230 MANUAL OF FABM ANIMALS 



present, many dairy herds possess cattle producing at a loss — 

 not yielding sufficient milk to pay for the food consumed — 

 yet in the absence of accurate records the fact goes unobserved 

 and the owner does not know the profitable from the unprofit- 

 able animals. No person is able to go into a herd of ten cows 

 and pick out all the best by examination. Records are abso- 

 lutely necessary to determine profit and loss. 



Method of keeping records. — ■ Records are more easily kept 

 than is generally supposed. The time and cost of keeping a 

 record of the amount of milk and butter-fat yielded by each 

 cow is quite insignificant, especially when compared with the 

 value of such records. The materials needed are a pair of scales, 

 a hand Babcock tester with outfit, and a blank milk-sheet. 

 The scale should be graduated to tenths of a pound instead of 

 ounces, as the records are much more easily added. Chatillon's 

 Improved Circular Spring Balances are ordinarily used. 

 The scales should be hung in a convenient place and each 

 cow's milk weighed separately and set down on a Record- 

 Sheet, similar to table on p. 231. 



Once each month the milk from each cow should be tested 

 for the percentage of butter-fat. To do this, one should take a 

 careful sample of the milk for two successive days. The sample 

 need not be large, but the quantity should be in proportion 

 to the flow. One-half pint saved from the two days' milk- 

 ing is sufficient. This should be placed in a jar and covered 

 to prevent evaporation. In warm weather it is necessary to 

 put some sort of preservative into the milk, otherwise it will 

 sour, and in that case cannot be tested. For each cow there 

 should be a jar with her name pasted upon it, thus avoiding any 

 possibility of getting the samples mixed. By placing the per- 

 centage of fat thus obtained on the record-sheet beneath the 

 flow, one has a complete record of each animal each month. By 

 multiplying the total milk by the per cent of fat, one gets the 

 total amount of fat. This completes the record for the month. 



