for 70 cents a pound, there appears to be a loss to the farmers of the last two 

 groups. They certainly did not make their farms so profitable as to return them 

 a wage as high as $80.00 per month, the wage allowed in the calculation. They 

 were forced to take a wage below $80.00 per month, in proportion to the degree 

 of loss sustained per pound of butter-fat and the number of pounds of butter-fat 

 sold. 



THE EFFECT OF THE PURE-BRED SIRE AND OF EFFICIENT FEEDING 

 ON THE COST OF PRODUCING BUTTER-FAT. 



Table No. 20. 



The pure-bred sire took a prominent part in the reduction of the cost of 

 producing butter-fat, as is set forth in Table No. 20; two-thirds of the farmers 

 in the group which produced at lowest cost had used a pure-bred sire five years 

 and over. The farmers who produced at greater cost were not so careful in 

 regard to the breeding of the herd. So important is the factor of breeding that 

 dairymen cannot afford to take a chance on using sires that are no better than 

 the cows of the herd. It does not necessarily follow, however, just because the 

 pure-bred sire has been used, that low production costs will result, since the two 

 latter groups of farms had a number of pure-bred sires in use, and still produced 

 at a loss. It is not enough that the sire be pure-bred. He must come of stock 

 that is of high production on both his sire's and dam's side. One cannot expect 

 any sire to transmit high production to his herd unless he himself belongs to a 

 family of high producers. Table No. 20 brings out the fact that those farmers 

 who produced at lowest cost achieved greatest efficiency in their feeding opera- 

 tions. The first group used 16.6 total digestible nutrients to produce a pound 

 of butter-fat, while the other farmers did not feed so economically. The number 

 of total digestible nutrients fed per pound of butter-fat sold increased, as did the 

 cost of production. The improved breeding of the cows, which resulted from the 

 use of pure-bred sires, made it possible for the farmer to get greater efficiency 

 from the feed supplied to the cows, 



THE EFFECT OF THE AMOUNT OF FARM BUSINESS ON COST OF 

 PRODUCING BUTTER-FAT. 



Table No. 21. 



In order to produce any article economically, one must develop a business 

 of considerable proportions. Furthermore, if the machinery does not operate up 

 to capacity, there results a certain loss due to overhead charges. In Table No. 

 21 it will be seen that the group having the greatest number of tillable acres 

 per farm produced most economically. The other two groups had smaller returns, 

 as one would expect, from their smaller acreage. In the matter of receipts per 



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