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Show TWO HUNDRED POUNDS OF BUTTER FAT PER COW. A Nebraska correspondent who is thinking of engaging in dairy farming farm-ing in partnership with the owner of the fajmi writes that he does not wish to have any cows that produce less than ttfo hundred pounds of butter but-ter fat per year, and asks where he can get such cows. Our correspondent is right in fixing fix-ing two hundred pounds of butter fat, which would be about two hundred and thirty pounds of buter, as the minimum. It is generally conceded by dairymen that under ordinary farm conditions it requires from one hundred hun-dred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty pounds gf gutter fat to pay the expense of keep, counting the manure as equivalent to the labor. It will be seen, therefore, that there is considerable profit on cows that give from eighty to one hundred pounds of butter fat as net profit. This class of cows can not be picked pick-ed up in a day, and there arc some places in which wc ar.c quite sure not to find them. They will not be found in herds on which beef bulls have been used exclusively for two or three generations. They will not ordinarily ordinar-ily be found in herds where the calves have been running with the cows; in other words, where the cows have not been milked. There arc plenty of cow9 in beef herds that will give enough milk for two calves, but these arc not usually suitable for the dairy because they dry up in about four or five months. It is not difficult to secure se-cure cows of that capacity in the special purpose breeds, and they should be found in almost any neighborhood neigh-borhood where a good class of Jerseys, Jer-seys, Holstcins, or Guernseys have "been in common use for a number of years. They may also be found in neighborhoods where dual purpose Short-horns have been kept, but not with an equal degree of certainty. Tf wc were establishing a herd of that kind wc think the best way would be to determine on the breed, and then buy in neighborhood where this breed has been used for a number num-ber of years heifers bred and coming two years old. Even then a good deal of weeding out must be done; for wc know of no breed of cattle that has ibeen developed to a point where every heifer calf will prove :i good milker. Another point must be considered, namely, that these cows, whether heifers or mature- x:ows, must be fed a balanced ration. The Kansas Station Sta-tion has shown quite conclusively that it is possible to go out among the farmers and buy cows that have been milked for farm. purposes only, and of no fc scial breeding, and by feeding them .properly develop individuals indi-viduals that will give from two hundred hund-red to three hundred pounds of butter but-ter fat. Feed and1 care arc quite as important as the breeding. Where farmers intend to use the dual purpose cow they would do well o confine their selections to animals that have large prepotency either of Bates blood or blood of the American -saisajQd, tQ buvnotjiigg exeent where they have been accustomed to H being milked. There arc herds in H several states that average three hund- H pounds of butter fat and over,, and M such herd's can in time be developed and any farmer who will carefully M study the requirements of the milk cow in breeding, care, and feeding. H Wallace's Farmer. H |
