Tony Van Cloester, southern IllinaU dairy 

 farmer, poses with his purebred Guernsey. 



HERMAN BUSS stood knee deep 

 in lush red top and blue grass 

 pasture. Across the fence his 

 dairy herd was almost lost from 

 view in a field of sweet clover 

 grown shoulder high in mid-June. 



"During the drought and depression 

 when I bouglit part of this farm for 

 |10 an acre 1 didn't think I could ever 

 build it back to grow pasture like 

 this,"' Buss said. 



Buss farms near Olney in southern 

 Illinois. His improved legume and 

 native pastures fit into a carefully 

 planned program. He is going heavier 

 into dairying. 



He believes dairying in southern Il- 

 linois has a profitable and promising 

 future. "I'll have my cows out on pas- 

 ture up to nine months a year and I 

 won't have as much tied up in land 

 and buildings," Buss explained. "I've 

 got it figured out that I'll be producing 

 milk cheaper than farmers north of 

 me, at least for the southern market." 



Herman Buss, along with his neigh- 

 bors, has a good local market for his 



milk. He sells to the Prairie Farms 

 Creamery at Olney. A sister coopera- 

 tive, the Prairie Farms Creamery at 

 Carbondale also serves southern Illi- 

 nois dairymen. 



This market for milk is not neces- 

 sarily confined to southern Illinois. 

 From Olney and Carbondale south to 

 the Gulf of Mexico there's a shortage 

 of fluid milk. To the west, St. Louis 

 is expanding its milk shed. 



Although they may be a Johnny- 

 come-lately in the fluid milk business, 

 southern Illinois dairymen are alert 

 to the need for producing a top qual- 

 ity product, particularly since large 

 grade A milk markets are near at hand. 



Earl Stage, a Prairie Farms patron 

 near Olney, has gone the whole way in 

 a quality program. An enthusiastic 

 dairyman. Stage plans to remodel his 

 barn and has already build a simple but 

 adequate milk house and equipped it 

 with a new electric milk cooler. 



Since the Olney cooperative pays 

 a 30 cents per hundred premium for 



Field chopper en Charles Piper farm ne<Hr 



Olney makes light woric ef harvesting com 



for ensilage, excellent winter roughage for 



dairy cewi. 



been a soybean and sudan grass mix- 

 ture. This was confirmed by Tony Van 

 Clooster who farms near Murphysboro. 



OF 



JonwhJww 



milk cooled electrically and stored in 

 a milk house of approved design. Stage 

 estimates his own quality program will 

 pay for itself in a fairly short time. 



Stage indicated that his milk house 

 could probably be built today for about 

 $250. Milk coolers, such as the one 

 Stage has installed, cost from $260 to 

 $400, depending on size. 



Dairy farmers have received strong 

 support from the University extension 

 services and county Farm Bureaus, par- 

 ticularly on pasture improvement. 



Farm Adviser W. C. Anderson of 

 Jackson county said that one of the 

 most popular summer pastures has 



Van Clooster said that last year he 

 pastured 22 cows on a 20-acre sudan 

 and soybean pasture for three sum- 

 mer months. His cows increased their 

 milk production when neighboring 

 herds were dropping oflf. 



Farm Adviser Ed Barnes, Richland county, 

 examines sweet clover field with Herman 

 Buss, farmer, and Roger Taylor, fieidman. 



Jacicson County Farm Adviser Anderson 

 ieolcs over sudan and soybean pasture with 

 Tony Van Clooster. Mixture is recom- 

 mended for summer postures. 



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SEPTEM 



