44 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
investment of $30,000 a profitable one. So 
on the basis of an investment of $30,000 
for 50 cows, being an investment per cow 
of $600, each cow must earn 5 per cent, 
on $600, or $30 each year before any real 
profit is made. How much milk will a cow 
have to produce, and at what selling price, 
to earn $30 over and above the cost of pro¬ 
duction of the milk ? The elements enter¬ 
ing into the cost of milk production are: 
(1) cost of food; (2) cost of labor; (3) 
cost of barn; (4) depreciation in value of 
cow owing to the 
fact that after a lim¬ 
ited period its value 
is simply beef value 
—sold for meat; 
(5) selling cost of 
the product. 
Statistics show 
the cost of food for 
milk product is, ap¬ 
proximately, $9 per 
1,000 pounds of 
milk. That being the 
case, a cow that 
averages 5,000 
pounds of milk a 
year would cost $45 
for food alone. 
Leaving aside any 
modern sanitary sta¬ 
ble methods, one 
man cannot care for 
more than fifteen 
cows. Valuing the 
man’s time at $1.50 
per day the cost of 
labor per cow would 
be 10 cents. That 
means that the year¬ 
ly care for a cow 
cannot come to less 
than $36.50. 
The cost of barn 
and land, or interest 
cost per cow, is 
shown above in the 
interest on $600, or. 
at 5 per cent., $30. 
Since the milking 
life of a cow is not 
more than eight 
years, depreciation 
in value from its val¬ 
uation at $75 as a 
milk producer to its 
value of about $30 
when sold for beef 
is about $5 a year. 
The selling cost of 
milk varies with the 
method used to dis¬ 
pose of it. If sold 
to one of the large 
milk companies to 
be shipped to a city, 
the yearly price of 
milk averages about 3}4 cents a quart. 
Then the cost of selling need not be con¬ 
sidered as a separate item, for one man can 
take care of fifteen cows and haul milk to 
market under average conditions. Tabulat¬ 
ing the costs for this $75 cow we find— 
Cost of food for 5,000-pound cow $45.00 
Price of labor. 36.50 
Investment, barn and land interest. . 30.00 
Depreciation of cow. 5.00 
Cost of selling milk to company. . . . 00.00 
$116.50 
At the rate of a pint to the pound, 5,000 
pounds of milk at 3J4 cents per quart ap¬ 
proximates $87.50. As the total cost of 
producing the milk is.$116.50 
And it is sold for. 87.50 
There is a loss per cow of. $29.00 
Or for a 50-cow dairy.$1,450.00 
Evidently a dairy composed of cows that 
produce only 5,000 pounds of milk would 
not be a profitable adjunct to our orchard, 
for the manure received from these cows 
would be just as expensive as if it was 
purchased in the market, and we would 
have all the extra expense and trouble of 
conducting the dairy besides. 
The Cost of Holsteins 
The average milk production for Jersey 
cows is not far from 5,000 pounds, the fig¬ 
ures we have used. We next considered 
the cost of maintaining a herd of Hol¬ 
steins, acknowledged heavy milkers. 
Here the figures ran much the same ex¬ 
cept the average production per cow could 
be considered at 8,000 pounds, and the cost 
of food at $72 instead of $45. Disregard¬ 
ing entirely the difference in cost between 
a herd of Jerseys which will average 5,000 
pounds of milk per cow, and a herd of Hol¬ 
steins, which will average 8,000 pounds of 
milk, the cost of producing the milk on the 
8,000 pound basis is $143.50, while the milk 
value is only $140. However, there is a calf 
which is worth from $2 to $4. Selling this 
would almost cover the difference between 
the cost of produc¬ 
ing the milk and its 
selling cost. On this 
basis the fifty-cow 
Holstein dairy 
would pay its ex¬ 
penses and leave the 
manure clear gain. 
We found, how¬ 
ever, that dairy 
herds producing an 
average of 8,000 
pounds of milk per 
cow could not be 
purchased for $75 
per head. To pro¬ 
duce this output the 
stock must be choice, 
and the average cost 
per cow climbs di¬ 
rectly to $200 or 
better. This would 
change the entire 
investment cost 
f r o m $30,000 to 
$35,000, and alter 
the depreciation cost 
per cow from $5 to 
about $25. This be¬ 
ing the case, a fifty- 
cow dairy on the 8,- 
000 - pound basis 
would still suffer a 
money loss of $1,- 
200 per year, unless 
the manure was sold, 
and the manure 
would be of about 
that value in the 
open market. So 
we had to come 
back again to buying 
the manure. 
And, besides a 11 
this, there is an ele¬ 
ment of hazard in 
the keeping of a 
dairy, not only in 
securing the proper 
persons to take care 
of the herd, but loss 
from sickness and 
accidents which we 
have not considered 
here ; and more than 
all this there will be 
an investment of between $30,000 and $40,- 
000, which will be non-productive, earning 
no more than its interest value, and which, 
once made, cannot easily be withdrawn. 
If these figures seem unreal to you, read 
U. S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin 
No. 49, wherein they prove that it costs $60 
to raise a heifer two years old. “A farmer 
cannot afford to raise a heifer calf that will 
not sell for more than $60 at two years 
of age,” are the words it uses. 
Bulletin No. 295, published by Cornell 
(Continued on page 66) 
The average poor farmer isn't content with his ham. He would change it if he could. 
The cost of sanitary improvements would not only eat up all the profits, hut put him 
everlastingly in debt 
This, the ham of the average well-to-do farmer, is a great improvement on that above, 
hut it represents bigger outlay in upkeep. The investment, per cow, for such a ham i9 
figured at $600 
