DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



211 



are such as furnish a good foundation for building up a good milking herd, 

 and the calves of which when well fed and reared, will give a beef return 

 as good or better than is now obtained from the same herds. 



While preparing these notes, I chanced to have handy the records of 

 four western Kansas herds. These are such cows as I have above de- 

 scribed. It is certain that they are very common cows. The four herds 

 total 43 cows. The 1911 cash income from the sale of butterfat alone, for 

 the average of the four herds, was $42.50 per cow. In the best herd of 

 the four there were ten cows, and from these was sold $609 worth of butter- 

 fat, or almost $61 per cow per year. In an investigation ten years ago in 

 one county in Kansas, among the herds which were supplying cream to a 

 cream-receiving station, it was found the best five herds of common cows 

 yielded $45 per cow per year; the average of 82 herds was $33 per cow 

 per year. The last three or four years butterfat has been worth fully 25 

 percent more than at the time of the census, and at such increased price 

 would have made the best five herds average $57, and the average of the 82 

 herds, $40. The conditions under which these herds were milked were no dif- 

 ferent than those existing on the average farm on which dairying is not a 

 specialty but a side issue, and gives a good idea of the income to be ex- 

 pected from common cows. 



Last spring I inquired into the income from herds of dairy breeding in 

 several parts of Kansas. One herd of registered Jerseys yielded $85 worth 

 of butterfat per cow per year. A grade Holstein herd gave an annual 

 income of $77; a grade Jersey herd, $60.25, and another grade Holstein herd, 

 $75 per cow for the year. A herd of Shorthorns bred and selected for milk 

 for several years, yielded an annual income of $50 per cow. No socalled 

 fancy dairying was employed in these herds. They received only good farm 

 care. These figures will give the farmer who contemplates the milking of 

 cows an idea of the cash income possibilities from each of the two kinds of 

 herds. It must be kept in mind, however, that the money-making possibili- 

 ties of a herd of milk cows cannot be definitely stated. The income and ac- 

 tual profit will depend upon the kind of cows, the care exercised in selec- 

 tion, the feed given, and the care taken. This indicates one of the essential 

 advantages connected with dairying; namely, that with little effort or su- 

 perior judgment it is possible to improve a herd and increase the income 

 year after year. This improvement can be made just as certain as one 

 day follows another. 



It is to be kept in mind that in addition to the above income from the 

 sale of butterfat, there was a calf from each cow each year, and skim milk 

 for pigs and chickens. The cows would or should have been kept, even 

 though they were not milked, for the calf alone. So the income from the 

 sale of butterfat was readily available cash which proved the salvation of 

 the man doing the milking. 



I am a firm believer in the use of dairy blood in the farm dairy herd. 

 The larger the annual product per cow, the more profitable that cow will 

 prove to her feeder and milker. I realize that it is a long step from com- 

 mon cows to pure-bred dairy cows, and believe that for the small general 



