Butter Making     |     Cattle and Dairy

grain for each three pounds of milk produced.

Cows Differ

     Where it can be practiced, individual feeding for results is worth while.  Cows are not mere uniform machines; they differ greatly, and the only way to get the best response at the milk-pail from various combinations of rations is to try them out on each cow, to ascertain the limit of responsiveness.

Churning and Temperature

     The butterfat in milk or cream is in the form of very small globules that are held apart by a thin coating of milk serum around each globule of fat.  The object in churning is to throw the fat globules together with enough force to break through the serum layer and make the fat globules stick together.  The ease with which this can be done will depend upon the temperature of the fat globules, and this temperature is controlled by the three factors--period of lactation, feed and weather.

How Long Since Calving

Butterfat Changes Slowly

     The time that cream is held at any temperature will have quite an influence.  Milk serum changes temperature very much faster than fat.  Therefore, if cream is held at a low temperature for only a short time, the fat of the cream has not become so cold as the milk serum, and the churning temperature may be set lower than when cream has been held at a low temperature for a long time.  If the day is very cold the cream may chill as it is being churned, and this often is the reason why butter takes so long to come.  If the temperature is taken during such a churning, it will be found to be lower than when the churning began.

     There is no fixed rule for churning temperatures.  Only practice can determine this.  Use a thermometer, determine the best temperature for different conditions, and save patience, time and money.

66

How to Do Things

Cattle and Dairy     |     How Much Fat

How Much Fat in Cream?

It Depends on Temperature

[Illustration: The amount of fat in the cream was about the same, no matter whether separated at 70°, 80° or 90°; but the weight of cream was greater when separated at 90°]

     Temperature of the whole milk has a direct effect on the percentage of fat in the cream and the skimmed milk.  The illustration shows the average results of tests with five types of separators.  The tests were made to show the effect of variations in temperature on the amount of fat in cream that was separated.  These should interest every man owning a cream separator, as they will aid him in securing a greater profit with the same effort.

     The temperature of milk being separated should be such that the milk will flow easily, facilitating rapid and thorough separation of the cream and the skimmed milk.  It is a wise plan to separate the milk as soon as possible after it comes from the cow.  In that case, the temperature is high enough that a thorough separation is effected.  If the milk is allowed to cool after being drawn, the temperature needs to be raised to about 85 degrees or 90 degrees to secure the best results when separated.

     Many dairymen think that there is an advantage in having the whole milk at a low temperature, because the cream possesses a higher percentage of fat when the temperature is low.  However, in these tests the loss of fat in the skimmed milk was greater.  It should be noticed that the weight of fat in the whole milk and in all three pails of cream was approximately the same, but that there was a distinct variation in the weight of the cream, and this is the cash end of the dairy business.

     The richness of cream or the percentage of fat, derived from whole milk by use of a separator may be regulated by either the cream screw or skimmed milk screw.

67

 How to Do Things

Calf Feeding     |     Cattle and Dairy

The Hand-Fed Calf

     The average man makes a mighty poor "wet nurse" for a calf.  Too often he seems to think that the calf should be as hungry as possible at feeding time so that it will take a hearty meal.  For that reason he lets it have but two big drinks of milk, night and morning.

     That is a wrong and unnatural way of feeding a young calf.  Watch nature's plan.  The youngster takes a suck or two of milk at frequent intervals, changing teats now and then and often kneading the udder with its head.  Note that it sucks the milk instead of drinking it, and sucking is a comparatively slow process.  On the contrary, when the calf is fed by hand, the man who arrives with the pail of milk is usually in a big hurry, and so makes the calf hurry up the drinking process as much as possible; then he wonders why the calf suffers from indigestion, or at least fails to thrive.

