6 DAIRY COW AS A PRODUCER OF HUMAN FOOD 



one year contained the food equivalent of five steers weighing 

 1100 each, and that every three days she yielded food equivalent 

 to a veal calf weighing 175 pounds. If comparison be made 

 with the product of the noted Guernsey cow, May Rilma 

 (Fig. 2), we find that the food contained in her milk for her best 

 year equalled that in thirty steers weighing 500 pounds each or 

 five steers weighing 1500 pounds each. 



The world's champion cow of all breeds in butter production 

 in a year, viz., Duchess Skylark Ormsby, in yielding 27,761.7 

 pounds of milk, testing 4.34 per cent fat and about 13.25 per 

 cent total solids, produced 3678.4 pounds of solids. Computing 



Rilma — the Guernsey cow that produced the food equivalent to five 1500 

 pound steers in one year. .Photo by J. F. Kelley. 



this on the basis of the total starch equivalent (fat by 2.25, plus 

 protein, plus carbohydrate) we find that each 100 pounds of 

 milk equalled 18.G5 pounds of starch or, better, wheat flour, 

 and that the total " wheat flour " value of the milk solids was 

 5177.5 pounds or more than 2^2 tons. At a yield of 15 bushels 

 of wheat to the acre, more than 8 acres would be required to 



