ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



243 



I am fighting out my salvation individually by increasing our produstion 

 and lessening: the cost while we are waiting for this bill. 



What the gentleman told you about this morning in regard to test- 

 ing different herds, we are carrying on our individual farm. I think that 

 the greatest obstacle to success to dairying in Illinois, is the cow jobber; 

 a man who brings a car load 1 of springers or fresh cows for the farmers. 

 They drive their dry cows to the butcher and sell them for so much a 

 pound, and then go to the stock yards and pick out the cows they need 

 to replenish their herds from these cattle shipped in from Iowa, Nebraska 

 and perhaps Minnesota. These ccws are perfect strangers to these 

 dairymen, and by the time they get conversant with their character, 

 they are dry cows and ready to go to the butcher, and the same process is 

 repeated. 



In my country, I was called a crank, a cow crank, but they don't call 

 me that any more. We have the special purpose cow. Our aim is to raise 

 every animal, that is, for our herd. We keep accurate accounts of every 

 pound 1 of milk that each cow gives, and records are kept on milk sheets, 

 and these milk sheets are filed away so we can refer back and ascertain 

 what each cow has done for us in the years passed. They are tested reg- 

 ularly with the Babcock test and t heir milk yield is recorded on milk 

 sheets and their disposition and their ability to assimilate food and make 

 a profit is carefully looked after. In this way we are improving our herd. 

 If our milk cost $1.25 or $1.00 or .75 to produce, we try the next year to 

 produce that for 25c, 30c or 50c less. While we are keeping these rec- 

 ords of our cows, we are learning the best feeds to feed these cattle. 

 This' year I will start even with dry weather and high priced feed, and 

 thus far we have made more money with our herds than we ever have 

 before with the exception of one year, and that was the year we had the 

 war with Spain and got large prices for our crops. 



The food question is of more importance or as much importance as the 

 breeding question. This winter and last fall in my institute work and at- 

 tending dairy conventions, it seemed that they were the leading ques- 



