CHAPTER XXVI 

 FACTORS INFLUENCING MILK PRODUCTION 



The dairy cow as a producer of food occupies a very high 

 place in animal economy. As a producer of meat she is of 

 secondary importance, but her milk furnishes the most easily 

 digested food and, under fair conditions, she returns in it 

 a pound of nutriment at less cost than comes from an equal 



Figure 127. The dairy cow as a producer of food. This cow made nearly 

 20,000 pounds of milk in a year. Photograph by the author. 



amount of food from beef cattle, sheep, or swine. This fact 

 has been brought out in an interesting way by Dr. C. H. 

 Eckles, in his feeding experiments at the Missouri 

 Experiment Station.* A comparison was made of the milk 

 produced by a Holstein-Friesian cow in a year and the car- 

 cass of a fat steer weighing 1,250 pounds. The cow gave 



*Darry Cattle and Milk Production, 1911. 



300 



