112 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



all practical purposes. It is marked on her stall just how many 

 measures she takes. Now when you know how much you are 

 feeding her you will know the cost. Of course, as the system 

 gets further along in her period of lactation, when it comes near 

 the end of the year, you must keep the cow that has made you 

 the most money. 



Select the cow of that breed that you like best, then select 

 the cows in that breed that can give you two dollars worth of 

 profit for every dollar's worth of feed consumed. Give the cow 

 palatable feed and keep everything clean about her. Just a word 

 about palatable food, feed a cow what she likes, she will digest 

 it better. You all ought to have silos, there are quite a number 

 who do not. I presume some think it is quite a luxury, but I want 

 to say to you a silo is not a luxury, it is a poor man's necessity, 

 because there is no sort of building that you can build that will 

 store so much feed, so the poorer you are the more you ought to 

 build a silo, then again you can harvest your corn. I am not 

 here to say anything against feeding corn from a bundle, but it 

 is not the way to make the most profit in dairying. I can harvest 

 my corn crop at lo to 15 per cent less expense. Of course in 

 Michigan we cannot afford to waste 40 per cent and let the stalks 

 stand in the field as you do, and I am going to say you cannot 

 afford to do it either. Then the next thing that corn, when it is 

 cut and shocked and left in the field loses 35 to 50 per cent of the 

 material value. When it is put into the silo it loses only from 5 to 

 8 per cent, and then the great thing is that the cows like it. 



For six years I was in Michigan talking about silage each 

 year. A man said to me : "I built a silo last year, and while my 

 cows are giving more milk, they do not like it as well." I said : 

 ''What are you feeding them besides." He said : "I am not feed- 

 ing them anything else." It is a good feed but you must use 

 something else. Fresh pork is good, why don't you always have 

 it. He could not do a good day's work on that one food alone, 

 neither could a cow do it. I feed 35 to 40 pounds of silage, I 

 feed clover hay, I feed them as great a variety as I can, then I 

 give them two or three kinds of grain. You must have sweet 



