THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICUL' 



Vol, XIV, No. 6. 



SEPTEMBER, 1907. 



THE COST OF FOOD IN THE PRODUCTION OF MILK/ 



John Speir. 



In Britain very little has been done to show either how 

 much food is necessary to produce a gallon of milk or what is 

 the cost of the same. Other nations have done much more 

 in this respect than we have done, and their farmers have 

 derived great benefit from the information. So much is 

 this the case that there are farms in Denmark and Norway 

 on which the food consumed now produces from 20 to 25 per 

 cent, more butter than it did ten years ago. We have made 

 some headway in showing that particular breeds or families 

 of cows will yield very much more milk than others for a given 

 outlay on food, but as to what quantity is necessary to produce 

 a given weight of milk we have little definite information. 



Since the Spring of 1903 the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society of Scotland has. been instrumental in forming many 

 milk-record associations, the principal object of which is to 

 weigh, sample, and test for fat the milk of each cow belonging 

 to its members at stated intervals. This is done with the 

 object of finding out which cows give the most milk or butter, 

 so that breeders may use the progeny of those animals alone 

 in replacing cows discharged from the dairy. These associa- 

 tions are generally composed of twelve to eighteen members , 

 each of whom x has the milk from his cows weighed and 

 tested. This is done by a young man experienced in such 

 work, who has usually been trained in the Dairy School at 

 Kilmarnock or other suitable centre. He arrives at the 

 (2061) x 



