140 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



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' The Inevitable Issue. 



The great fundamental hub of dairy farming on high- 

 priced land where practically all is tillable, is the amount 

 of milk and butterfat produced per acre when this is done 

 in an economical manner. There are two parts to this: 

 first, the production of crops that furnish the largest amount 

 of digestible nutrients per acre and that form a palatable, 

 well balanced ration for dairy cows, which hinges upon the 

 selection of the kind of crops and the proper tillage and har- 

 vesting of these so as to get the greatest possible use of the 

 soil ; second, efficient production of the cow which usually 

 means high production because efficiency in dairy cows is 

 determined very largely by the capacity of the cow to con- 

 sume feed above maintenance and convert it into milk. 



Not simply the most per acre bat the most per acre and 

 per man — the highest economic production — is the inevita- 

 ble goal of dairy farming. There are no conditions under 

 which that does not apply, and never will be. It may be 

 wise or necessary at times to decrease the total amount of 

 the production of a commodity to agree with the demand, 

 but never to grow less per acre vhen there is more profit 

 in a larger yield. The very reason for decreasing the out- 

 put in such cases is identical with the ever present reason 

 for the greatest economy of production — greater clearer 

 profit. 



/ Corn and Alfalfa. 



The great benefits of corn and alfalfa, as proven in the 

 Milk Per Acre demonstration for six years at the University 

 of Illinois, were not alone in the nigh yield, but also in the 

 fact that alfalfa balances corn wtich is low in essential pro- 

 tein and minerals for a dairy cow giving a good flow of milk. 

 Corn silage and alfalfa hay alone, without grain, are well 

 balanced and quite suitable for a cow's ration and very 

 efficient for cows producing no more than 25 pounds of 

 rqilk, as this demonstration has shown. In fact, where good 

 a/ifalfa hay is fed, there is an excess of protein, and corn 

 i;ieal may be added in any quaitity up to 12 pounds and this 

 tation still will be in balance. 



