DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



215 



arid and arid country. For the feeding of a dairy cow profitabl}^ some 

 grain is needed, but the amount necessary will depend very materially on 

 the nature of the forage crops that may be grown. Wherever alfalfa, peas, 

 or any of the legumes can be grown the problem is comparatively simple, 

 but where these cannot be grown the dry farmer can still hope to milk 

 with some degree of success. It is not expected that under dry farming 

 conditions as they exist at present a dairy herd can be maintained that 

 wrll yield as great a revenue per cow as that obtained in the more fa- 

 vored sections of the East. On the other hand, the expense of maintaining 

 the cow will be very much less, so that perhaps the net profits will not 

 compare quite so unfavorably. If under conditions as they exist in the 

 dry farming region it is proven impossible to grow the protein-producing 

 foods the dairyman will soon learn that it will be profitable to buy protein 

 to supplement the carbonaceous foods, such as sorghums, kaffir corn, 

 milo, maize, oats, wheat or other crops that may be successfully grown. 

 Such foods would include bran, brewers' grains, oil meal, cotton seed meal, 

 byproducts of the beet sugar factories and from flour and cereal mills. 

 The cost of these will seem at first thought to be prohibitive, but the man 

 who will study economical production as he studies economical grain 

 production will find that the addition of such foods even at a seeming 

 high cost will pay. The great problem will be, however, to grow these 

 foods on the farm, which have high protein content. The nearer the farm 

 can completely sustain the dairy herd the more profitable will be the work 

 of dairying. 



One of the most important problems for the farmer who will take up 

 dairying as a part of his farming operations, will be the selection of the 

 dair}'- herd. This question puzzles many men in the dairy sections of the 

 east. It should not, for if the same degree of intelligence be put into it 

 that is put into other farming operations the way will seem clear. The 

 unit of the herd is the individual cow. Cows differ in their ability to pro- 

 duce milk just as different farms differ in their ability to produce profitable 

 crops of wheat, because of the difference in the nature of the soil, moist- 

 ure, temperature, etc. Cows differ in their ability to produce milk just 

 as farms differ in their ability to produce wheat because of the ability 

 or lack of ability of the man managing them. The average cow, if given 

 a fair chance, will produce a fair quantity of milk; a better cow will give 

 more. 



The dry land dairj-man must first study the necessities of his herd 

 and then select those individuals that under similar conditions will produce 

 the most for the food given. That degree of investigation made necessary 

 to success in dry farming which will in a few years place the farmers of 

 the semi-arid regions years in advance of the farmer of other sections, 

 will, if turned to the production of milk, bring just as good success in 

 that line. 



It would be foolhardy, as a general proposition, to bring onto the 

 farms of the west the highly developed and highly bred dairy types of 

 cattle common to many sections of the east. The only sane method of 



