Il8 THE BUSINESS OF DAIRYING 



COW in your herd is giving you." Every dairyman 

 ought to take advantage of this splendid opportunity 

 of having so much of the business end of his work 

 figured out for him at so nominal a cost. State 

 experiment stations, State dairy associations, and 

 State dairy and food departments often give valuable 

 assistance in organizing cow test associations. 



Results. — Cow test associations have had a tre- 

 mendous influence in improving dairy herds, par- 

 ticularly in Denmark, where the first association 

 was organized in 1895. In 1884 the average yield of 

 butter fat per cow annually in that country was 

 about 100 pounds and in 1903 it had increased to 

 212 pounds, or over 100 per cent., and largely 

 through the influence of 425 cow test associations. 

 Scores of associations have now been organized in 

 this country, the first one being in Fremont, 

 Michigan. 



To give one illustration of the difiference found in 

 the profits returned by individual cows through 

 these associations : The best cow in one herd re- 

 turned to the owner $2.29 for each one dollar's worth 

 of feed and the poorest cow returned but 54 cents for 

 each dollar's worth of feed, or, considering that the 

 skim milk, calf and manure offset the labor, this cow 

 was losing for the dairyman 46 cents for every dol- 

 lar's worth of feed she ate. We must study dairying 

 as a business proposition. It is not the size of the 

 cow, or the breed, or the color or the pedigree, or 

 the yield that we want to know, it is the economical 

 production. How much profit is there after the bills 

 ^re paid? 



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