MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 91 



TABLE No. 40 

 PRODUCTION PER COW AND THE TOTAL MILK SUPPLY 



Production Number of Total Number Milk Sold Per Cent, of 



Per Cow. Cows in Group, of Cows. Wholesale. Total Milk Sold. 



4000 or under 160 6.9% 419,182 Qts. 3.0% 



4001 - 5000 294 12.7% 1,306,895 Qts. 9.3% 



5001 - 6000 483 20.9% 2,509,025 Qts. 17.8% 



6001 - 7000 637 27.5% 3,967,796 Qts. 28.2% 



7001 - 8000 336 14.5% 2,417,615 Qts. 17.2% 



8001-9000 259 11.2% 2,070,025 Qts. 14.7% 



Over 9000 145 6.3% 1,369,768 Qts. 9.7% 



From Table No. 40 it appears that 28.2 per cent, of all the milk 

 supply of Rochester is furnished by cows producing between 6,000 and 

 7,000 pounds of milk yearly and that this is the largest group both in 

 respect to farms and in respect to cows producing milk for Rochester. 



One of the influences which is a most important factor in the cost 

 of milk production and which has not received the recognition that it 

 deserves, is the number of cows in a dairy herd. The volume of milk 

 produced by each cow has been given an immense amount of study by 

 dairy colleges and dairy farmers. On the other hand, it has been com- 

 monly assumed that cows of small production would be unprofitable, re- 

 gardless of the number of such animals in a dairy herd. It must be 

 recognized that the "boarder" cows, or cows producing less milk than will 

 pay their expense, are always a loss. On the other hand, the number of 

 cows in a herd, by increasing the volume of milk produced, reduce to a 

 great extent the cost of the milk, correspondingly reduces the loss on 

 such boarder cows. The effect of the number of cows on the cost of 

 production is shown in Table No. 41 : 



TABLE No. 41 

 EFFECT OF NUMBER OF COWS ON COST OF PRODUCTION 



NUMBER OF Cows. Number Production COST OF PRODUCTION. 



Group. Average. of Farms. Per Cow. Per Cwt. Per Qt. 



Under 10 7.7 24 6,635 $5.22 $0.112 



10 - 14 11.9 44 6,846 4.41 - .095 



15 - 19 16.1 36 6,507 4.14 .089 



20 - 29 22.6 27 6,080 4.20 .090 



30 or over 41.6 10 5,682 3.47 .075 



From the above table it appears that there were 24 dairy farms hav- 

 ing herds averaging 7.7 cows, and that these individual cows produced 

 an average of 6,635 pounds per year at a cost of $5.22 per 100 pounds or 

 11.2 cents per quart. Contrasted with this, on 10 farms averaging 41.6 

 cows, producing only 5,882 pounds each, the cost of milk production was 

 only $3.47 per 100 pounds, or 7.5 cents per quart. 



The effect of the number of cows on labor, buildings and equipment 

 cost is shown in Table No. 42 : 



