992 



Value of Food Records . 



[Feb., 



There was one extreme case where the cost of food per gallon 

 of milk worked out as low as 7.73 pence per gallon, but this 

 figure has been ignored as the cows were obviously being very 

 seriously under-fed. 



It will be noticed that the cost of food per gallon of milk 

 was more than three times as great on one farm as on another. 

 A criticism might be made that on April 10th herd BP was 

 probably on a summer ration, but the ration actually being 

 fed was 34 lb. of mangolds. 26 lb. of wet grains, 7 lb. of hay, 

 4 lb. of straw and 5 J lb. of mixed cakes and meals. The milk 

 yield was high, 31.92 lb. of milk per cow as compared with 

 31.47 lb. of milk per cow on the same farm on February 18th. 

 Herd BF was a herd that was being seriously over-fed. The 

 cows were only averaging 20.60 lb. of milk and their ration 

 consisted of 120 lb. of roots, 10 lb. of hay, 7 lb. of straw and 

 12 lb. of cakes and meals. 



This enormous variation in the cost of feeding on different 

 farms is not peculiar to one season; it occurs year after year. 

 In the previous winter (1919-20 >, for example, eighty-six food 

 records were submitted to the agricultural organiser, and the 

 cost of feeding per cow per da}* varied from Is. 5d. in one case 

 to 4s. 6d. in another. Similarly, the cost of food per gallon of 

 milk varied from 9}d. to 2s. 2Jd. in different herds. In that 

 season hay was priced in every case at £7 per ton, straw at 

 £3 10s. per ton. mangolds and cabbages at 30s. per ton and 

 swedes at 45s. per ton. It is evident that every year there are 

 a large number of dairy farmers to whom a food record taken 

 in the way already described would be of immense assistance. 

 Heavy cost of feeding is usually due to one or more of four 

 causes : — 



(a) A Low Milk Yield on the part of the Cows. — A simple 

 calculation shows that the more milk a cow gives the cheaper 

 becomes the cost of food per gallon, because a four-gallon cow 

 does not require twice as much fodder or roots as a two-gallon 

 cow — a double allowance of cakes and meals will usually suffice. 

 The most economical herds are those that yield well on a 

 normal ration. This is a matter mainly of breeding and 

 selection, and one of the main objects of a milk recording 

 society is to show the members which of their cows produce 

 the most milk, so that these cows may be used as foundation 

 cows, put to a bull of good milking strain and the heifer calves 

 reared. 



