CHAPTER XV 

 CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY CATTLE 



The Cattle to Keep for the Dairy. — The dairy breeds of 

 cattle have been improved by the selection of breeding stock 

 from the best producing families. The farmer who engages 

 in the milk producing business will save time by buying 

 representative cows of dairy breeds, or cows that give evi- 

 dences of dairy breeding. A good pure-bred sire of one of 

 the dairy breeds should be selected to head this herd. In 

 improving the herd, records obtained by weighing and 

 testing the milk of the individual cows of the herd should be 

 studied for the purpose of eliminating the poor cows. 



The Advantages of Dairying. — As already stated, the 

 dairy cow is the most economical producer of human food 

 from the coarse materials raised upon the farm. For ex- 

 ample, the cow, Missouri Chief Josephine, in a period 

 of twelvemonths gave 26,861.0 pounds of milk, containing 

 740.5 pounds of fat. The total solids in her milk weighed 

 3330 pounds, consisting of 740.5 pounds of fat, 815 pounds 

 of protein material, 1579 pounds of milk sugar, and 195 

 pounds of ash material. All of this was human food. A 

 steer weighing 1250 pounds was found to contain in its body 

 548 pounds of dry matter, which included not only the edible 

 portions but also a great deal of bone and other refuse. Of 

 the dry matter in the body of the steer ^;^:^ pounds was fat, 

 172 pounds was protein, and 43 pounds was ash material. 



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