The relative economy of milk and beef production is now more and more commanding attention. The experiment stations have demonstrated that good dairy cows produce human food in the form of milk much more economically than food products can be obtained in the form of beef, pork or mutton.
A REMARKABLE EXPERIMENT
IN CATTLE VALUES
At one of the Stations, for example, the entire carcass of a steer and the milk of an Holstein cow were analyzed.
The steer when killed weighed twelve hundred and fifty pounds. The cow during the year gave eighteen thousand four hundred and five pounds of milk. From the milk of the cow, and from the carcass of the steer, the following number of pounds of human food substances were obtained. Of protein five hundred and fifty-two pounds from the milk, and one hundred and seventy-two pounds from the steer; of fat six hundred and eighteen pounds from the milk and three hundred and thirty-three pounds from the steer; of sugar nine hundred and twenty pounds from the milk and none from the steer; of mineral matter one hundred and twenty-eight pounds from the milk and forty-three pounds from the steer.
The steer’s body contained about fifty-six per cent of water, leaving five hundred and forty-eight pounds of dry matter, which included not only the edible, dry, lean meat and fat, but also every part of the body—horns, hide, bones, internal organs, etc. In one year the cow produced two thousand two hundred and eighteen pounds of dry matter, every part of which was wholly digestible and suitable for human food. In that time she produced enough protein to build the bodies of three steers, fat [251] enough for nearly two steers, and mineral matter enough for the skeletons of three, besides nine hundred and twenty pounds of milk sugar, as nutritious and useful for humans as the same weight of cane-sugar like that bought at the store.
ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE
DAIRY COW
These figures explain why dairy cows and not steers are kept on the valuable lands. When the cheap lands disappear, and rough food commands higher values, the beef cow will be raised as a luxury, and cattle will make their contribution to the human race largely in the form of milk, butter, and cheese. In the future more and more will the farmers of all countries turn to the dairy cows.
CHINESE POUCHONG