Why Nature's Way is Best

     What a difference there is in the appearance of the hand-fed calf, raised on the plan we have outlined, and the suckling calf at six weeks of age!  The difference surely is an argument in favor of the natural plan of feeding.  The natural plan gives the better results for the reason that the milk is sucked in small quantities, so slowly that it mixes at every swallow with the saliva poured into the mouth during the operation.  The saliva renders the milk alkaline and properly prepares it for the fourth stomach which contains the ferment (rennin, of rennet) that curdles the milk.  When a calf drinks fast the milk is swallowed without addition of the necessary amount of saliva and, entering the fourth stomach, is quickly coagulated into a tough curd which can not be easily digested by the calf.  Indigestion of one form or another is the natural consequence.  The calf may scour acutely and die, or suffer from less acute chronic scouring and fail to thrive.  Or it may suffer from a sudden acute attack of indigestion characterized by a fatal fit or convulsion; or it may show no severe symptoms, but fail to grow and look as well as it should do or would do if properly fed.

Better Let Wife Do It

     The lesson from all this is that it would be better, if possible, to have a woman do the calf feeding.  If that can not be managed, then have it done by a mature, careful person, as young children do not understand the importance of careful feeding.  Then try to feed milk at least three times a day, instead of twice, and from a self-feeder which will make sucking necessary.  If that can not be done, then make the calf drink slowly and keep it stanchioned for some time after feeding.  this alone will prevent a great many cases of severe indigestion, and most of the chronic indigestion so common among hand-fed calves.

     Next remember that the fourth stomach, or true digestive stomach (abomasum), is the only one ready

68

How to Do Things

Cattle and Dairy     |     Which to Raise

     in the young calf to digest or care for food.  The first stomach (paunch or rumen) is undeveloped at first and can not care for roughage.  It therefore is a serious mistake to make the calf eat coarse fodder too early, in place of feeding sufficient milk and easily digested meals which go almost directly into the fourth stomach.  The calf fed on roughage becomes pot-bellied and stunted, and the growth which should be made during calfhood, if not made then, can not be attained later.  The proper feeding and developing of the young heifer calf really is more important work than the feeding of the adult dairy cow.

Just What Calves Shall Be Raised

     Everybody says at once, "Mostly heifers."  Of course this is wise.  But if we are going to raise cows, and three-quarters of them sell for less money than they actually have cost us, what is the use?  The fact is wee need to raise something besides merely heifers.  That a heifer at milking age has cost nearly or quite $75 is an undisputed fact today.  It has been demonstrated time and again.  And this doesn't include the time spent on the calf nor the interest on capital invested and in use.

Consider the Mother

     The remedy is to follow common-sense rules like the ensuing, and not be led by sentiment even then.  Certainly raise full-bloods if it is possible, and it is possible more often than some folks can realize.  Remember, the daughter of a cow that is irritable, and subject to irregularity in milking every day or two because unduly excitable, will very rarely make a good dairy animal.  Discard her.  A man we know has just given away a two-months-old heifer because her dam has developed a tendency to become excited over trifles that make her milk record fall every few days.  He doesn't want another like her.

Physical Qualifications

     Select a calf with a broad muzzle, one that is a hungry feeder and having a docile disposition if you wish to mature a cow that will produce the largest amount of milk or fat from a given quantity of food.  The calf must be lengthy, full of vitality, and possessed of four good teats, evenly set at four corners equidistant.  We know a heifer about to come in that has seven teats.  If a real udder shows in a calf, so much the better.  Good markings are worth while, but are not of supreme importance.

     Pedigree is excellent, but it is not of so much value as high performance in the calf's direct ancestors, specially should the calf's sire and that sire's dam be high-brows.  The calf's dam should be a choice cow, but her sire cannot be too well bred to insure her future.  Also, if the calf's granddam and great-granddam on the sire's side were not cows of great natural individual ability, do not waste good money and time on the calf.

