THE COW’S DEBIT AND CREDIT FOR ONE HUNDRED DAYS.
| Dr. | ||
|---|---|---|
| 850 | lbs. bale Hay, at $22 per ton | $9.35 |
| 1,000 | lbs. Corn Meal, at $1.35 per 100 lbs | 13.50 |
| 400 | lbs. Bran, at $1.30 per 100 lbs | 5.20 |
| 200 | lbs. Fine Feed, “Shorts,” at $1.55 per 100 lbs | 3.10 |
| 20 | bundles of bedding Straw, at 10c. | 2.00 |
| Paid man for care and milking, $1 per week | 14.30 | |
| Total expenses for 100 days | $47.45 | |
| Cr. | ||
| 1,200 | Quarts of best milk (12 quarts per day) at 7c. | $84.00 |
| Money profit in 100 days | $36.55 | |
Or, to put it in another way, the six hundred quarts sold actually brought in forty-two dollars cash, and the entire six hundred quarts used at home cost five dollars and forty-five cents. The cow cost, say, sixty-five dollars. The entire care, which was not paid in the surplus of milk above twelve quarts per day, is charged in the expenses above. The manure produced, if sold, would more than meet interest on the cost of cow, and any depreciation in value by increasing age. Allow the above average to be kept up only two hundred days in a year, and at the end of that time suppose the cow is sold for half price (thirty-two dollars and fifty cents), and a fresh one substituted, there would still be a gain of forty dollars and sixty cents for two hundred days, or for a year a profit of seventy-four dollars and ten cents.
With good feed the sixty-five dollar cow will keep up a full supply of milk at least twenty-six weeks, and then be worth forty dollars for continued milking and breeding. Sell her then and buy another fresh cow for sixty-five dollars—a loss of fifty dollars a year. The above liberal allowance of forty-seven dollars and forty-five cents for feed and care one hundred days, amounts to one hundred and seventy-three dollars and nineteen cents a year. Adding the loss of fifty dollars for purchasing two fresh cows, makes the total annual expense two hundred and twenty-three dollars and nineteen cents. This would make the supply of milk, twelve quarts a day (four thousand three hundred and eighty quarts), cost about five cents a quart, or not quite fifty-one cents for ten quarts. This is not an exaggerated estimate for a sixty-five dollar cow, renewed every twenty-six weeks. The feed and care may be very much less than the above forty-seven dollars and forty-five cents per hundred days, by saving all waste foods suitable for a cow, and by securing pasturage seven or eight months, and especially when a cow can be cared for by members of the family, thus saving fifty-two dollars a year. Taking the country as a whole, probably fifty dollars will ordinarily buy a cow that will, on fair feed, average ten to twelve quarts per day for the first six months after calving.