This dairy farm is typical of many improved operations
in the Midwest. Old stanchion lines are no longer suffi
cient to handle larger, expanded herds. Raised, walk
through milking parlors have been added to permit faster
milking and less back work for the operator. Dairy farms
with herds like this can often produce twice as much net
profit per man as formerly.
C hanges in breeding . . . changes in feeding . . . changes
in milking . . . changes in marketing . . . and, above all,
changes in management — these have been compounded
one on top of another until today’s dairyman has little
resemblance to his counterpart of a generation ago.
Take the matter of breeding, for example. More than
a third of the dairy cows of this nation have never seen a
bull because they’ve been bred artificially. Artificial
breeding in turn has made it possible to breed to proven
dairy sires — bulls whose transmitting ability for dairy
production is certain because they have already been
tested. One of the nation’s largest artificial insemination
organizations figures that the use of proved sires will
jump production at least a thousand pounds per cow per
year on daughter and dam comparisons.
Frozen semen can extend the useful life of a bull al
most indefinitely. Tranquilizers and hormones are chang
ing the timetable in the field of animal biology. Sexed
semen, so new it is not yet commercially available, will
make it possible to buy a heifer or bull as you desire when
your cow is bred artificially.
In the matter of feeds, hay wafers and hay pellets,
complete rations with roughage mixed in with the pro
tein supplements are all available now. One of the most
fundamental differences in feeding today has been the
general lowering of the protein ration by progressive
dairymen from 16% to a 13% level. New methods of stor
ing hay and grain, some of it directly in air-tight silos,
make it possible to get more nutrients from the roughage.
As for cow milking, perhaps that has changed most
of all. No longer is it a stoop and squat job in a damp,
dark and poorly ventilated bam. Instead, modem pic
ture window parlors make it possible for dairymen to en
joy the scenery outside, get the benefits of natural lighting,
and generally have a pleasant place to work. Such in
stallations now in use are paying handsome rewards to
the dairyman. Cows are elevated so they are convenient
to milk. Feeding is done automatically by augers, and
pipeline milkers have taken over where the old bucket
used to ring. A new low line milking system that lets
milk flow downhill to the tank solves many old problems
of sanitation and rancidity. Modem milking machines
make it possible for one man to milk 75 cows instead of
the usual 10 or 15. With a high-producing herd and com
Eletely modem setup, one man can produce in the neigh
orhood of a million pounds of milk a year, in addition
to feeding and caring for the cows.
Dairying is becoming highly specialized. To stay in
business, a man must have enough cows to justify the
cost of modern equipment. Good labor is no longer avail
able so equipment is the necessary substitute. Cows for
merly produced 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of milk annually;
now they’re producing 10,000, 12,000, 13,000 and more.
Six hundred pound butterfat herd averages are no longer
uncommon. •
The big changes are going on now. How much? How
fast? No one knows, for sure. But, these are the trends.
This is the way dairying will move.
mm
Out in the world
by herself
without her shell
to protea her
with the potent help of
Terramycin* Poultry Formula
When chicks come out of the shell, they’re on their
own. Best thing you can do.is give them a head start
against disease with Terramycin Poultry Formula with
Anti-Germ 77®. Put it in the drinking water before
they arrive:
Broad-range Terramycin fights disease organisms
inside chicks—in the blood and in the digestive
tract.
Anti-Germ 77 kills drinking-water germs.
Inexpensive way to protect your investment—Ter
Iramycin Poultry Formula, the potent way to help fight
early mortality and get chicks started off fast.
When you REALLY want results use potent Terramycin
Terramycin’s effectiveness against an unusually wide
range of disease organisms gives your birds the pro
tection they need. It is effective against many primary
and secondary organisms that narrow-spectrum anti
biotics, sulfas and other drugs can miss completely
... an added benefit of Terramycin that’s especially
important under field conditions.