32 
BULLETIN 1400, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Those rations are not presented as examples for use, but merely 
to illustrate how important intelligent feeding is, if milk is to be 
produced at low feed cost. 15 
It has already been pointed out that milk usually sells for more 
during the winter than during the rest of the year. From this one 
would expect that cows which produce milk the year round produce 
at highest feed cost. 
For the conditions of Chester County, however, the reverse is true. 
Herds in which most of the cows freshened in the fall produced milk 
at less cost for feed for the average of the year, than herds in which 
most of the cows freshened in the spring. Table 28 shows how this 
worked out. The feed costs given in this table have been adjusted w 
to eliminate the effect that the kind and quality of the feed and the 
butterfat content of the milk have upon the feed costs, and the 
results therefore show only the net effect of the season of freshening 
on the efficiency of production. 
The best dairymen in this region practice intensive winter dairy- 
ing, and to some extent the differences in cost may be due to the fact 
that the fall-freshened herds probably included cows of good quality, 
handled by skilled dairymen ; but from Table 28 it would certainly be 
safe to say that in this region farmers can produce a uniform flow of 
milk throughout the year without increasing their feed cost per 
hundred pounds and are therefore in good position to take advantage 
of the higher price paid for winter milk. 
Table 28. 
■Relation of the season of year the cows freshen to the feed cost of milk 
production 
Proportion of cows freshening in the fall, in per cent 
Herds in 
group 
Value of feed ' 
consumed per 
100 pounds 
of milk 
produced 
None 
Number 
59 
48 
31 
24 
16 
Dollars 
1.34 
20 to 30 
1.32 
50 to (>0 
1.24 
70 to 80 -... 
1. 19 
90 to 100. . 
1.19 
1 Exclusive of pasturage. 
Table 29 shows how closely the time of year the cows freshen is 
related to the seasonal distribution of milk production throughout 
the year. On the farms where only one-quarter of the milk was 
produced during the barn season, less than 10 per cent of the cows 
freshened in the fall; on the farms where three-quarters of the milk 
was produced during the barn season, over 75 per cent of the cows 
freshened in the fall. 
15 References (14) and (IS) give detailed information on the subject of the proper feeding for dairy cows. 
14 By multiple correlation. See p. 59. 
