THE FARM.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 96, 20 February 1880, Page 4

THE FARM.

UNPROFITABLE DAIRY COWS. In a conversation, a few days ago, with a successful dairyman—a man who has been in the business all his life—we asked what percentage of the cows upon farms in the West, where dairy farming is a prominent part of the routine, pay a profit to their owners ? His answer was “Probably notmore than one-fourth.” This gentleman is an experienced, observing dairyman, and his opinion is of weight. If he has not under.-esti • mated the number of paying cows in the dairies of the West, it is a matter of serious concern for dairymen ; or if he has, the fact remains that a very large percentage of cows kept for dairy purposes do not yield a cent of profit, but on the other hand reduce the profits which the paying cows annually bring in. We are not disposed to doubt the estimate of our friend the dairyman. He is competent to form an opinion on the subject, and lias no object in giving any other opinion than that based upon an honest judgment. He has no stock for sale, nor does he breed any for that purpose. He has had remarkable success in his business, because he knows how to conduct it in order to make it pay. He has kept an account with his cows for years, and if one does not pay her expenses or a profit, she goes to the block. His cows give milk ten months in the year, and a quantity sufficient to bring in a revenue over and above their keeping. He raises the heifer calves from his best cows, and uses bulls from milking strains of purebred cattle, for he knows that when it comes to breeding for milk as well as for beef, the bull is half the herd. The system which prevails so largely of killing all, or nearly all, the calves, and filling up the herd with cows picked up here and there, is an expensive one. To get good milch cows with absolute certainty they must be raised, and the new departure of taking cream instead of milk to the creameries makes it more easy to do this than has been the case heretofore in butter dairies. But it is not difficult to raise calves even in cheese dairies with proper management. We propose at another time to take this branch of the subject up, and show wherein the present policy is shortsighted and suicidal. It is in this way—that is, raising the calves of the best cows —that the unprofitable stock can be weeded out, and their places filled with cows that in quantity and quality of milk during ten months of the year pay a profit to their owners. —Prairie Farmer.