148 STARTING A DAIRY HERD 



year kept in a convenient place in the stable will be found highly 

 valuable and worth many times its cost. 



Permanent Records. — It is unwise to keep the permanent 

 records on scraps of paper or in pocket-sized books. 



A book of 200 pages, each page about five by twelve inches, 

 can be purchased for ten cents. Each page will hold the record 

 of thirty cows for a month. The names or numbers of the cows 

 should be written down the left margin of the left-hand page, 

 then ruled up as shown below. 



The names need not be written on the next page but it 

 should be ruled so that the outer third of the leaf may be cut 

 off, so that when turned it will just fit the names of the cows. 

 Then on this narrow page the next month may be ruled, and so on. 

 In this way one writing of the names will answer for a whole 

 year or longer. 



Herd Record for January, 1916 



Lbs. milk Estimate Test from Lbs. fat 



given in of milk composite per 



Name and No. of Cow three days per month sample month 



1. Bettie 60 600 3.5 21.00 



2. Carlton 48 480 3.7 17.76 



3. Clara 90 900 3.4 30.60 



4. Violet 21 210 4.6 9.66 



5. Fay etc. ... ... .... 



Dairy Testing Associations. — In 1905 the first cooperative 

 association in the United States of America for the testing of 

 cows was organized in Michigan. The idea and the individual 

 organizing the first in the United States came from Denmark. 

 The plan is that twenty-five farmers join their interests in the 

 matter of testing and calculating dairy rations. In sections 

 of the country where herds are comparatively large one dollar 

 per cow per year furnishes money enough to run the association. 

 In the middle west dairy herds are smaller on the average, 

 and $1.25 to $1.50 per cow per year is necessary, since only 

 those cows belonging to approximately twenty-five farmers can 

 be tested. The system is to employ a competent young man, 

 usually a graduate of a school of agriculture, or a short course, 