69

How to Do Things

Cure for Lice     |     Cattle and Dairy

Lice on Farm Animals

     Owing to the closer confinement of animals during the winter season, lousiness is usually more prevalent than in summer.  Lice are of two general classes or kinds; namely, those with wide mouth parts adapted for piercing the skin--"blood-sucking" lice--and those adapted for feeding upon the hair and other products of the skin--"biting" lice.

     Treatment is usually very satisfactory in ridding the animals of lice, but the difficulty comes in keeping them free.  It is necessary, therefore, not only to destroy the adult lice and those hatching from the nits on the animals, but also to free the quarters in which the animals are kept.

Disinfectants to Use

     Frequent spraying of the quarters with some efficient disinfectant will do much to prevent or limit the infestation.  For this purpose creolin or other coal-tar disinfectants in five per cent. solutions, kerosene or kerosene emulsion, corrosive sublimate, 1-1000, or whitewash containing disinfectants, may be used.

     Applications to the infested animals should be made two or three times at four or five day intervals, so as to destroy any lice hatching from nits since the previous application.

     Creolin and other coal-tar disinfectants in two per cent. solution, or kerosene emulsion may be safely used.  Kerosene emulsion is made as follows:  Disolve one-half pound of common soap in one gallon of boiling water; while hot, pour in two gallons of kerosene, care being taken to remove the vessel from the stove before addign kerosene, and stir for ten minutes; when ready to use add one part of this solution to nine parts of water and thoroughly mix.  Smaller quantities can be prepared in like proportions.

     The applications can be made by a cloth or sponge to the affected parts, they can be sprayed on from a sprinkling can, or, better by a spray pump.  If the hair or wool is long, better results will be obtained by clipping the animals before making the applications.

Baby Beef

     A creep should be provided in the pasture so that calves may have access to grain without being disturbed by cows, as it is very important to start beef calves on grain before they are weaned.  They may be kept in a separate lot into which the cows are turned twice a day, if this method is preferred.  In this case there will, of course, be no need for creeps or anything else to keep cows from the grain, which may be fed at such times that the cows will not disturb the calves.

     The calves may be started on a mixture of two parts shelled corn to

70

How to Do Things

Cattle and Dairy     |     Water Needed

one part of oats by weight.  The oats may be gradually reduced until none are being fed at the end of eight weeks; but while this is being done a little old-process linseed oil-meal or cottonseed-meal should be added and the quantity gradually increased until it makes up about a seventh of the weight of the ration.  On full feed calves should eat about two pounds of grain for every 100 pounds live weight, in addition to good roughage.  Well-bred calves handled in this way should be in prime condition at the end of about ten or twelve months.

Water Helps Calves Grow

     Every well-informed mother knows how important it is that her babe shall have water.  No matter if he has plenty of milk, he must have water also, and the more milk he uses the more water is required by his little system.  We know these things but forget that the same principle applies to babies in the animal world.  I confess, myself, last year, to having been among the thoughtless.  We attempted to raise a dozen calves.  They had an abundance of skimmed milk, good feed, a good grain ration and care, but for weeks they did not do well. They seemed to be crying day after day for something more.  Finally they began to cough, one and all of them.

     Alarmed, I stated the case to one of the experiment stations, and was told that tuberculosis might be feared.  But we had scarcely received the reply when my wife began to make inquiries.  Almost the first question she asked was, "Do the calves get all the good drinking water they need?"  It requires a woman to bring up young stock and make good animals of them.  Manlike, I took exception to the question at once, and argued that "this talk about calves needing water is all moonshine.  They need it just as sheep do.  Did you ever carry a sheep a pail of water and see it turn away in disgust?"  "But do these calves have water?  I really want to know."  This was her stand.

     I had to admit finally that they did not.  We were awfully busy and had forgotten that part of it.  Then we began to supply water as well as milk, and it would have done you good to see them drink it and gain.  Almost immediately the coughing began to decrease and growth to increase.  I had learned one more lesson.

