26 BULLETIN 501, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
provides for the maximum amount of labor available for other pur- 
poses during the period when most labor can be used in the pro- 
duction of crops. This also illustrates the fact that crop-production 
work does not provide full employment for labor throughout the year. 
On general farms the keeping of a certain number of cows can be 
made to supplement the crop labor and thus provide profitable 
employment all the year. 
It is far better to fill in this winter time thus, even though the 
wages returned are low, than not to utilize it at all and receive 
nothing. This is another reason why cows are maintained on general 
farms where cost records, charging labor at full rates, show the 
returns to be less than the cost. Within certain limits, they may 
add to the profits of the farm business even at an apparent loss. 
THE PROBLEM OF DEPRECIATION. 
Depreciation is a matter of little importance to the owner of a 
herd of poor cows. A poor dairy cow is ordinarily worth almost as 
much for beef as for dairy purposes and sometimes more. However, 
this item is of serious importance to the owner of high-priced dairy 
cows, for his worn-out cows are worth no more for beef than scrubs, 
and perhaps not so much. It is a known fact that annual deprecia- 
tion increases with an increase in the value of the cow as a milk 
producer. The amount of depreciation may vary greatly from year 
to year on the same herd and with different methods of management. 
On the four farms studied it is comparatively low, whereas the lit- 
erature now published indicates that on the average a much larger 
charge may be expected than was found on these farms. The Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural Experiment Station l estimates that with cows 
having an average value of $75 the annual depreciation per cow will 
amount to $11.25. The Connecticut (Storrs) Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station x found that the cost of maintaining the standard of the 
herd for a period of five years was $13.26 per cow per year. The 
records of a cow-testing association in New Hampshire 1 show the 
average life of a cow to be a little over four years. Calculations 
made from the dairy herd records published by the Nebraska 
Agricultural Experiment Station x indicate that in herds where the 
poor cows are carefully culled out on the basis of production records 
practically one-third are discarded each year, thus making the 
average life in the herd not far from three years. 2 
l Seeb, c, a, and/, p. 34. 
2 From the records published by the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 139, it was 
found that during the period of 14 years 310 yearly records were procured from 110 different cows, which is 
an average of 2.82 years per cow. From the 71 cows which entered the herd and were later sold 198 yearly 
records were obtained. This is equivalent to an average productive life in the herd of 2.79 years. Of these 
71 cows only 16 were kept five years or more, of which nine were retained five years, four six years, one 
seven years, one nine years, and one 12 years. From the 38 cows in the herd at the close of the period 110 
yearly records were procured, which is an average o f 2.90 years per cow. Of these 38 cows 12 had completed 
but one year, while 11 had been in the herd four years or more. 
