FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 16 



that I began farming in 1896 and I was convinced that I was 

 losing money in feeding and caring for cows in the old way, so 

 I began to feed those cows and give them better care and you 

 will notice a slight increase each year. I started weighing the 

 milk in December, 1903. 



In 1904 — 5,800 lbs. milk — 224 lbs. of fat. 

 In 1905 — 7,105 lbs. milk — 260 lbs. of fat. 

 In 1906 — 8,057 lbs. milk — 307 lbs of fat. 



Now in three years the average production of the herd was 

 increased 3,000 pounds of milk per cow and 117 pounds of fat 

 per cow. That was due to weeding out the poor cows. At the 

 end of the year I sold off the poor cows and placed a pure-bred 

 sire at the head of the herd. And not only did I sell the poor 

 cows, but I fed the good cows a balanced ration and in 1906 I 

 built a silo. There was quite an increase due to the silo, some 

 cow^s responded much more readily than others. I had one cow 

 that I had at the time we began testing. I had her two years 

 after we had the silo. The two years that we had her after we 

 fed her ensilage she increased over 100 pounds of butterfat per 

 year. The two years before ensilage w^as fed, her average pro- 

 duction was 270 pounds of butterfat — in that neighborhood — I 

 am not sure about the exact figure, and the two years after the 

 ensilage was fed the production was 380 pounds of fat, an in- 

 crease of over TOO pounds of fat; that was the largest increas-a 

 I had of any individual cow. 



At that time we placed a pure-bred sire at the head of the 

 herd and began to raise our heifers from the best cows. Now 

 these heifers we tried to keep them growing from the time they 

 are born until they freshen, in fact I believe that the cheapest 

 way to make milk is to get a cow to eat all she can possibly eat, 

 that is the cheapest way of making milk. If you have the idea 

 that feed is too high to feed it abundantly to your dairy cows, 

 you had better not go into dairying. A certain amount of food 

 consumed each day by the cow is required for her maintenance, 

 — every pound of food that a cow consumes over what she needfi 

 for a maintenance ration, she can use for making milk and but- 

 terfat. I always like to illustrate that in this way : You men 



