COST OF MILK PRODUCTION. 



BY PROF. FRED RASMUSSEN. 



No manufactured article will for any length of time be 

 sold below the cost of manufacture. Milk is a manufactured 

 article, being manufactured or produced by the dairy farmer. 

 For several years great quantities of milk have been sold 

 by the farmer below the cost of production, which fact 

 accounts for the unsatisfactory dairy condition existing to- 

 day in many sections of Massachusetts and other New Eng- 

 land States. Because it proved unprofitable, not one but 

 hundreds of dairy farmers have discontinued the production 

 of milk. 



A farm is in some respects like a department store, in 

 which, unless accurate accounts are kept, one department 

 often pays the deficit of another. Farm operations are very 

 closely interrelated and nearly always merge into one an- 

 other. Only people who have tried to keep records know 

 what a difficult problem it is to keep even approximately 

 accurate records of all work and transactions on the farm. 

 This fact as much as any other is responsible for the 

 universal lack of comprehensive records to be found on 

 farms. 



The New Hampshire Experiment Station has for the last 

 two years studied the cost of milk production in the State 

 of New Hampshire, and has been able to obtain, through 

 the records of the Lyndeboro Cow Test Association, figures 

 on the cost of production in the section covered by this 

 association. Complete records have been kept of 326 cows 

 distributed in 26 different herds. The amount of milk and 

 butter fat produced, and the cost of feed consumed, by 

 these cows are known. Estimates of cost of buildings and 



