO worth of grain, pasture, and 

 roughage, while another will consume practically the same amount 

 and return from $1.50 to |2.00 worth, and, in some cases, even more 

 of milk or butter. Some of the profits from a good cow must be used 

 to pay for the losses on the poor ones, thus reducing the profit per 

 cow very considerably. It is this great difference in productive 

 power of different herds, and still more important in different cows, 

 in the same herd that makes it so important for the owner to have a 

 definite knowledge of what his cows, are doing. The fact of this 

 variation has been proved over and over. Confirmation of this state- 

 ment may be found in Bulletin No. 75, B. A. I. of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