     This summer every calf gets water twice a day, regardless of its age, sex or complexion.  If he is a little baby, kept in a cool shed away from heat and flies, water is carried to him.  And it is quite surprising the amount each one drinks.  Even young calves will rarely refuse water, cold or warm, and right after warm milk.  I am disposed to believe that want of plenty of pure water encourages scours and prevents benefit from good food, and so dwarfs the young animal.

71

How to Do Things

Marking Animals     |     Cattle and Dairy

Marking Systems for Animals

     Did you ever hear of friends becoming enemies because one man's stock crept through the fence into his neighbor's field, or into the road, and the ownership could not be definitely established because it was not marked?  Or did you ever know a man who spent his life in building up a good herd, only to have his efforts largely wasted at his death because his animals were not marked in such a way that they could be identified in the records he left?  Such things often happen.

     A good system of marking stock will prevent such things.  Earmarking is used more than any other system.  The tattoo method, Fig. 1, is the best for most purposes.

[Illustration: Fig. 1]

It is simple, effective, permanent, painless, and does not disfigure the animals.  An instrument something like a hog-ringer is used to tattoo numbers or letters in colored ink beneath the skin of the ear.  It can be used on cattle, sheep and swine.  Some breeders do not like this method for animals with dark skin, but red ink can be used for those animals, and the marks show plainly on examination.  A set of figures which can be changed makes it possible to tattoo any number beneath the skin.

     Buttons, Fig. 2, are much used for swine, each button bearing a number and some symbol to establish the animal's ownership.

[Illustration: Fig. 2, Fig. 3]

72

How to Do Things

Cattle and Dairy     |     Shipping

stock, the herd book number may be used.  Then the registry association can tell all about the animal in case the owner's records are lost or destroyed by fire.  Where animals are not registered, the number on the ear must refer to the animal's entry on the breeder's record, where the sire and dam can be determined, as well as other points of interest.

     A plan used with horned animals is to brand a number on the horn.  This practice disfigures the horn, and when a horn is broken off, the number is gone.

Live Stock Shipping Association

     The main purpose of these associations is to enable their members to ship in car-load lots to the central markets, instead of being more or less at the mercy of local buyeers in disposing of a few animals from time to time.  The fact that no capital is required for the organization of such an association makes thes associations possible in communitites in which more complicated forms of co-operation would not succeed.  Such associations are scarcely practicable, however, in regions where there is so much live stock that it is generally marketed in car-load lots under any circumstances, or where there is so little that the association has practically nothing with which to work.

How to Organize

     To organize such an association it is only necessary for the farmers of the community to meet together, adopt a simple constitution and by-laws, to elect officers, and, in turn, for them to appoint a manager.

     It is recommended, although it is not absolutely necessary, that the organization incorporate.  This can be done at a nominal cost--usually not more than $10.  For this small expenditure of trouble and money, the association usually enables the farmer to market his stock when it is ready, instead of compelling him to wait until the local shipper is ready to buy it.  He obtains for himself the benefits of the cheaper car-load transportation, and the shipments of the association realize for the owner the market price for his stock less the actual cost of marketing.  In this particular it has been found that when thin stock, calves or lambs are sold in small numbers, the local price is usually very low.  It is on this class of stock that the associations have been able to save their members the most money.

Stock Should Be Marketed

     In order to avoid misunderstanding, it is important that all stock be marked at the shipping point.  This precaution prevents disputes in regard to shrinkage and dockage, and assists in making adjustments in case of loss or damage in transit.  There are three common methods of marking.  Numbers or other characters may be clipped in some conspicuous part of the animal, paint may be employed, or numbered

73

How to Do Things

Hand Milking     |     Cattle and Dairy

ear tags used.  The last method is the less frequent because it is somwhat difficult at the stockyards to get close enough to the animal to see the number on the tag.  If the second method is adopted, ordinary paint is undesirable, especially for hogs, as it does not dry readily enough to prevent smearing.  This difficulty may be overcome by using paint containing about one-fourth varnish.  In the case of sheep, however, painting is objectionable because the marks will not scour out and wool manufacturers object to them, and branding fluid therefore is preferable.

