46 Milk and Its Products 



selection of their animals, they are no less useful to 

 him who keeps cows merely for the production of 

 milk, without regard to the productive value of their 

 posterity. It has been demonstrated many times that 

 in milk -producing herds where no records are kept 

 there will be found anywhere from one quarter to one- 

 half, and sometimes more, cows whose total production 

 is insufficient to pay for their feed and care, such 

 cows being kept at an actual loss to their owner, 

 and their deficiency covered up by the higher pro- 

 ducing animals. There are many herds, the total 

 production of which may be profitable to the owner, 

 in which from 10 to 25 per cent of the individual 

 cows are kept at a loss. The great reason for this 

 condition of affairs is the fact that even a careful 

 observer will fail to discriminate between a profitable 

 and unprofitable animal, unless an actual record of 

 the production of each animal is kept from day to 

 day. This is comparatively seldom done, especially 

 in herds maintained solely for milk production. But 

 such records may be kept at comparatively little 

 cost, even when the butter fat is determined, and 

 their cost will be returned many times over to the 

 owner if he acts upon the results of the records, 

 and discards from his herd those that are shown to 

 be unprofitable. As has already been stated, there is 

 no one thing which would result in more increase to 

 the prosperity of the dairy industry as a whole, and 

 more profit to the individual owner, than the general 

 keeping of records of production, and the weeding out 

 of the unprofitable animals, as shown by such records. 



