336 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



On the other hand, at many dairy farms where low grade or scrub 

 cattle are now kept, several years must be spent in cow testing, select- 

 ing and breeding up the herd, before the calves will be worth more 

 than their value as veal. Only a few calves are raised each year, to 

 keep the herd up to its proper size. The whole milk is therefore pref- 

 erably delivered at the cheese factory and whey is hauled back and 

 fed to hogs on the farm. 



Besides maintaining and enlarging the dairy herds, the main pur- 

 pose on the dairy farm is the production of milk for human food, in 

 the largest quantities possible, without injury to the fertility of the 

 soil. Under the emergency conditions attending the present war, it 

 may be necessary in some cases to disregard the loss of fertility and 

 to sell more whole milk from the farm to the condensary, returning 

 no by-products to the soil. 



But under ordinary peace conditions, the demand for condensed milk 

 is far less, and in choosing between the cheese factory and the cream- 

 ery, the source of milk fat, milk casein, etc., should be considered. Fat 

 consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, while casein consists of these 

 elements together with nitrogen. All four of these, carbon, hydrogen, 

 oxygen and nitrogen are taken from the air during plant growth, and 

 later converted into milk by the dairy cow. Since nitrogen is readily 

 added to the soil by growing alfalfa, clovers, beans, or other legumes, 

 there can be no objection to the sale of casein in milk at the cheese 

 factory. The advantage of supplying nitrogenous food for man in one? 

 form of casein and cheese offsets the disadvantage of selling part of 

 the mineral matter of milk which enters the cheese. 



Arguments against the cheese factory heretofore have been based 

 mainly on objections made to the sale of casein, and these objections 

 are seen to have little weight, where legumes are raised abundantly 

 on the farm. 



Recognizing that the supply of nitrogen in the soil can be main- 

 tained by use of legumes without feeding skim milk or casein to farm 

 animals, the two important mineral fertilizers potash and phosphorus 

 remain to be considered. Nearly all of the potash in milk is present 

 in either the skim milk or in the whey, so that with respect to potash, 

 the cheese factory and the creamery alike return most of the potash 

 to the soil. 



About half of the phosphorus in milk may remain in cheese, so that 

 skim milk contains nearly twice as much phosphorus as does whey. 

 However, a ton of cheese robs the soil of only seven or eight pounds of 

 phosphorus, Avorth formerly about 4 cents a pound. 



All over Wisconsin, thousands of hogs are being raised and fat- 

 tened on cheese factory whey, fed along with a little grain. Creamery 

 patrons accustomed to feeding skim milk to farm animals sometimee 

 think of whey as consisting almost entirely of water, and having little 

 or no feeding value. One hundred pounds of whey properly fed to 

 hogs will produce as much gain in weight as will one-fourth of a bushel 

 of corn. With corn at $2 a bushel, the whey is worth 50 cents per 100 

 pounds for hog feeding. 



