16 GUIDE TO DAIRYING IN SOUTH AFRICA 



From personal investigations by the writer, 

 embracing a number of farms in different parts of 

 the Union, the cost of producing a gallon of milk 

 was found to range between \d. and 6d. per gallon. 

 A good many of these producers did not give their 

 cows any extra food over grass on the contention 

 that it did not pay ; others again believed in high 

 feeding as being a paying proposition both as 

 regards quantity and quality, but this is not alto- 

 gether borne out by facts in either case. Where 

 milk records are being worked for, high feeding 

 may pay ; but in such case the feeding has a double 

 object, and the conditions are not those of the 

 ordinary milk producer. The ordinary dairy cow 

 is not capable of being worked like a penny in the 

 slot machine on the principle that the more penny- 

 worths of food you put in the more gallons of milk 

 you take out. 



The law of diminishing returns holds good in 

 production of milk as in all other forms of pro- 

 duction, and a high yield may be obtained at a cost 

 which leaves no balance on the credit side, whilst 

 it might be possible to obtain a lower yield at a 

 lower expenditure and at a profit. 



The great aim in cost of production as regards 

 feeding must be to find out what we may call the 

 " economical maximum " per cow, and to keep her 

 at that. 



