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ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



same food, and I believe cows have just as many peculiarities in this 

 respect as do men. 



The quality of a cow is determined by inheritance and the dairy- 

 man must apply his skill in developing the quantity and preserving the 

 quality. By this I mean that al co w is born with the power to produce four 

 or five per cent milk, and no food or system of feeding can materially 

 increase that per cent of fat; so there is a necessity of the dairyman 

 learning at the outset that nothing but a well-balanced food ration and 

 pains-taking handling under favorable conditions will enable any dairy 

 cow to do her best. I believe every cow will do her best at all times,, 

 no matter what her surroundings, care or feed may be; but I also be- 

 lieve the better bred, better cared for, the better fed the cow will do bet- 

 ter. The moral to this might be — use brains in feeding. 



To breed the best cow for the average dairyman has been a study 

 with me for several years. I have tried nearly all the breeds as well as 

 crosses, but I. find the best grade cow to be produced by crossing a Short- 

 horn cow with a full-blooded Holstein sire. 



The offispring has a good quality of milk, averaging about four per 

 cent fat, also a large quantity of milk. They keep in good flesh and are 

 easily disposed of should an accident occur, or the cow; fail to make a' 

 profit as a dairy animal. 



I believe that a young man just starting out in life with a very limited 

 amount of capital, can buy aJ f£w cows from the general farmers, either 

 securing a full-blooded sire or borrow the use of one, and in a few years 

 build up a valuable herd by careful selection of the heifer calves from 

 the best cows. 



The first few months of a calf s< life determines largely the future- 

 value of the cow. At this critical Ptage by judicious feeding we can pre- 

 vent the tendency to the laying on of fat and ruining the milking quali- 

 ties, although I have seen beefy calves that turned out excellent milkers, 

 but this was the exception and not the rule. 



It is our rule to remove the calf from its mother at about two days 

 after birth. This will depend somewhat upon the mother, of course^ 



