STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. S^S 



Temperature of the Stable — I wish some of the agricultural colleges 

 would take up this matter and show what temperature gives the* best re- 

 sults. I know of no work on such a subject except one written by an 

 Englishman from ten to fifteen years ago. He said his cows produced 

 more milk in a temperature of 6;^, degrees than 52. That is all the data 

 I know in regard to that, but I think it is possibly an important item. 

 You must not treat your dairy cow as you do a fat steer. Any steer that 

 has a couple of inches of fat can lie in a strong draft and be comfortable, 

 but you put a dairy cow there and she is frozen up. What is comfortable 

 for a working horse or for a steer is torture for a dairy cow. We have 

 something to learn in that field yet. 



Milkers — I have trouble with milkers and it is a question how to 

 control it. There are men who cannot milk well that try it. They do 

 their best and cannot do a good job — ^but there are a good many more who 

 do not try. I have known a difference in the individual milkers in the 

 results of their work in the way they shrink up cows, so that if a man 

 was milking fifteen cows the difference between a good and bad milker 

 would pay a salary for a year." Right now my milkers are competing 

 for prizes. The milk is weighed once a week by the foreman — we don't 

 trust the milker to weigh it — and we give a prize of $25 for the milker 

 who brings his cows through with the least shrinkage. Prizes of $10, 

 $15, $20 and $25 I give to the milkers. It keeps them interested in their 

 W'Ork. 



Mr. Do you have trouble with over- feeding? 



Mr. Gurler — No. The cows get all they can handle. There is not 

 much danger of over-feeding. 



Mr. Haecker — A cow should have all she wants as well as a man. 



Mr. Gurler — In raising heifer calves, you cannot afford to under 

 feed. 



Mr. Patterson — How do you raise your heifer calves? 



Mr. Gurler — From my best cows. I do not raise them from poor 

 cows. If I have not enough, I buy some. 



Mr. What breed ? 



Mr. Gurler — Holstein males. 



I had my foreman give me figures in regard to these heifers. I 

 have some cows with their first calves that came in last April, giving 

 18 to 20 pounds of milk; some fresh ones are giving 25 to 30 pounds 

 and those heifers of my own raising are right up with and a little past 

 the whole herd. \ 



My cows are coming in at all times of the year. I have to have 

 a uniform amount of milk. I cannot have them all fresh at one time, as 

 I used to when I supplied the creamery. 



