ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 33 



fit of but $1.74 per cow per year. The average cow of the best 

 herd is worth more than 24 cows of the kind that forms the poor- 

 est three herds. The writer knows three other dairy herds the 

 milk returns of which show a profit of but 62 cents per cow for 

 the year. While in the same neighborhood are three herds the 

 milk of which averaged a profit of $60.94 per cow. One cow 

 of this kind equals 96 cows of the other three herds. And in 

 another locality the same kind of a contrast came to the writer's 

 attention. 



A little pondering of these divergent cow paths may help 

 the dairyman to make a good turn for himself — turn on the 

 light of the scales and the test — turn off the poor cows to the 

 butcher — and turn all his attention to the high producing cows 

 that make a specialty of turning feed into milk and money. It 

 all depends on which path the cows take — and which cows the 

 dairyman takes. 



The profitless cow is a real and living issue and a large one 

 in dairying for bread and butter. One of the greatest and 

 easiest steps of improvement in the dairy business today is to 

 discover and weed out these poor cows. Isn't it time to stop 

 guessing at these vital elements in the profit of the dairy busi- 

 ness and to find out for sure — by weighing and testing the miiK 

 — what each individual cow is earning for the owiier. 



We all know there is a difference in dairy herds as well as 

 in individual cows. But do we clearly understand that some 

 Illinois herds do not pay for the feed given them? That other 

 herds pay too small a margin of profit to justify the investment 

 in money and labor? And that still other herds are making 

 their owners big money? When we realize this it is easy to see 

 how profit can be doubled. Do dairymen in general know that 

 these differences rest on plain causes that may be readily under- 

 stood, and that a change from the poor herd to the highly profita- 

 ble herd is a comparatively easy matter, within the reach of any 

 farmer who is able to keep cows at all ? 



Ten years' observation of Illinois dairy herds and the in- 

 dividual testing of more than 800 cows in forty herds, has given 



