696 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
for second choice, but does not mean timothy by any means. Good oat 
hay, cut just after oats have headed, is better than timothy for millv. 
It also means good bright corn fodder, or still better, corn ensilage. 
Corn fodder, after the corn has been husked, can be run through the 
cutter into a silo, 'spraying a stream of water on it at the same time, 
making an excellent feed that will be eaten without any waste and with 
a better relish than dry fodder. From our experience we believe this Is 
the best and most practicable way to handle corn fodder where a man 
does not wish to make ensilage of the whole corn while green. 
before cold weather comes provide comfortable quarters for the cows 
and heifers. If they calve in the fall your chances for profit are better 
because you will have more time to care for them through winter, and 
their product while fresh is worth much more than in summer. 
Right at the start get some spring scales and a Babcock tester and 
learn how to use the latter, unless you can get someone else to test milk 
for you. Keep a record of the milk yield of each cow and test often enough 
to be able to estimate closely the butter fat yield of each cow for a year. 
Sell the unprofitable cows to the butcher. If you buy others to replace 
them, don't buy square, blocky, table-backed beef cows. Remember, you 
are trying the dairy business, not beef making, and as a rule the better 
the cow for beef, the poorer for milk. 
If you find that you are adapted to dairying, believe you can handle 
the business all right to your profit and wish to do so, buy a good regis- 
tered bull of one of the dairy breeds. Drop the beef business and the 
general purpose idea right there. You cannot, simply cannot, raise beef 
steers and dairy heifers from the same parents. 
Raise the heifers in the way they should go. That is, do not fatten 
them on corn or other fat-producing feed, but keep them growing on the 
same kinds of feed you feed your cows giving milk. Give them a good 
show, have them well grown at as early an age as possible. If you do 
this they should be bred to calve at thirty months old. 
When you need another bull, buy the best one you can afford of the 
same breed as the other. Don't try crossing breeds. If you must be 
fickle-minded and changeable and bound to make a change, sell out and 
start over again. It will not take many years to get in the way I have 
outlined, a herd of high grades that will be profitable producers, provided 
you have continued to use the scales and tester, and kept the best while 
disposing of the unprofitable ones. Your education should now be far 
enough advanced so that, if so inclined, you can wisely invest in a few 
good registered females. 
By continuing the same process of evolution, following the law of the 
survival of the fittest, in a few years more you will be a breeder of pure- 
bred dairy stock as well as a dairyman. 
Of course, only the man adapted to the business, who likes it, and is 
naturally qualified for it, will reach the development I have mentioned. 
But if he starts as I have suggested, and grows in knowledge with his 
business or makes his business keep pace with his knowledge, he will 
progress without risk of disaster such as might easily overtake a man 
who plunges into something he does not understand and may be entirely 
