138 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



not lose sight of. It is essential that you weed out the poor 

 cows. It is essential that you feed the cows a balanced ration. 



Mr. Foss : The figures that I have given you is an aver- 

 age, that is not saying that this will not require more or less 

 change, you must study the individual cow. When we are feed- 

 ing so much to this cow, I will give her more to see if I cannot 

 get her up higher. I like to have my cows in good shape but not 

 exceedingly fat. 



Another illustration: Last winter I had one cow that was 

 freshened a year ago the 19th day of October, that was a Hol- 

 stein. I had one Jersey, I sold her, not because she was not good 

 but because she was old. I compared this Jersey with the Hol- 

 stein, the Holstein made from loj^ to iij4 pounds of butter fat 

 per week while the Jersey only made nine. I am not saying a 

 word against the Jersey but I like the Holstein best. There are 

 two reasons for it, the first reason I had that cow from my wife 

 and I fell in love with that cow, and the second reason is that 

 just above me there is that territory where the cheese factories 

 are, you cannot sell anything but Holstein milk. This Jersey 

 cow I had to sell at a sacrifice. People will not pay more for 

 Jersey milk than they will for Holstein milk. It costs more to 

 produce and consequently they do not want a Jersey cow, those 

 are the two reasons. 



I am going to emphasize the fact that you must study the 

 individual cow. It takes just as much intelligence to run a dairy 

 farm as it does to run any kind of a corporation. If you want to 

 be a successful dairyman, you have got to read and to study your 

 cow and you must watch that cow as an engineer does his en- 

 gine. The closer you devote yourself to the dairy business the 

 better you will succeed. 



Another thing is that you must have a good sire. The trou- 

 ble is with the farmers today they do not see the difference be- 

 tween a sire that has ancestors for generations back that are 

 producers and one that does not. That sire must have the 

 ability to transmit that producing ability; if he does not have that 

 ability he is worth nothing. You take the sire that has that back 



