ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 



627 



NUMBEB 01 COW-TESTING associations ANNUALLY IN OPERATION r.N EUEO- 

 l'LAN COUNTRIES 1895 TO 1909. 



a Organization in Russia began in 1903; number of associations organized subse- 

 quently is not known. 



6 Number organized up to 1904. 



cThe development -of these associations has continued, but figures are not available. 



(/Approximate number in existence. 



PURPOSE AXD PLAX OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



The primary purpose of the cow-testing movement was to obtain rec- 

 ords of the yearly production of milk and butter from each individual cow 

 in the herds of the members, and with these data as a basis, by the se- 

 lection of the best producing cows for breeding purposes, to develop a 

 strain of cows which would produce a large quantity of milk rich in butter- 

 fat. Later it was found that to judge the quality of the individuals it 

 was necessary in addition to keep account of the amount of feed consumed 

 by each cow, in order to learn which of them utilized the feed to the best 

 advantage. Many of these associations do not take into consideration the 

 cost of the feed nor the price of products, but use the feed-unit system 

 for this determination. By the feed-unit system the nutritive values of 

 all feeds are reduced to a common basis, and that cow is considered best 

 which combines the greatest yield of milk per 100 feed units with the 

 largest production of butterfat. 



It was not long before the work was extended to include also the cost 

 of feeding and raising calves and young stock, of producing pork, and of 

 keeping horses. It has even been extended to the keeping of records of 

 yields of different fields with different crops, and much good has thus 

 been accomplished, as the records furnish a good basis for comparing dif- 

 ferent systems of farm management, cultivation, crop rotation, etc. 



The cow-testing associations of Denmark have on an average 22 mem- 

 bers each and 390 cows. Each association employs an expert dairyman 

 to make periodical visits to the farms of the members. At each visit he 

 remains twenty-four hours, and obtains records, by actual weighing and 

 testing, of the amount of feed consumed by each animal and the amount 

 of milk and butterfat each cow yields during the twenty-four hours he is 



