THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 3S5 



• 11. The average barn for a herd of 40 cows is worth 

 $2,000, or $50 per cow. The interest on this, per cow, would 

 amount to $2.50 a year, and taxes, insurance, repairs and depre" 

 ciation will amount to $1.50 a year, making a total cost per cow 

 for buildings and their maintenance of $4 per year. 



12. The total annual expense of keping a good pure-bred 

 sire, including feed, care and depreciation is $75. In a herd of 

 40 cows, $2 per cow must be allowed annually, to have each calf 

 sired by a pure-bred.* Since this amount is so small, every 

 dairyman should keep a good pure-bred sire, even though he has 

 but a small number of good cows in his herd. 



13. On the average, cows will be kept in dairy herds for 

 six years, therefore the annual depreciation on the cow is figured 

 as one-sixth of the difference between the value at the time of 

 first freshening and the value when disposed of. To this must 

 be added the interest on the value of the cow each year. 



14. Spraying materials, medicine and veterinary service 

 are estimated at 10 cents per 1,000 pounds of milk produced. 

 While the relative increase is rapid, it is true that the large pro- 

 ducers are the ones requiring more medical attention, and cows 

 producing only 2,000 or 3,000 pounds of milk in a year need little, 

 if any, of this expenditure. 



15. The expense for dairy utensils, if the milk is taken to a 

 condensing factory, bottling plant, or creamery, should be about 

 90 cents for a cow producing 8,000 pounds of milk. If the milk 

 is separated on the farm, fewer cans are required and less ex- 

 pense is involved in hauling the milk, but, to offset this, there is 

 an additional outlay for a cream separator. If the milk is ship- 

 ped to a large city, it is necessary to have five sets of cans, which, 

 being badly handled and frequently lost, makes the expense for 

 cans heavy. However, as the milk is sold by measure, it has been 

 found by actual practice that the denting of the cans soon makes 

 them hold enough less milk to compensate for the wear, tear and 

 loss on cans. Since the cost of utensils will depend somewhat 

 upon the amount of milk handled, an allowance of 5 cents per 

 1,000 pounds of milk produced is made. 



*For details of computation, see Illinois Experiment Station Circular No. 118 



