332 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



him i>ay almost his entire attention to it this winter, and it is our 

 hope that where we tind it is impossible to organize creameries, to 

 build up the dairy industrj^ by organizing cheese factories. There 

 are eight or ten cheese factories in the northern part of the state 

 that are wonderfully successful and are very profitable, and we 

 are going to encourage that sort of work where we find that 

 there isn't sufficient milk to organize a creamery. Now I think 

 that is a plan that will result in considerable good down there. 



The dairy train has done wonderful work in Iowa, but we can't 

 expect very great results from the use of the dairy train from now 

 on. Now briefly that is the most important thing the department 

 has in mind for the winter and I desire the co-operation of all the 

 people in Iowa who are interested in dairy work. 



Now this question of conserving the cow. When you take into 

 consideration that the milk of one cow is equal in food value to 

 three 1,500-pound steers, isn't it worth Avhile that you should look 

 at it from the angle of economy? If a cow will produce the food 

 value of the beef of three steers, isn't it much better to conserve 

 the cow? Because after she has produced that milk during the 

 year, you still have the cow to go on and do the same thing over 

 again. When you have killed the steers you have nothing left. 



No\v there 's another consideration that we should keep in mind 

 ■ — -that six or eight pounds of corn, or any other product of that 

 kind, will produce a pound of butterfat. Butterfat is worth 

 around forty cents at this time, and that same feed fed to a steer 

 would produce only a pound of beef. The average price of beef 

 now as it comes to market is somewhere around ten cents a pound. 

 That is its usual price. That leaves you a difference of about 

 thirty cents for your work, and it seems to me that it is well worth 

 while to do that work for the thirty cents that you get. Then 

 when you have sold that steer what have you left to produce an- 

 other calf ? Nothing. 



I have every confidence in the dairy game at this time. I know 

 that a good many are getting weak-kneed and are selling their 

 cows. I do know this : That dairy cattle are going to be worth 

 more money in the next two, three or four years, than they have 

 ever been before. I think that if we are going to do away with any 

 of our cows, it should only be the star boarders. Be sure before 

 you sell them that you are getting rid of the worthless ones. 



If there's anything I pretend to know a little something about 

 it is a cow. If a fellow could fool me on a cow, he would be wel- 



