STATE DAIKY ASSOCIATION. 627 



"THE INDIVIDUALITY OF THE DAIRY COW 



ir. 'B. OURLER, DK KALB, ILLINOIS. 



In tlio iinnual records which ai-e summarized In the following table 

 I have put the price of skim millc at twenty cents. Before that, I had 

 put it at twont.v-tive cents per hundred, applying- an old rule that skim 

 milk is worth lialf as much ])rv hundi'ed pounds as corn is worth per 

 huslu'I. so that (in thes(> fisures 1 liave made the price pretty low, and 

 where skim milk is used intelliyently it is worth more money than that. 

 Von will notice that llie calf and the manure are not taken into con- 

 sidcraliiiii. II is an iiiicerlaiii (|iiaiitity about wlial th<' c:ilf is worth; 

 it (le[ten(ls uiioii what the cow is aiul wlial the sire of (lie c;ilf is, and 

 I felt it was wiser to le.-ive liie calf out eiilirely. and let everyliody put 

 his own \alue: and tlie same wilii tlie manure. 



Tlien comes tlii" cost of llie leeil. 1 id] some gluten meal from the 

 giucose factory: 1 I'vd some from tlie distillei-y at Peoria, and got my 

 liroKMU cheaper in tiiac form than in any other form, but I struck one 

 carload th.at had something wrong about it; it was not palatable, and 

 I had some shari) correspondence aliout it. The manager thought I didn't 

 know what I was talking abour, !)ut he found out that I did. 



Tliat reminds me, I want to talk a moment on the question of pal- 

 atability. It is the hrst thing to be thought of in feeding. There is 

 any amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere, and it might as well remain 

 tliei'e as to lie in an unpalatable feed as far as the cow is concerned. 

 This (piestion is not sulticiently recognized. Chemists can not tell about 

 tlie palatability of food. Tliey know how to analyze, and that is as 

 far as the.v can go, but they can't niakt' the cow eat it and like it. 



Hay was charged at .$8 per ton and the corn silage at $1.50 per ton. 

 For last year perh.aps that price was a little low, but even at that I 

 c.in tell you there is a good proHt in growing corn for silage, if we 

 grow (ill cell tons to the acre, as every one should. You see there is 

 a gross income of $22.50 per acre, and if we allow $1() for interest and 

 the growing of it, you have $12.5t» left. 



That will pay interest on .$2(K» land and not many of us are asking 

 $2(M» an acre for our land. It is hard for us to put a market value on 

 silage, as it is not a marketable food, but I have given the farm a profit 

 for growing it, and I think tliat is suthcieiit. 



Then I charge uji for lalior $12.50 per cow. That was. a basis that 

 I figured out ten or twelve years ago when I made milk for the cream- 

 ery. It may not be strictly accurate. I'erhaps labor is a little higher 



