THE COW VS. THE STEER 5 



twenty-nine per cent of what she consumes, while the flesh- 

 forming animal, the steer, and in all likelihood the fattening 

 cow as well, retains as flesh scarcely fourteen per cent. That is 

 to say, that for every 100 units of digestible feed consumed by 

 the normal cow, 29 will be recovered in the milk and 71 lost in 

 the process of transforming, while for every 100 units fed to a 

 steer but 14 will be returned to man as edible flesh and 86 will 

 be lost. 



Fia. 1. — Belle — twenty-two and one-half year old Holstein cow still yielding 40 pounds 

 milk per day. She has had twenty-one strong calves. She had strong twins at the age of 

 21 years. During this period she has produced about 200,000 pounds milk, containing fully 

 25,000 pounds of solid food. She has been fed on corn silage, clover hay, roots, corn, oats 

 and oil meal. Property Washburn Children's Home, Minneapolis, Minn. Photo by the 

 author. 



A cow that yields 6000 pounds of 5 per cent milk in one 

 year will yield 900 pounds of food solids or 2.46 pounds per day, 

 which is as much as can be expected in gross gain, bone, blood, 

 water in tissue, and all, in the steer. A cow that produces 

 12,000 pounds of milk testing about 3.25 per cent fat and about 

 12 per cent total solids will produce 1440 pounds of food, or 

 nearly 4.0 pounds per day. 



If comparison be made with one of the modern high-produc- 

 ing Holsteins such, for instance, as Lady Oak Fobes De Kol of 

 the Minnesota Station, we find, as pointed out by Professor 

 Haecker, that the 22,063.5 pounds of milk that she yielded in 



