TESTED DAIRY ANIMALS SOUTH DAKOTA. 277 



SOUTH DAKOTA. 

 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION AT BROOKINGS. 



REPORT BY A. H. WHEATON, DAIRYMAN OF THE STATION. 



We have no cows on the college farm at present from which to quote 

 records, so the best I can do is to send a report of our herd as tested in the 

 year from January 1, 1893, to January 1, 1894. The milk was weighed 

 from each cow at each milking and an accurate account kept of same for 

 the entire period. 



The whole herd have been kept on prairie grass for pasturage, but were 

 fed some fodder corn when grass began to get short from drouth. While 

 on grass they were not fed grain except, perhaps, a pint each of bran and 

 shorts night and morning as an inducement for them to take their places 

 in the stable to be milked. 



In winter they were fed on fodder corn and millet for hay, and when we 

 had it, ten pounds of bran and shorts to each cow per day, and when the 

 days were warm enough not to freeze, they were allowed to run in the yard 

 and to ricks of fresh straw. But when the weather would not permit of 

 outdoor exercise they were fed straw at noon in the stable, which seemed 

 to be highly relished by them. The stables are in a basemept where tfye 

 temperature is easily kept above freezing. No hay was fed them during the 

 winter. These cows have not been crowded in any way, the object being 

 to keep them as nearly as possible as a good, prudent dairy farmer should 

 keep cows in Dakota, and the figures given in the table below are not in- 

 tended to show the best possible results obtainable, but to show the prac- 

 tical results of keeping a herd of good dairy cows as any ordinary farmer can 

 keep them if he will. The writer believes that he is thoroughly acquainted 

 with the conditions surrounding the average farmer in this state and be- 

 lieves it to be the duty of this department to try those experiments first 

 which may be of the most practical benefit to him, and most easily reached 

 by him, with the means he may have at his command, with as little extra 

 outlay as possible. 



Following is a brief report of seven of the best cows in the herd. 

 Only those that produced above 300 pounds butter in the year are here 

 listed. 



AMERICA 1. Shorthorn, roan in color, six years old; came fresh in 

 May. Produced 8,066.09 pounds milk, test 4%, making 403.3 pounds 

 butter. 



