American Agriculturist, March 22, 1924 
.Does It Pay... 
To Raise Your Own Calves?—Let’s Have Some Letters 
T HERE is more than one gain to bo 
made by the dairy farmer in growing 
his own cows, and some of the advantages 
are quite marked as compared with the 
practice of buying such stock. It has 
been proved beyond all doubt that a cow 
raised on the same farm on which she 
was born and where she is afterwards 
made useful will always do better there 
than any where else. This is because she 
always feels at home and will be more 
contented, provided she had good treat¬ 
ment. And contentment means a good 
deal in the thrift and profitableness of a 
dairy cow. 
There is considerable difference in the 
value of a cow that has a good disposition 
and good temper and one with opposite 
characteristics, and the dairyman who 
raises his own heifers, if he handles them 
as he should, invariably has cows that 
are gentle and agreeable to be around. 
Furthermore, the training of the heifer 
calves should begin early, and their use¬ 
fulness for the dairy herd is largely in¬ 
fluenced by the feed and care they get 
during the first two years. 
Early Care Is Important 
A very few farmers realize the im¬ 
portance of making the most of their 
heifer calves, for the best bred calf may 
be made a poor cow by careless and 
ignorant management in raising. Many 
calves are stunted the first half year of 
their lives, by being exposed to hot sun 
and flies, and from lack of proper food, 
and a stunted calf will mature into an 
undersized cow. And most likely she 
will be dwarfed in usefulness in the dairy 
just in proportion as she is dwarfed in 
body, and a body that is hindered in 
growth means weakened digestion. 
It has been found the experience of 
nearly all with dairy cows that those 
with large stomachs and strong digestive 
powers are the most profitable in convert¬ 
ing food into milk and butter fat. The 
aim, therefore,, in rearing dairy calves 
should be to keep them in a growing 
condition all the time. 
Much Depends On Breeding 
It is not expected that every heifer 
calf will make a better cow than its 
mother; ’however, the possibilities are 
that three-fourths of them will take this 
mark. There are three points upon w’hich 
these possibilities depend,—breeding, 
feeding and care. A good cow' converts a 
very large percent of the food she eats 
into milk; the quality of this production 
depends largely on the breeding. Every 
intelligent farmer knows that young and 
growing calves should be fed generously 
from start to finish, upon the kind of food 
best adapted to promote grow'th and 
thrift. And the development can be very 
much facilitated by proper handling and 
timely breaking. 
As a rule it will be found that the dairy 
cow 7 s which are changing hands from one 
farmer to another, and alw'ays for sale, 
are of a class that has not received this 
kind treatment and careful attention 
when young that tends to make a profit¬ 
able cow'. There are, of course, exceptions 
to this, but not many. And it has been 
noted that in many instances w'here the 
calves have been bred right and handled 
as they should be during the period of 
development, they are not for sale.— 
V. M. Couch, New York. 
Figuring the Fat-Basis of Pay¬ 
ment in Cheese Factories 
At our cheese factory meeting, it was decided that 
payments would be made on the annual test basis. 
1 am the secretary of our factory and know nothing about 
this testing. Will you kindly explain the correct way to 
work out the basic rate and all about it? How much is 
added or deducted for each pound above or below the 
basic rate? Is there any difference for figuring in butter- 
fats or milk solids?-—N. R., New York. 
T TNDER separate cover, we have sent 
^ you copies of two of the bulletins of 
the New York State College of Agricul¬ 
ture, dealing with testing and creamery 
problems. On page 19 of the bulletin 
entitled “Practical Examples in Dairy 
Arithmetic,” you w ill find an explanation 
of the method of payment in cheese fac¬ 
tories on the straight-fat basis. On the 
three pages following, you will find other 
methods of payment explained. These 
other methods are used in a few' cheese 
factories, but in general, they are not 
considered to offer any particular advan¬ 
tages, and it considerably complicates the 
work of figuring out the payments. 
Straight-Fat Basis More Satisfactory 
In plants where there is an extreme 
variation in the tests, or where nearly all 
patrons bring very rich milk, it might 
possibly be profitable to follow' one of the 
compound methods of payment, but I 
think it highly probable that the straight- 
fat basis would be the most satisfactory in 
your case, and it is certainly the simplest. 
While to me the explanation given on 
page 19 is very clear, I want to state the 
method in a little different way, because 
some of the factors that they use in this 
explanation are entirely unnecessary in 
actual factor w'ork, and because the prices 
given and their figures are the prices 
current in the year 1915. 
The factor of 2.68, which they use in 
calculating the amount of cheese made 
from the pounds of milk show'n, is merely 
an average factor or an example of the 
probable yield per pound oMat delivered. 
You will have to deal with the actual 
pounds of cheese made in your plant, 
and the rate of yield may be as given by 
them or it may range anywhere from 
2.60 to 2.75, also the present price of 
cheese is considerably above the price 
given. 
Include Any Sales from By-pro ucts 
It is quite possible that you may be 
making some whey butter, and if you are, 
the money received for the whey butter 
would naturally be included with that 
received from the sale of cheese, in order 
to figure the total gross returns from the 
business for the month. The following 
is my particular way of stating how to 
calculate your payments: 
1. Using the total amount of milk delivered 
by each patron, and his test, compute the 
number of pounds of fat furnished by him. 
Add together the amounts of fat furnished by 
all the patrons, to determine the total amount 
of fat to be paid for. 
2. Compute the total amount of money 
received for cheese sold. Subtract from this the 
total operating expense. The remainder will be 
the total amount due patrons. 
3. Divide the total amount due patrons by 
the total number of pounds of fat to be paid for. 
(Carry the quotient to five decimal places; and 
if the fifth decimal number is a cipher, carry to 
the sixth decimal place. This is necessary for 
accurate distribution) The result will be the 
price to be paid per pound of fat. 
4. Multiply the number of pounds of fat 
furnished by each patron by the price per 
pound of fat. The result will be the total 
amount of money to be paid such patrons. 
The sum of the amounts due patrons should 
be equal to the amount determined by calcula¬ 
tion No. 2. 
If, after reading this, there are any 
points that are not entirely clear to you, 
I w ill be glad to have you write me further 
and will do anything I can to explain. 
If you care to do so, I would be glad to 
have you send me a summary of your 
first month's payment.— W. E. Ayres, 
New' York. 
Additional copies of the bulletins men¬ 
tioned previously may be obtained by 
writing the mailing department of the 
New York State College of Agriculture at 
Ithaca. 
TREATING DOG FOR WORMS 
Will you kindly let me know what to give four months 
old hounds to rid them of worms. I have been feeding 
them skimmed milk since they were born and I notice 
now they have worms.—C. G., New York, 
H AVE the following compounded at 
your local pharmacy: wormseed 
oil 1 drachm, castor oil 1 ounce, croton 
oil 1 min. Give each animal l 4 ounce of 
the mixture repeating it in about one 
w'eek’s time. 
299 
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