     Since no payments are made for stock shipped until returns from the central market are obtained, these co-operative associations may be formed without capital.  All that is necessary is for the farmers to comply with their engagement to furnish the stock tothe manager when, where and in such quantitites as they say they will.  In some associations a fixed sum of money is exacted from a shipper for failure to deliver stock to the manager as agreed.  In every case the amount to be exacted should be reasonable, and should fairly represent the actual loss which it is estimated the association will suffer as the result of non-delivery.  Fuller details in regard to the organization and management of such associations are contained in Farmer's Bulletin No. 718.  Address Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

Scientific Hand Milking

Its Importance Often Overlooked

     Too little attention is paid to the subject o f scientific hand milking.  A poor miler may easily do enough harm in a herd of cows in one year to equal in loss the amount of his wages.  In other words, it would pay to hand him his year's salary in a lump sum and "buy him off" instead of allowing him to milk poorly ten or twelve cows each night and morning.  Such a milker, if he is rough, cross, noisy, unclean, irregular or imperfect in his milking, may quickly or gradually dry off the cows.

A School Would Be Good

     We know of one case in which a beginner, in two months, completely dried off the milk secretion in the cow upon which he was allowed to practise.  In another case a new milker by his roughness and harshness so reduced the milk flow that the owner had

74

How to Do Things

Cattle and Dairy     |     Hand Milking

to fire him in self-defense.  It probably is a fact that in every herd where the milk is not weighed night and morning and close tally kept, one or another of the milkers is doing indifferent or disastrous work.  In Great Britain girls who are taking up farm work are learning to milk by practising on dummy cows until they become sufficiently expert safely to tackle the living animal.  It would be well were our boys and would-be hired hands put through such a course of training to make them proficient without spoiling or injuring a cow or two in the process.

The Milker Often to Blame

     Seeking the cause for many mysterious cases of intermittent garget experienced in some dairies, it must be suspected that the milker often is to blame.

[Illustration: two hands milking]

  We think that incomplete milking is a possible cause, but one that is little suspected.  The way a milker feels at milking time will in many instances determine the amount of milk he obtains.  If he quickly extracts it all, it will be well for the cow and the mployer.  If he is in a hurry, indifferent, tired or feeling sick, and does not strip the cow clean, slight, unexplained garget may result.  If such work continues, the cow will soon show a serious shrink in milk, prove profitless or dry off entirely and have to be discarded.

     It would be a good plan for every dairyman, especially in herds where slight cases of garget are prevalent, to have an expert strip the cows ten minutes after the milkers have finished.  By this means some very rich milk will be obtained for use on the farmer's table and at the same time a check will be kept on the work of each milker, and some cases of garget possibly prevented.  Knowing that the cows are going to be stripped the milker will, if conscientious and anxious to please, milk just as well and completely as he knows how, and so all concerned will be benefited.  If he is the other sort of a worker he will be detected and discharged before he has done permanent damage.

Fast Milking Pays

     The man who can make the milk fairly boil in the pail and raise a lot of foam usually is getting the maximum flow of milk from each cow; while the slow milker no matter how particular and faithful he may be, often fails to get all that the cow would let down to the fast milking expert.  A change of milkers may have a good or bad effect.  In one experiment, two equally proficient milkers changed cows and at once there was an increase in milk yield from each lot of cows.  A change of milkers however, more commonly results in a decrease in milk production, and this sometimes is so noticeable that the accustomed milker has to resume his work with affected cows.

75

How to Do Things

Corn Ensilage     |     Cattle and Dairy

Feeding Corn Ensilage

     Some farmers express disappointment at the results they have had from feeding corn ensilage to milch cows, and in most cases their disappointment is due to misunderstanding the properties of their feed.

