December, 1931] Daiey Faeming in Gkafton County 



97 



f ers, at that time, the only practical method of getting better prices for 

 I milk was to produce more in winter. This always involves heavier 

 grain feeding. 



The cost of milk production declined consistently from an average 

 of $3.50 per hundredweight in the first group, with an average of 521 

 pounds of grain per cow, to $2.75 in next to the last group, with an 

 average of a little more than a ton of grain per cow. In the last group 

 for which grain averaged 2,689 pounds per cow, the cost of milk went 

 up to an average of $3.13 per hundredweight. There is an indication 

 here that the point of most economical feeding for this group of farms 

 had been exceeded. In the following table are sliowm the changes in 

 average amounts of grain and the resulting average milk production 

 from group to group of Table 86. For each of the 558 pounds of in- 

 creased grain in the last group of farms, an average of only 0.6 of a 

 pound of milk was obtained, but for each additional pound fed in the 

 second group as compared to the first, there was a response in milk 

 production of 1.7 pounds. Additional grain in the last group resulted 

 in onh- one-third as much increase in milk as in the second group and 

 only half as much as the average for all. 



This is an example of "diminishing returns." The more grain fed, 

 the more milk, but a decreasing amount of milk for each additional in- 

 crement of feed. AVhen milk is high priced and grain is cheap, rela- 

 tively large amounts of grain may be fed to cows of a given capacity ; 

 but when grain is dear and milk is cheap, less grain can profitably be 

 fed. 



The figures in Table 86 indicate that for the price conditions and 

 quality of cows found in Grafton County in 1929 one ton of grain per 

 cow on the average was about the limit of intensity in profitable feed- 

 ing. This docs not indicate, however, that a yield of 6,000 pounds of 

 milk per cow was necessarily the highest yield desirable or most eco- 

 nomical. There are other factors than grain feed that contribute to 

 better production such as breeding, selection of stock, disease control, 

 better balanced rations and other items of care and management. A 

 cow vcith inherent capacity to produc only 3,000 pounds of milk can- 

 not be corrected by feeding, but a cow endowed with natural ability 

 to furnish 10,000 pounds can be limited easily by poor feeding. 



