FIFTIETH ANNUAL CONVENTION 95 



for your feed. It must be remembered that as a state you 

 must compete with other states that have better cows than 

 Illinois and that as individual farmers you must compete 

 with other dairymen that have more economical producing 

 herds. 



It is a well established principle of big business that 

 in order to meet competition and have big sales, an article 

 or product should be produced at the cheapest cost con- 

 sistent with good quality. Any number of business enter- 

 prises make this their golden rule. Can we as dairymen 

 make the same claim for our dairy cows as a whole? If we 

 are getting 50! cents per pound for butterfat produced with 

 100 pound cows, and it costs us 48 cents a pound to pro- 

 duce it, our profit is two cents. If we can produce the same 

 amount with a less number of 175 or 200 pound cows at a 

 cost of only 30 or 35 cents per pound, that is good business 

 and is one way of making more money. Let us take it as 

 an established fact then, that the farms of Illinois need 

 better milk cows in order that a better market will be had 

 for your feed. 



It would be poor judgment on my part to outline your 

 problems and not offer some means or methods of solving 

 them. The important question is how are better cows to 

 be obtained. Should they be purchased outright or is it best 

 to raise them yourselves? 



The amount of milk or butterfat a cow will give de- 

 pends upon first, how good a cow she is and, second, upon 

 how skillfully she is fed and managed. The two go hand in 

 hand and can not be separated. The best feeder in the 

 world with the best feeds can not induce a cow to give a 

 large flow of milk if she was not born with the ability to 

 give a large amount of milk. On the other hand, the most 

 highly bred dairy cow can not produce heavily unless she 

 is provided with proper feed and good care and manage- 

 ment. Good breeding merely makes it possible to get high 

 production. If every farmer in Illinois were provided now 

 with a herd of cows with ability to produce like Segis 

 Pietertje Prospect, or Countess Prue, or any other world's 

 record dairy cow, the average results would be somewhat 

 better but still low, because the limiting factor in many 



