CHAPTER IX. 



METHOD OF KEEPING RECORDS OF INDIVIDUAL, COWS. 



Necessity of Keeping Records. Through the efforts 

 of experiment stations, private individuals, and Hoard's 

 Dairyman in particular, tests have been made of hundreds 

 of herds throughout the country, only to find that in 

 practically all of them some cows are kept at an actual 

 loss to their owners. The failure on the part of the 

 owners to detect the unprofitable cows may be traced 

 to three causes : ( i ) it may be the result of reckoning 

 with the herd as a whole, rather than the individual 

 members composing it; (2) it may be the result of ignor- 

 ing the quality of the milk; or (3) it may be due to 

 attempts to estimate the value of the individual members 

 by guessing at the flow of milk for a week or two when 

 the cows are doing their best. 



The lack of business method in reckoning with the 

 herd as a whole, rather than with the individuals com- 

 posing it, is too apparent to need further explanation. 

 The same may be said with reference to the practice 

 of ignoring the quality of the milk. Where the owner 

 guesses the annual yield from the. quantity of milk pro- 

 duced for a week or two during the lactation period, 

 he is likely to err in three important respects : ( i ) 

 guessing in itself is bound to lead more or less frequently 

 to grossly erroneous estimates; (2) yearly estimates based 

 upon a few weeks' production ignore the fact that some 

 cows yield milk eleven or twelve months of the year, 



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