     They seem to have begun with the idea that corn silage is a complete feed and that cows need nothing else.  For the benefit of the dissatisfied, here are a few tested and satisfactory formulas:

     Corn silage, thirty pounds; clover hay, eight pounds; gluten-feed, dry (not meal), four and two-thirds pounds; cornmeal, three and one-third pounds per day.

     Or, alfalfa hay, six and one-quarter pounds; or cow-pea hay, five pounds; or soy-bean hay, five and one-half pounds, in place of the clover hay, but with the silage, gluten and meal the same.

     Or, to meet the needs of many others, use corn stover (cut), eight pounds per day, with the silage, gluten and meal; but add three pounds good wheat bran.

     Or, if you use gluten-meal in place of gluten-feed, take about three to four pounds (depending on the grade), and add a couple of pounds more corn-meal.

     Or, if preferred, in place of the gluten first mentioned, use two or three pounds cottonseed-meal; or, one and one-half pounds wheat bran.

     The proportions mentioned for each of these sugggested combinations make an average cow's daily portion.  Some cows require less, some more.

Making the Babcock Test

     When a man begins to think of testing his cows and keeping a record of them, he is getting on higher ground.  Without recording the length of time a cow is in milk, her total milk production and its fat contents, no man is able to build up a great and a paying herd.  The use of the Babcock milk-testing machine may be learned by anybody.  It is a centrifugal machine which hold annealed glass bottles that are carefully gauged and with measurements marked on their necks.  The process was invented by Prof. S. M. Babcock, who gave it to the world without patenting it to make money for himself, and it has made millions of dollars for dairymen.

     To test milk, first carefully stir it from the bottom up, or pour it from pail to pail, but do not churn it.  This

76

How to Do Things

Cattle and Dairy     |     Babcock Test

is to mix it well and so get a true sample.   As soon as it is quiet, suck up into the milk pipette more than enough to cover the mark, 17.5 cubic centimeters (c.c.), cap the end with the finger and slowly let the milk drop out until its upper level agrees with the mark.  Then pipe it into one o fthe bottles of the machine, where it will be safe from change, if needful, for a week.  If the test is to be made at once, pipe in a similar amount of sulphuric acid, taking care not to get it on the hands or clothes, as it is a powerful acid.  When putting it into the milk, let it flow down from the inside of the bottle and not run directly into the milk, as this will blacken or burn the curd and prevent a clear reading.  Acid and milk should be at 60 degrees temperature to produce clear readings.  Buy acid with a specific gravity of about 1.82.  As soon as the acid is added, take the bottle by the neck and gently swirl the contents until they are thoroughly mixed.  The curd must be fully dissolved.  Then close the machine and whirl the samples for five minutes at a speed of about 700 to 1,200 revolutions per minute.  Next fill each bottle to the base of the neck with hot water and whirl for two minutes more.  Then fill to about the seven per cent. mark and repeat the whirling for two minutes.  The measuring of the fat must be made while the sample is hot.  Measure from the top of the curved upper level.

[Illustration: Pipette, whole milk bottle, acid jar]

If the fat extends from 0 to 4 in the neck there is just four per cent. fat, or four pounds of fat in 100 pounds of milk.  If it should run from two to seven, the amount is five percent.  The scale is graduated so that tenths of pounds are as easily read as full pounds.  A little practice with the machine will readily make any boy an expert in its use.

     When testing milk it must not be forgotten that the fat contents do not measure the exact butter production.  For instance, if milk is four per cent. fat, it should make about four and one-half pounds of butter, because in all butter there is some water, salt and minute parts of other things, like ash.  If there was no loss in churning, and the overrun were just sixteen per cent. (the law forbids it to be more), the amount would be four and sixty-four one-hundredths pounds.  The buttermaker who is getting but 109 or 110 pounds of butter from 100 pounds of fats is not doing so well as he should.  The loss of fats in churning should never exceed one and one-half per cent. in the buttermilk, and may be less.

