354 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



get home the cows will be giving the same amount of milk they did when 

 I left. 



It is up to you, farmers. Are you going to get the cow that will keep 

 on giving milk the year round by proper selection, feed and care, and do 

 away with the dual purpose cow? 



Now, then, in taking up the subject of breeding up a dairy herd, the 

 first thing you want to give your attention to is selection of a sire. That 

 is the first thing that must be done. I want you to do this, want you to 

 study all the dairy literature you can, learn everything about the dairy 

 business you can, make up your mind which breed you like best, then 

 buy the very best sire of that breed you can get. Write to some good 

 breeder or a half dozen of them if you desire, and tell them what you 

 want; tell them you want a sire from one of the best cows they have. 

 See that she has a good udder and teats, for I tell you that is a mighty 

 important matter. If you sit down to milk a cow and she is short teated 

 and her back is out of shape it is not a very desirable job, and the sire 

 from such a dam as that is apt to carry that trait on. You want to see 

 that your sire is dammed by a cow that has a good udder and teats and 

 is a large producer; the larger the better. That is where a lot of you 

 farmers make a mistake in selecting your dairy sire; you are looking for 

 something cheap instead of something good. Now you will never get 

 the best without paying a fair equivalent for it; if you want something 

 good you must expect to pay a fair price for it, and I can name you breed- 

 ers of dairy cattle in this state who are paying $500 or $600 to get a 

 sire, and how can you expect to get an animal from such a sire as that 

 for a song? It cannot be done. The sires from which you want to get 

 your heifers ought to be worth more money than those that you can pick 

 up around the country are worth. I will say right here that there is 

 no breeder in the state of Iowa or anywhere else that can go to work and 

 carefully select a herd of cows, put in the time required, and every two 

 or three years buy a new sire at a price of possibly not less than $500 

 and afford to let you have anything under $100. It cannot be done and 

 the breeders make money, and you cannot afford to buy one worth less 

 money than that; you cannot afford to keep one for less money. 



As I said, the sire is the principal thing. The next thing I would do 

 would be to take such cows as I had in the herd. The average farmer 

 will not bother much with the milk scale and the Babcock test. I do 

 not do it as much as I really ought to, but once a week you can weigh 

 the milk and two or three times during the season you can take a sample 

 of the milk to your buttermaker and get him to test it for you. Pay him 

 a little for doing that so as to be on the right side of him. It will help 

 him out; his time is worth something. Get him to test your milk for 

 you and take a fair sample from each cow; pour it from one vessel to 

 another, stir it up or do something and take a fair sample. The butter- 

 maker will give you a tablet that will keep the milk sweet until you get 

 it to him in a bottle. Milk those cows until you find which cows are 

 losing you money, and when you find out that the quicker you sell your 

 poor cows the better. If you have cows that are going to come out even, 

 if you have not too many, it might be well to keep them a while. They 

 pay their board and you have the fertilizer to help you out. 



