DAIRY HERD 129 



course, so as not to chill her internal organs and so cut down milk pro- 

 duction. You've noticed, haven't you, that a cow will drink a good deal 

 more water when it is comfortably warm, and always before her? 



HELP THE The dairy animal is one with large drains upon her 



DAIRY BEAUTY powers. Every year conditions for dairy herds be- 

 TO DO HER BEST come more and more unnatural. Best care and feed- 

 ing are the first need for the dairy herd; but an oc- 

 casional tonic is actually demanded. Conkey's Stock Tonic should be 

 given a half tablespoonful in the feed twice a day not continuously but 

 from time to time, as a tonic and alterant. If ailing, a dairy cow should 

 have one full tablespoonful once a day. It will tone up the capillaries of 

 the system, increase the intestinal secretions, rid the digestive tract of 

 worms. Its action on the circulation, through tightening the walls of the 

 blood vessels, is another important factor and helps to counteract the bad 

 effects of little exercise, from which the dairy animal is almost sure to 

 suffer. 



THE MILK PAIL TEST It's cheaper to raise your dairy calf than to buy 



a satisfactory cow. If a cow is extra good she 



usually is not for sale not if her owner knows it. When you have selected 

 your dairy cow watch her, with an encouraging but suspicious eye. She 

 may be fooling you. She may have all the good dairy conformation and 

 show a good appetite, and still fail at the milk pail. 



"PROVING" Know what each cow is doing. If you don't know what each 

 A COW cow is doing, you don't know what you are doing. Only 



actual figures for weighing and testing will show you. 



HOW A COW Weigh each cow's milk for three days each month and 



"MAKES GOOD" multiply the sum by 10 to give the monthly average. 



Put it down in black and white every month for the 



full twelve months in the year. Add the total. If it shows less than 5,000 

 Ibs. for a year's work, and you've given good care, then that cow is a 

 swindler, imposing on you for her daily feed. In all fairness, if she is a cow 

 of good type and receiving good care in short, if she is a "good cow" she 

 ought to show 6,000 Ibs. of milk at the end of the year, which is 2,800 quarts. 

 She should also show a test average of 3.5 to 4 per cent butter-fat. 



WEIGHT There you are weight and test. Both are needed. Some 

 VS. TEST farmers think they have a good cow, just because she has a 

 good yield. The barns are full of cows that test 3%; but it 

 takes just twice as much 3% milk to make a pound of butter as it does 6% 

 milk. Another thing, don't figure a milk yield on anything but a yearly 

 basis. Your feed bill and operating expenses are on a yearly basis, aren't 

 they? Keep a cheerful but suspicious eye on the milk sheet. Some cows, 

 like humans, are "four flushers." Don't be fooled by a big show of produc- 

 tion that doesn't hold out. Get rid of Bossy if she milks heavily for just 

 five or six months and then goes dry in spite of care and feed. 



Weighing milk keeps you right in touch with the herd's condition. If 

 there is any shrinkage you can find out at once just where the trouble is 

 whether with the milkers or with the feed, or with an individual cow. 

 Your milk sheet is the surest gauge of your feeding system and what it's 

 doing for you. 



