34 BULLETIN 501^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The feed cost on these farms seems to approximate 50 per cent of the 

 total cost of keeping a cow where the cows depended on pasture with 

 little or no grain during the pasture season; whereas, feed cost 

 approximated 60 per cent on the farms where the pasture is limited 

 and a grain ration is fed throughout the year. 



Labor, the second important item in the cost of producing milk, 

 amounted to approximately one-fourth of the total cost of keeping 

 •a cow. 



All other items, including charges for shelter, use of equipment, 

 use of bull, interest, depreciation, miscellaneous supplies, and a 

 share of overhead expenses, amounted to approximately one-fourth 

 the total cost of keeping a cow. The credits other than milk, mclud- 

 ing the value of calf, manure, and minor items, did not equal the 

 miscellaneous costs other than feed and labor. 



Though it cost more to keep a cow that gives a high yield than 

 one giving a low yield, the unit cost of the milk produced fell as the 

 yield per cow rose. This decrease in the cost of milk per pound was 

 much greater in the step from the poor cow to the cow of fair quality 

 than in the step from the fairly efficient cow to the good cow or to the 

 exceptional cow. Thus, from the standpoint of economic milk pro- 

 duction, it appears that the first step in building up a poor dairy 

 herd (that is, replacing scrubs with grades) is not merely the easiest 

 step but also the one which promises the most for a given expenditure 

 of money and labor. 



The actual cost of keeping the cows varied from year to year on 

 the different farms as well as on the same farm, yet the ratio between 

 each item and the total cost was apparently quite uniform where a 

 similar method of management was followed. 



LITERATURE CITED. 



(a) Rasmussen, Fred. 



1913. Cost of milk production. N. H. Col. and Exp. Sta. Ext. Bui. 2. 



(6) LlNDSEY, J. B. 



1913. Record of the station dairy herd and the cost of rcilk production. Mass. 



Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 145. 

 (c) Trxjeman, J. M. 



1912. Records of a dairy herd for five years. Conn. (Storrs) Agr. Exp. Sta. 



Bui. 73. 

 ((f) Warren, G. F. 



1914. Some important factors for success in general farming and in dairy farm- 



ing. N. Y. Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 349; Reasons for larger profits 

 on diversified farms, pp. 691-693. 

 (e) Haecker, T. L. 



1913. Feeding dairy cows. Minn. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 130, p. 37. 

 (/) Frandsen, J. n., and Haecker, A. L. 



1914. Dairy herd records for fourteen years. Nebr. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 139. 

 (g) Spillman, W. J., Dixon, H. M., and Billings, G. A. 



1916. Farm management practice of Chester County, Pa. U. S. Dept. Agr. 

 Bui. 341. 



