FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 51 



a great dairyman, a constructive dairyman, and a produc- 

 tive dairyman, that did not produce the greater part of his 

 feed that he feeds. 



I have seen more dairymen grow absolutely discour- 

 aged and disgusted with the dairying problems because of 

 this one fact than any other thing that I know of, so if you 

 and I are going into the dairy business we must bear in 

 mind that we must balance our livestock with our feed pro- 

 duction. It may be a slow process at first, but if we start 

 with four cows or five cows or six cows and understand 

 cow life as you and I understand our fertility, we are all 

 moving along together. 



Another thing, if we have the right number of cattle 

 that we start with, and if we have some six or eight or ten 

 horses to eat up all the overhead profit which we have, 

 then we are charging the whole thing up to our cattle and 

 we are feeling that we are not making a profit. There is 

 many a dairyman who would make a good profit if he had 

 the' right number of cows to start with, and who would 

 cut down his horse supply in correspondence with his prod- 

 ucts, but if we keep ten horses when we only need four or 

 five horses to maintain our farm properly, you can see 

 where the profit goes. So, gentlemen, those are the things 

 which we have got to come in contact with if we ever move 

 into successful dairying. 



Because I have so many boys in my classes who come 

 from these conservative homes that want to know these 

 things, and because of the fact that in southern Illinois in 

 order to get by with a thing we have got to prove it, it has 

 led me to be very cautious in some of my work in dairying 

 to show if we rightfully balance our livestock with our 

 fertility and go into livestock as our fertility increases, or 

 if we can produce food which we feed our livestock, it 

 means all the pleasure for you and me. 



What sort of feed shall I grow? I care very little for 

 crop rotation unless it provides for the feed which my cat- 

 tle need. I believe when we raise our own feeds and feed 

 it and put the fertility back on to the soil, we are growing 

 more in the way which we should grow. For example, I 



