HOLSTEINS PAY OIV THIS FARM 



lt'» Because Sumner Wilson of Montgomery County 

 Specialiies In SOO lb. Fat Cows 



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y\ - ANY a football team owes 



"^ •A ij its success to the alertness 

 C~^ y§ and intelligence of the 

 quarterback. He must not only know 

 his own team, but be quick to detect 

 weaknesses in the opposition. The same 

 alertness and ability that made Farm 

 Bureau Member Sumner Wilson an all- 

 conference quarterback in college 24 

 years ago, he applies today in running 

 his dairy and livestock farm in Mont- 

 gomery county. 



Now a 109 acre farm is not a big 

 one as farms go in Illinois. But a 109 

 acre farm having 22 Holsteins with a 

 herd average of 14,063 pounds of milk 

 and 481 pounds of butterfat in a year 

 is something else again. And a farm 

 that produced 2110 bu. of corn on 23 

 acres last year and marketed 100 shoats 

 from seven Hampshire sows is at least 

 remarkable. 



If you called Wilson a book farmer 

 he wouldn't resent it. He's proud of 

 his set of dairy herd improvement rec- 

 ords that tell the history of every cow 

 in the herd. He has been keeping 

 books on his cows since 1926. Let's 

 take a look at the records with Sumner 

 doing the talking. 



"Well here's Little Lady's record. 

 In 331 days she produced 600.5 pounds 

 of butterfat on two milkings a day. We 

 haven't milked three times a day since 

 1931 when we made the 481 lb. fat 

 herd average. 



"Next here's Queen. She's a six year 

 old and in 311 days of milking she 

 has a record of 584.2 lbs. of butterfat. 

 Bunty over here has 511 lbs. of fat in 



less than a year. Most of my cows are 

 purebreds although I haven't kept up 

 the papers on all of them. We have 

 a few grades. Speck and Sadie are the 

 two best. 



"Speck is a grade cow I picked up 

 several years ago for $70. Her best 

 record is 41,488 lbs. of milk and 534.3 

 pounds of butterfat. Sadie is just about 

 as good. She milked 13,162 lbs. of 

 nearly 4 per cent milk and 533 lbs. of 

 butterfat in 323 days. Our high profit 

 cow was Beauty. She returned $251 

 over feed cost last year." 



Every good herd bears the influence 

 of an extraordinary herd sire or one 

 or more remarkable females. Star Mod- 

 el Fayne, an exceptional bull secured 

 from Elmwood Farms in Lake county 

 many years ago is largely responsible 

 for the high records of the best cows 

 in the Wilson herd. 



"We bought old Star when he was a 

 10 months calf," said Wilson. "He 

 cost us close to $500 when we got him 

 home but at that he was a cheap bull. 

 Rasmussen asked $3,000 for the calf at 

 one time but when he developed a 

 hump in his back at six months of age, 

 that cut the price. Star's mother had 

 a record of 1216 pounds of fat as a 

 three-year-old and she placed third at 

 the National Dairy Show, St. Louis, in 

 1931. 



"We kept Star for six years. His 

 heifers were uniformly high producers. 

 We have 13 of his daughters on the 



Elace, all mature cows and all pure- 

 reds except one. These daughters of 

 Star will average pretty close to 500 



4 



SOMNER WILSON 

 "Records on each cow since 1926" 



pounds of butterfat in their 1938-'39 

 lactation period. The one grade daugh- 

 ter made 497.6 pounds of fat in 1937- 

 '38 and at the close of the present year 

 she will do approximately 560 pounds. 

 Our top 8 cows with average lactation 

 period of 326 days produced an aver- 

 age of 14,481 pounds of milk and 538 

 pounds of fat this past year." 



While good care and plenty of 

 wholesome feed is a routine practice 

 on this farm, the cows are not coddled 

 nor given fancy rations. Sumner fol- 

 lows the recommendations of his Dairy 

 Herd Improvement Association in 

 feeding. Corn or red clover silage, 

 alfalfa and clover hay, and a home 

 mixed ration of 400 lbs. corn and cob 

 meal, 100 lbs. oats, 100 lbs. braa and 

 100 lbs. cottonseed or soybean oilmeai 

 are all the cows get in addition to 

 warmed water. One pound of salt and 

 one pound of mineral mixture (bone 

 meal, ground limestone, etc.) are added 

 to 100 lbs. of the above grain ration 

 which tests about 14 per cent crude 

 protein. 



"When we changed from corn silage 

 to red clover silage (mixed with mo- 

 lasses when put in silo) the cows kept 

 right up with their milk flow," said 

 Wilson. "We Uke alfalfa hay a little 



IN THE MILKING PALACE 

 "22 Cows averaged I4J)63 lbs. oi Milk" 



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TWO MILKINGS A DAY BY MACHINE 

 "Red clover silage kept up the milk flow" 



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