338 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



With improved methods of feed and care records of 1,200 to 1,500 

 pounds seem to be within the possibilities. A valid objection that has 

 been offered to these yearly records published has been the fact that the 

 cows have been pushed to their limit of production for a single year; often 

 not producing a calf for six months or a year after the test closed, and in 

 some instances, never. 



As one who helped to draw up the first set of rules for such yearly of- 

 ficial tests, I plead guilty to not realizing the importance of incorporating 

 some rule that would require the cow to produce a living calf within 

 twelve or fifteen months of her previous calving. 



A wonderful impetus will be given cow testing in Iowa by the contest 

 now going on under the supervision of the Iowa Cow Culture Club. Mr. 

 W. W. Marsh, of your state, who made it possible for you to have this 

 cow contest in Iowa, has also given $1,000.00 to encourage a like contest 

 in Wisconsin. 



Those who have drawn up the rules for this Wisconsin contest have 

 adopted rules much like those governing your Iowa contest, but we have 

 added a rule that no cow can win a prize in the contest that does not be- 

 come safely in calf within five months after previous calving. We hope 

 to encourage, not only the testing of large numbers of puer bred cows, but 

 also of many herds of grade cows. 



Cow testing associations in large numbers have been formed in many 

 of the states and in Canada and are wonderfully encouraging the average 

 cow owners to try and find out which are his good and poor cows. 



Of course, the true value of a cow lies even deeper than in just know- 

 ing what her production may be; for while one cow may return her owner 

 one dollar and a quarter for each dollar's worth of feed given her, an- 

 other one, while she may produce no more, may return to her owner a 

 dollar and a half, ot even more for the dollar invested in feed. 



The Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Illinois have 

 recently published a circular numbered 134 well named "Cow Index of 

 Keep and Profit," that shows the economic items of a dairy herd figured 

 out and put into a system. In this bulletin Professor Fraser has figured 

 out the yearly profit of cows giving anywhere from 2,000 to 15,000 pounds 

 of milk per year, or anywhere from 80 to 600 pounds of fat. 



He has taken into account the original value of the cow, which in the 

 first instance he calls $30.00, and in the case of the best cow $140.00; tak- 

 ing also into account the value of the cow for beef at the end of her life, 

 varying downward from $30.00 to $25.00; taking into account the value of 

 the calf, the skim-milk, the manure, as well as of the butter fat and 

 charged the cow not only with her feed and care, but also interest, depre- 

 ciation in value, veterinary services, housing, and even such small items 

 as the depreciation of dairy utensils, and his figures show a varying 

 profit from minus $17.80, which means a loss of that amount, up to $127.98. 

 I would certainly advise every person interested in measuring the value 

 of his individual cows to give careful study to this bulletin. 



The first great step with any dairyman in determining the value of his 

 individual cows is taken when he begins to treat or deal with his herd as 

 individuals, not as a whole. Then he will soon learn that he must needs 



