^^^ Illinois State Dairymen's Association, 



These and much other data would indicate that there is a 

 wide field for improvement of the dairy cattle in Michigan in 

 point of performance. If a dairyman wishes to improve the pro- 

 ductiveness of his herd, there is only one way of doing it, 

 provided they are properly fed and cared for, namely, to weed out 

 the poor producers and replace them with profitable cows. Such, 

 however, are rarely found on the market except at very high 

 prices, and the average dairyman will find that if he w^ants good 

 cows, he will have to raise them himself. The best method he 

 can adopt then is to secure a good sire with dairy qualities and 

 raise the calves of his best cows,and with them replace the cows 

 that have proved unprofitable. 



But in order to do this, he must be able to tell the good cows 

 from the poor ones. He must know three things about every 

 individual. First how much milk will she give in a day or a 

 month. He must know how much she gives in a year, because 

 he must feed her a year. 



Second, he must know the richness of the milk in order to 

 determine its market value. The richer it is in fat, the greater 

 its market value. 



Third, he must know how much it costs to keep the cow a 

 year. This factor is just as important as it is to know the yield of 

 milk and the richness of it, for it is the net profit that makes a 

 cow valuable. 



He must put in operation on his farm a system that will 

 enable him to determine these tTiree factors about every cow in 

 his herd. This has been advocated for years in this country, and 

 yet very little progress has been made. The average dairyman 

 has so many things to do that he has not the time to do this 

 systematically. And it must be done systematically to be of any 

 value. Co-operation can accomplish what is not practical with 

 the individual. 



This Department believes that the cheapest and most effect- 

 ive way of doing this is by organizing co-operative cow testing 

 associations, and on the 26th of September, 1905, assisted in 

 organizing the first association of that kind in Fremont, Newaygo 

 county. It was not only the first in Michigan, but the first in 

 America. It has now started on its second year, and the results 

 of the first year's test will be found in the pages of this bulletin. 



