1907.] Cost of Food in Production of Milk. 



327 



what the cheaper ones have cost. Those who produce at the 

 cheaper rate all use daily from 6 \ to 7 lb. of mixed meals and 

 cakes per cow, while the dearest one uses 10 lb., and another 

 as much as 13 lb. daily. Wherever such large quantities of 

 concentrated foods as these are used, the cost per gallon of 

 milk produced is invariably increased and the poorer milkers 

 the cows are the greater is the cost per gallon. 



As far as our investigations have gone, it seems as if 

 few if any purchased foods are so cheap at the rates stated 

 as the more bulky ones, such as pasture, hay, straw, and 

 roots grown on the farm. This is contrary to the generally 

 accepted idea, and the practice of many good farmers, yet all 

 available details steadily point in that direction. For instance, 

 one of the cheapest produced milks since this work began 

 was on a farm where in 1906 the daily ration consisted of 10 lb. 

 of hay, 4-J- lb. of oat straw, and 4-J lb. of mixed meals ; whereas 

 when the hay was reduced the following year, and the mixed 

 meals considerably increased, the cost per gallon of milk, was 

 very much more. Two other farms having an almost equally 

 low rate of cost used a ration almost identical in every respect. 

 These indications should not be ignored, particularly when 

 they happen again and again on different farms and in different 

 years. 



Lesmahagow District. — The Milk Record Association in this 

 parish was only inaugurated this spring, and details regard- 

 ing the costs for food are only available for three months. 

 The district is one where some of the members used a large 

 weight of turnips daily, while others had none at all. With 

 three exceptions, all the herds consumed much more straw 

 than hay, the average ration for the district being 8f lb. hay ; 

 12 lb. oat straw ; 39 lb. of turnips on Ihe farms using them, 

 yi lb. of mixed meals and cakes, and ij lb. of bran and treacle. 

 The average gallon of milk cost 5*93^., for food alone, 

 while in Fenwick No. 2 Association the cost was 4-56^., 

 in Fenwick No. 1, 4-88^., and in Cumnock 3-57^. per gallon, 

 for much the same period of this year. In this association . 

 the milk from one herd cost yhd. per gallon for food, in three 

 others it was 6fi. or over, while the lowest was 4-29^. The 

 herd in which the highest cost for food per gallon of milk was 

 incurred was almost the lowest milking one in the association, 