     Any dairyman who does not own and operate a good Babcock milk tester and keep records of all his individual cows, should not complain if his purse tells him that "farming doesn't pay," for in all untested herds are cows that eat up the profits which should go to the owner.

77

How to Do Things

Kindness to Stock     |     Cattle and Dairy

Love of Horses and Cows

     I have frequently read of the importance of being kind to cows and horses; to speak quietly and avoid exciting them.

     From practical experience with cows, calves and horses, I have come to the conclusion that they recognize what is required of them by the tone of the voice alone until they associate certain words, short ones, as meaning a definite action on their part.  The fewer words the better.

Curing a Kicking Cow

     I can illustrate the method I have found to be most satisfactory by giving instances.  For thirty-four months I have had entire charge and care of two cows that were calved on the premises.  One was cross and turbulent.  She was broken to milking by placeing a cord around her so as to catch her flank, and that would pinch her at any attempt at kicking.

[Illustration: cord for cow that kicks]

  She soon learned that the pinch was her own doing and stood fairly quiet; but if the cording work was forgotten, her milk did not reach the separator.

     The other cow I broke to milking myself, but she had a long reach and I used a device I saw in use on the farm I lived on in Yorkshire, England.  I t consists of a soft rope, having a loop at one end and a cross-piece of wood to fit the loop when twisted around the hocks.

     This cow expects the movement of putting the cord on and places her feet together as a part of the operation.

Making Milking Comfortable

     Bathing the udder with some warm water, taking care to dry it perfectly, and in cold weather using a small quantity of vaseline to prevent chapping, and making the action of tripping more agreeable to both man and cattle, are what I call kindess to animals.

A Remedy for Bot-Worms

     More important, perhaps, is to mention a safe and sure remedy for bot-worms in horses.  You may never have heard of the following method:  Obtain the young leaves of English walnut trees--they are plentiful in Pennsylvania; dry them carefully in a moderately hot oven so as to scorch them; pulverize them, keep them in an airtight jar and give a teaspoonful in the grain feed once a day--morning feed.  In a few days if there are bots they will pass out in clumps and the horse will get the good of all his feed.  There is no reaction from this medicine.  I have used it for years in America and have known it in use in England for seventy years; probably in use long before my time.

78

How to Do Things

Cattle and Dairy     |     Unprofitable Cows

How to Find the Robber Cows

     The farmers and dairymen of the United States are milking 14,000,000 cows twice a day, spending good money to feed them, devoting many hours to their care, and yet are not getting one cent of profit out of them.

     Allowing ten minutes for the milking and care of each of these cows 700 times a year, it is found that on the average every farmer in the United States is spending 72.2 days in work for which he gets not one cent of profit.
    
     There is just one way to account for the fact that we keep on feeding and milking these 14,000,000 unprofitable cows--which is, we do not realize that we are doing it.

     We are milking good and poor cows alike, giving them the same degree of care, not knowing that part or all of the profit earned from part of the herd is being wasted because some of the remainder are not even paying for their feed.



[Illustration: scale]

     There is only one way to find out which cow is a profitmaker and which should be fattened and butchered without delay, and it is not hard to learn and practise.  That way is by the Babcock test, the scales and the milk sheet.

     By this method the poor cow can be detected very quickly, and at the same time the milk and butter production of each cow is known at the end of each month.

     Not only are poor cows found, but the good ones as well, so that the owner knows from which cows to save his heifer calves.  When this is accomplished he has taken a big step toward doubling the production of his herd.

Weigh the Milk

     For the quick and convenient weighing of milk there are many kinds of scales on the market which will do if they weigh correctly.  The handiest kind is shown in the illustration.
 
     It costs about $2.50, will weigh up to sixty pounds, and is substantial enough to keep accurate for many years.  To weigh each cow's milk is the work of a few seconds.  It takes but a second or two more to record the weight on the milk sheet.

