I 86 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



expect to make a success of any business by jumping into it head-over- 

 heels. Careful study day and night, since competition is so fierce, is the 

 only chance for success. It is the little things you must attend to and 

 you can make dairying pay as well as any other line of business if you 

 will. 



DISCUSSION. 



Q: — I would like to asK the gertleman what per cent milk he found 

 the cheapest to produce? 



A: — We have one cow at No. 5 barn that lacks $2.20 of paying for 

 her keep in skim milk, and she has to her credit besides that 267 pounds 

 of butter and the average this cow has had was 3.2 per cent. But it cost 

 a little morel to keep that cow than it did one that produced 284 pounds' 

 of butter and whose milk test was 4 per cent. When the profit of the cow 

 is taken into consideration the 3 per cent and 3.2 per cent give the big- 

 gest profit for feed consumed. The profit of that one cow over and above 

 the feed was' something like $56 or $57. Take milk anywhere between 

 3.5^ and 3.6 would be a cheaper producer than when a little higher. When 

 you get it higher you sacrifice the euantity of milk. I may have the 

 price of my skim milk a little too high, and I would not like to come out 

 and say what value to put on skim milk; I don't believe I could get along 

 without it at all. In feeding hogs I don't know as I would be very far off 

 if I would say it was worth nearly 50 cents a hundred, the way I feed in 

 connection with ground grain. Where we give the cows credit for skim 

 milk, we allow 33 1-3 per cent. That is high I will admit, but it is worth 

 more than that to us. 



Q: — Of course you take, our country creameries and in the summer 

 the farmers' net returns' for the cream and all runs down as low as 45 

 cents along in July and August. I have watched and find that about 20 1 

 cents a hundred, from 15 to 20 cents was the average price of skim milk. 

 I think you have your cows figured too high. Do you find your profita- 



