620 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



FIRST PRIZE ESSAY. 



THE COST OF PRODUCTION OF A SMALL BUTTER-MAKING HERD. 



MRS. CHAS. LAMONT, JOPPA. 



We dairy folks, as a rule, ai*e apt to take into too little consideration 

 what it costs us to produce our millv and butter. If we are receiA'ing a 

 fair weekly income from our cows, we are satisfied to deduct the price 

 of the mill feed and count what is left as mainly profit, as most of the 

 feed is gi-own on the farm. 



But the home-gi-own feed also has a market value, and at such value 

 must be counted against the herd, so it is only in the difference between 

 the actual cost of the cow's maintenance and the market price of her 

 product wherein lies our success or failure as cow keepers. 



In these days when the best dairy papers in the country can be had 

 for a dollaf a year, more or less filled with accounts of the methods and 

 achievements of our Uiost prominent experts and dairymen, as well as 

 of those less successful; no one of us need be lacking in knowledge of 

 our chosen profession, even though we may be denied the privilege of a 

 special dairy education. The great difference in dairymen is well shown 

 by the investigations being carried on by Hoards' Dairyman at the present 

 time and for a year past among the creamery patrons of several States, 

 where intelligent dairymen are reported as receiving from $1.50 to $2.00 

 or over for every dollar expended on feed, whilst others who give to 

 their dairies indifferent study or care are receiving little more for their 

 dairy products than the food cost, and in some cases barely half as much. 

 While we may pride ourselves that we do not belong to the latter class, 

 it is best to be quite sure of it. 



Our herd consists at present of ten .lersey cows and heifers, none of 

 them registered, but headed by an A. J. C. C. sire. Our butter is sold 

 retail to private customers. 



We consider silage the most economical of all food stuffs, as well as 

 the least trouble to feed. Bran we find the most expensive, and we wish 

 for the day when a satisfactory substitute for it can be produced on our 

 farms. But this far along anything to take the place of bran seems to be 

 in the experimental stage in Indiana, and we find that to dispense with it, 

 even when the cows are' on pasture, generally results in a loss of butter 

 of more value than the cost of the bran. 



We began January 4th last to keep account by weight of all the feed 

 our ten cows ate in seven days, with these results: The average daily 

 ration fed in two feeds was 40 pounds silage, 5 pounds bran, 5 pounds 

 clover hay and 6 pounds corn stover, or all the stover they would eat up 



