THE FARMERS' MONTHLY, OCTOBER, 1928 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 



Allen S. Leland, County Agent 

 Mary Pozzi, Home Demonstration Agent 

 Harold W. Eastman, County Club Agent 

 Nora Foley, Clerk 



Office at 184 Main St., 

 Northampton, Mass. 



Entered as second class matter Nov. 9, 

 1915, at the Post Office at Northampton, 

 Massachusetts, under the Act of March 

 8. 1879. 



"Notice of Entry" 



"Acceptance for mailing at special rates 

 of postage provided for in section 1103, 

 Act of October 3, 1917. Authorized Oc- 

 tober 31, 1917. 



Price, 50 cents a year 



Officers of the Trustees 



Charles W. Wade, President 

 Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Vice-President 

 Warren M. King, Treasurer 

 Allen S. Leland, Secretary 



Trustees for County Aid 



to Agriculture 



Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 

 Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 Edwin B. Clapp, Easthampton 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Northampton 

 Milton S. Howes, Cummington 

 W. H. Atkins, Amherst 

 L. L. Campbell, Northampton 



Is C. T. A. Membership Profitable? 



As county agent, of course, I believe 

 that membership in the cow testing asso- 

 ciation does bring actual financial returns 

 to the members but I am indebted to the 

 Holstein Friesian World for the following 

 facts which substantiate that belief. 



J. H. Brock, assistant in dairy exten- 

 sion at the College of Agriculture, Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, reports on the return 

 from 4,920 cows in cow testing association 

 work in that state. Differences as great 

 as fifty-one cents a day in returns which 

 the different cows pay their owners over 

 and above cost of feed have been dis- 

 covered. The cows in the highest produc- 

 ing group averaged 496.1 lbs. fat for the 

 year and returned their owners $213 

 above the cost of feed. In contrast, cows 

 in the lowest producing group made an 

 average of only 121.4 lbs. fat and paid 

 returns above cost of feed of $26.07 each. 

 The third class of cows about midway be- 

 tween the best and poorest, averaged 297.6 

 lbs, for the year and returned $113.13 

 more than their feed cost for a year. Mr. 

 Brock points out that, it would take 

 eighty-two cows in the poorest group to 



produce an annual return above feed cost 

 equivalent to the earnings of ten of the 

 cows in the highest producing group and 

 that ten of these very best cows were 

 equivalent to nineteen of the medium cows. 

 Sam H. Greene, secretary of the Cali- 

 fornia Dairy Council, estimates that cow 

 testing associations in that state have an 

 annual value of millions of dollars to 

 their dairy farmers of California. He 

 points to one county in that state which 

 during a period of five years increased its 

 milk and fat production over one million 

 pounds with an increase of only twenty- 

 seven in the total of cows — a remarkable 

 increase in efl!iciency directly traceable to 

 the information gained on the work of the 

 individual cows through the cow testing 

 association. 



C. E. Gordon, dairy extension specialist 

 at the University of California, relates 

 an incident of one breeder in Los Angeles 

 County who joined a cow te.sting associa- 

 tion in May 1927. At that time he was 

 milking seventy-two cows which produced 

 a total of 1,556 lbs. butterfat during the 

 month. The owner set about to cull out 

 his low producing cows and about six 

 months later he was milking forty-seven 

 cows which he was feeding according to 

 production and which produced a total of 

 1,655 for the month. Aside from getting 

 99 lbs. more of fat from 25 less cows, he 

 also got 6,000 lbs. more milk. It al.so 

 took one man less to milk the smaller 

 number of cows, which saved this owner 

 $125 per month. He also saved the feed 

 of twenty-five cows which would amount 

 to about $400 a month at the current 

 prices of feed in that section. Adding 

 these savings to the increased production 

 of milk and fat, he makes a saving of 

 approximately $600 per month as a direct 

 result of knowing which each individual 

 cow is producing. 



That >ear after year testing pays is 

 the conclusion of the Illinois College 

 which has compiled some figures on the 

 averages of herds that have been in the 

 cow testing association work one, two and 

 three or more years. Herds that had 

 been on test constantly for three or more 

 years averaged $26.26 more per cow above 

 feed cost than did those herds which had 

 been only one year in the cow testing 

 work, while the average of those herds 

 that had been tested for two years was 

 $10.61 per cow greater earnings above 

 feed co.st than those which had been tested 

 for but a single year. 



Hand in hand with testing goes more 

 intelligent feeding, better breeding meth- 

 ods and a generally increased interest in 

 the dairy herd as a business proposition. 



Testing pays also from the standpoint 

 of added value for surplus breeding stock 

 backed by known production. 



POULTRY ACCOUNT BOOK 



IS AVAILABLE 



The Extension Service office has a sup- 

 ply of poultry account books which are 

 available to any poultrymen at thirty-five 

 cents each. All poultrymen entered in 

 the state wide egg production contest are 

 using these books and finding them satis- 

 factory. 



The accounts are very simple and easy 

 to keep, yet they are complete and will 

 give any poultryman an accurate idea of 

 just where he stands financially in his 

 poultry business. 



The county agent will be glad to send 

 one of these books to anyone upon receipt 

 of thirty-five cents which covers only the 

 actual cost of printing. 



Poultry Conference at M. A. C. 



. Continued from page 1, column 3 

 The Poultry Breeders' Conference will 

 deal with the genetic aspects of breeding; 

 in other words, the inheritance of desired 

 characters. The three classes of people 

 who will be interested in this school are: 



1. The breeders of standard-bred poul- 

 try who will want to know more about the 

 scientific aspects of their breeding pro- 

 blems, and how to correlate the production 

 factors with standard qualities. In turn 

 they will contribute to the others a better 

 appreciation and understanding of the 

 value of standard characteristics. 



2. The commercial production breeders 

 who are anxious for a more thorough in- 

 sight in the principles and theories of in- 

 heritance of factors governing production, 

 a thorough knowledge of simplified meth- 

 ods of pedigree breeding, and how best 

 they can improve their flocks along stan- 

 dard lines. 



3. The professional and scientific men 

 will get a close-up, first-hand view of the 

 breeding problems that are confronting 

 the poultrymen which will surely contri- 

 bute to the efficiency of their work. 



We hope, declares Professor Graham, 

 that these men will be able to clear up 

 some of the haziness that surrounds many 

 of the problems in both standard and pro- 

 duction breeding. 



Instructors in this school will be drawn 

 from the three classes mentioned above, 

 and each will be selected because of his 

 outstanding success in the subject he pre- 

 sents. 



A complete program will be ready by 

 October 15. 



The Duck: "I take off my hat to our 

 rooster. He's crowed about 

 himself until they've put his 

 statue up on the barn. It 

 pays to advertise." 



— Judge. 



