94 PRIMARY RESULTS 



foods and labour, &c., spent on them, and to bring them 

 into the dairy herd on calving at a valuation based on this 

 cost. The herd itself was valued at a fixed price per head 

 represented by this figure so that the fluctuations of the 

 market were eliminated and the capital value of the herd 

 became a matter of numbers only ; the cost of labour, 

 foods, and other expenses were recorded, and cows drafted 

 out of the herd on account of old age, or other cause, were 

 credited to the herd at the valuation figure. In this way 

 the net cost of the dairy herd was to be calculated, and from 

 it the cost of the milk was to be found with the aid of the 

 records of milk yields. 



This plan had speedily to be abandoned. It was found to 

 be impossible, in practice, to divide the stock into these 

 classes, and then to account accurately for them. Labour 

 could only be apportioned roughly, for it was difficult to 

 divide the men's time satisfactorily where dry cows and 

 young heifers were being tended indiscriminately, and where 

 calf -rearing and milk production were going on side by side. 

 Similarly, with the feeding, the difficulty of keeping the food 

 costs distinct in cases where there was little or no attempt 

 made to separate the stock for feeding purposes into the 

 classes appearing in the books was insuperable, and was still 

 further complicated by the practice of fattening off old 

 cows for the butcher a process which will begin while 

 the cow in still in milk, and defies all attempts on the part 

 of the farm accountant to distinguish between the food 

 which produces milk and that which produces meat. 



This plan was therefore abandoned, and on reviewing the 

 position it became obvious that the subdivision of the 

 stock thus attempted was quite unnecessary. Where milk- 

 production is the object of the management, both the raising 

 of the young stock and the fattening off of the old cows are 

 essential parts of the whole process. It is not necessary to 

 keep the cost of labour and foods expended on rearing 

 heifers to take their place in the herd separate from the 

 cost of maintaining the herd itself, neither is it necessary 

 to eliminate the cost of feeding off the old cows. Both of 

 these things contribute to the system of management for 



