THE COST OF RAISING A DAIRY COW. 23 
The man labor required in raising a heifer is about 40 hours dur- 
ing the first year and 23 hours the second year. The total cost of 
man and horse labor for the two years is close to $8. The manure 
produced during the two years has been valued at $8; consequently, 
the cost of labor is practically offset by the value of the manure. 
The item " Other costs " consists of expenses usually overlooked in 
estimating costs. These are interest, charge for the use of buildings 
and equipment, expense for bedding, miscellaneous expenses, a share 
of the general expenses for the entire farm business, and a charge to 
cover losses by death and discarding. The total for these forms 
nearly one-fifth of the total cost of the 2-year-old heifer. 
If the cost of raising a dairy heifer on the Brigham farm is typical 
throughout the -dairy regions, the usual price received for such heifers 
will not pay the cost of producing them. This is especially true of a 
heifer sold at 1 year of age. 
These investigations of the cost of producing a dairy heifer seem 
to indicate that a heifer entering the dairy herd at 2 years of age 
must be worth at least $60 to cover cost only. It would appear that 
a farmer can not afford to raise a heifer calf that will not sell for 
more than $60 at 2 years of age. 
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