     The sheet is so ruled that each cow's name appears at the top of her own column, and each day's milk yield, both morning and evening, can be put down.  At the bottom of the page are spaces for the month's total of pounds, the average butterfat test and the total pounds of butterfat, which is found by multiplying the total of milk by the percentage of butterfat shown in the average test for the month.  By the use of this sheet each cow's exact work is known.  There is no guesswork about which cow is the good cow and which is less profitable.  No sane man can afford to keep cows and not find out by weighing the milk which are the good and which are the poor ones.

79

How to Do Things

Use of Scales     |     Cattle and Dairy

The Scale is the Foot-Rule of Stock Raising

     Something like ten years ago we put in our platform scale.  After we had had it for a short time we were only sorry we had been without it so long.  There is a pleasure in dealing with certainties.  I do not believe with the Psalmist, in his haste, "that all men are liars."  Neither do I believe that all men are dishonest.  The laws are not for those who obey, but for those who have not been educated up to the point of obedience.  Scales make for honesty.  "To err is human," and we often err when such a thing never once entered the mind.

Don't Guess--Weigh It!

     It is one thing to say that it is a ton or that an animal weights 100 pounds.  You may say so and then proceed to check your weight.  It may be right, it may not.  The scale will tell you.  Definiteness gives a man poise.  Resolving to be accurate resolves itself into dollars and cents, and that is the acid test today!  How much is there in it for me? asks the man you want to hire.

Weigh the Rations

     The successful farmer, as well as the successful man in business, is first of all methodical.  He has a system worked out that he follows, even though you may not know it.  The Babcock tester has helped him weed out the cows that are not 100 per cent. efficient.  The weighing of milk has stopped leaks and the man who works with these things and is all the time studying, begins to do a little experimenting in feeding.  And in doing so he comes to know about "balanced rations."  To feed these he needs to get the right proportions, and here a reliable scale comes in.  Or the man may have a poor field.  He gets the soil tested and the analysis reveals its needs, in order to grow a certain crop.  He needs a scale to get the right proportions of the elements in the fertilizer that are required.  If he has a scale, he can feed certain animals certain kinds of feeds, and weighing before and at the end of the experiment see if they have gained or lost weight.

Buy a Good Scale

     My scale is large enough for all kinds of weighing.  The pit was made of brick, but concrete does well.  The scale was located handy to the various buildings, in a spot that was high and dry.  Care was taken to have the foundation level and firm.  The approaches were plank.  At its installation it was so delicately adjusted that a silver dollar thrown on the platform affected the weighing beam.  It has never cost a cent for repairs.

     Ten years is a long, long time and many changes and improvements have come, and with it a pitless platform scale.  All that is necessary is to place the scale on firm ground and supply inclined approaches and it is ready.

80

How to Do Things

Cattle and Dairy     |     Use of Scales

Poor Scale Worse Than None

     A worthless scale is worse than none.  Unless you can accurately weigh and know you are right, better not weigh at all.  That means to get a reliable scale, well made and finely adjusted so that it will stay in repair.  Most scales will weigh pretty well at first, but unless they are made to last they lose their accuracy and are a snare and delusion to their owner.  A farm scale is subjected to hard wear and tear in the natural run of affairs, and it must be built to stand hard knocks.

     Now we don't know any more about a scale than we do about a diamond, because it isn't in our line.  So the only way to do when we want to buy, is to go to a firm with a reputation and character, and depend upon them and let them put it in.  They have made a specialty of scales just as you have of certain farm lines, and know how.  A firm stakes its reputation on the character of its goods.  A reliable firm will not betray your trust, for it knows that a pleased customer is the best advertisement.

81

[Page 81 is continued under "Horses"]

‹ Table of Contents up Horses ›

• Login or register to post comments

Copyright © 2006-2008 by Tumbledown Farm.

Web Search