FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 187 



ducing one hundred pounds of milk by these cows. If this 

 was the average cost of producing one hundred pounds of 

 milk, there were approximately 500 cows, or one-half of 

 them, that produced one hundred pounds of milk for less 

 feed than the average and about 500 cows that required 

 more than this average to produce one hundred pounds of 

 milk. If a dairyman, by weighingi the milk from each indi- 

 vidual cow, would sell all the low producing cows in the 

 herd and keep only the best ones, he could reduce the cost 

 of producing milk materially and thereby increase the pro- 

 fits. Generally speaking, the cow that will produce the 

 largest flow of milk in a year will return the largest returns 

 above the cost of feed. 



In one particular cow testing association, the best cows 

 in the association returned seven times as much net profits 

 in a year as did the poorest cows in the association. In 

 another association, the best herd of ten cows returned 

 $1,475.20 above the cost of the feed they consumed, while 

 the poorest two herds in the association, comprising thirty- 

 six cows, only returned $1,213.95 above feed cost. In this 

 association, the ten best cows returned $265.25 more net 

 profit than did the thirty-six poorest cows. The average 

 production of the thirty-six poorest cows in this particular 

 cow-testing association is over fifty per cent higher than 

 the average production of all the cows in the state. 



The average of all cow-test associations will show 

 practically the same degree of difference in the production 

 of the best and poorest cows. 



There are two essentials that are necessary for eco- 

 nomical milk production. The first one is good cows and 

 the second is to feed the good dairy cow the proper feed 

 and give her the proper care that she needs to produce 

 milk. There is only one way by which you can determine 

 the good cow from the poor one in a herd, and that is by 

 weighing tke milk and testing it for its butter fat content, 

 by which the average production can be determined for the 

 year and the poor cows eliminated from the herd. 



The testing can be done either by the dairyman him- 

 self or he can join a cow test association, if there is one in 



