SELECTION OF COWS. 



BY C. P. GOODRICH, DAIRYMAN. 



Fort Atkinson, Wis. 



The men who attain the highest success in any business always use the 

 implements or machines that are best adapted to their business. 



The farmer who makes milk production his business is a dairyman, and 

 he needs the best of dairy cows. The best dairy cows are those that will 

 return the most value of milk for the food consumed. The dairy cow is a 

 machine for converting the forage raised on the farm and perhaps other 

 foods into money by producing milk, butter and cheese. 



For the patron of a creamery or maker of dairy butter the best cow is 

 the one that will produce the most butterfat in a year for a given amount of 

 feed. It is the same with the patron of a cheese factory. 



SELECTING FROM ONE'S OWN HERD. 



For the farmer who has a herd of cows, perhaps a sufficient number to 

 stock his farm, his "selection" should commence with his own herd by weed- 

 ing out and disposing of his poorest ones. 



Many farmers, and, in fact most of them, who are keeping cows have 

 some individuals in their herds that do not pay for their feed, and the owner 

 does not know it. He has not taken the means to select out those of his 

 herd that do pay a profit from those that do not. 



A cow has to be fed a year for which she returns us what milk she gives 

 in a year. The only way to tell how well she pays us is to weigh her milk 

 every milking, or, at least, at frequent intervals, and test it with the Bab- 

 cock test and find out how much butterfat she produces in a year. 



Some may think this involves a great deal of labor, but, with things 

 properly arranged, it requires but very little time. With a milk-sheet prop- 

 erly ruled, and with the names or numbers of the cows, together with the 

 days of the month, placed on it, and a pencil hanging to a string, and a 

 spring balance, all conveniently located in the stable where the milking is 

 done, the milkers will be able to record the amount of milk each cow gives 

 at every milking with the expenditure of but a few seconds of time at each 

 milking. Each sheet can be made but for one month. At the end of the 



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