FARM NOTES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 777, 20 October 1922, Page 6

FARM NOTES.

THE BIGGEST EAfTERS ARE THE BEST COWS

“Yes. I swear by 'this cow here/' an old’ .dairy farmer once remarked to the writer, “She is one of the smallest eaters in the stable and yet she always has a thrifty appearance/’ A little later this farmer was “persuaded by the Dairy Record Centre man to enter his heijd in the local cow testing work. A year after that the thrifty cow took her way to the butcher as the least profitable cow in the herd. If she was a small eater and a good “.doer/ she was also an even smaller} producer. The most profitable .cows in the stable were the ones with big middles and lots of capacity to handle food. And it is ever so. With very few exceptions, the breeding being- >the same, the big cow is the more profitable. This is no't only tha experience of observant dairymen, but of experimentalists as well. Prof, Henry, of Winconsin investigated this point many years ago and his conclusions nave never been contradicted by subsequent work. A report on a similar nature has just been made by the United States Department of Agriculture only this re. port proves that the big eaters are the more profitable. According- to figuers based on 18,014 yearly individual cows records as butterfat production increased from 100 to 400 pounds there was a regular Increase of about 1 bdollars in income over feed cost per cow for every 50 pounds l c,f increase in average production of butter-fat. As the yield of butterfat increased from ,100 pounds to 356 pounds, the return above -the dollar expended for fee.d increased from 35 cents to 1.52 dollars. The cows having an average milk production of 3.25'0 pounds showed an average income of 32.25 dollars over the cost of feed, while, those producing 13,250 pounds showed an average income in the latter group produced about four times as much as those in the other group, and their average income over cost of feed was nearly seven times as great. The increase in income above the feed cost grew regularly with the increase in production. “A study of these records shows that it pays best ty> putt feed into big producers, even though, thev are big eaters, says the department.