56 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



■a profit above the cost of food and labor or not. If she is not, 

 learn why she is not; whether it is her lack of capacity to handle 

 enough food or whether she is not being properly fed and cared 

 for. 



When these points have been demonstrated we know what 

 to do. It is an important matter for us to know whether the 

 cows are being properly fed or not and if not to remedy it. It 

 is surprising to know that so many dairymen do not pay more 

 attention to and know more about this point. The question of 

 the capacity of the individual cow to do profitable work is not a 

 simple one to determine, but this requires no more business 

 ability than it does to make any other business profitable. The 

 profit is what is left after expenses are paid; the cow intelli- 

 gently handled, that leaves no balance to her credit after food 

 and labor are paid for, should be sold and one put in her place 

 that will leave a profit. 



There are herds of cows in the United States that average 

 400 pounds of butter annually per cow, and herds in nearly every 

 community of the Dairy Section that average 300 pounds annu- 

 ally. These 300 and 400 pound dairies should be object lessons 

 to other dairymen. What one dairyman or dairywoman has 

 done, another can do. 



We should all use the scale and Babcock test on each cow of 

 our herds. In this way we shall know what each cow is doing 

 and this is the only practical way of knowing. 



It is necessary that we know what it costs us to feed a cow a 

 year. To this add the cost of labor and then balance the ac- 

 count and see whether the balance is on the right side or not. 



I find it unprofitable to keep cows that do not produce above 

 200 pounds of butter annually. I might have 100 cows on my 

 farm that would produce 200 pounds of butter each annually, 

 and not make anything from the whole herd. We will put the 

 cost of feed at $30.00; labor at $10.00; interest, $2.50, and we 

 liave $42.50, from which we will deduct $10.00 for skim milk, 

 leaving $32.50. We will put the average net price for butter at 

 16 cents per pound and we find we must have 203 pounds of 

 l)utter before we have any profit for ourselves. 



