James Russel Roberts

“ What makes one man’s lot harder than that of another, and who really has the hardest row to hoe? What shall we do to the other fellow to keep him from crime and have justice? These are questions answered in as many different ways as there are people with different viewpoints. Do we doubt the patriotism of the club women in cities who decided to boycott eggs and milk to bring down the price just at the time when these commodities were very hard to produce and the price already too low for the cost? ”

“ The way that pastures are generally used is, in my opinion, the greatest mistake in the milk business. Certainly we can make two blades of grass grow where one blade of grass and one weed grew before. Most of the pastures that we see are either bare like a desert or weedy enough to hide a calf three months old. A cow can not get enough feed in the average pasture, no matter how many acres she mows over. There is no need to estimate how many acres of poor pasture a cow requires, but one acre of well-cared for pasture per cow is all the writer has ever had to use. ”

“ We must take into consideration the price of grain, the price of rough feed, and the price of milk products, before we can determine the proportion of grain and other feed that should be given to the dairy cow.
We can make milk out of rough feed without any grain under the proper conditions. When grain is too much out of proportion in price, we can safely do without it, if our rough feed happens to be good pasture or good alfalfa hay and silage. If our roughage is too poor, it rarely pays to compel good dairy cows to live on it alone, for their future usefulness will be impaired by starvation. ”

“ Many people think that a cow is either lean or fat and if she fills out in her body she is always taking on fat, but the amount of lean meat on the body also varies. Protein feeds are muscle builders. They make animals grow. Carbohydrates supply fat and energy which is a separate thing from muscle. Many times if cows become overweight we reduce the total amount of feed consumed and get a large yield in the milk pail. “The eye of the feeder fattens his cattle.” It also fills the milk pail. Scientific knowledge can help a good feeder but I doubt very much if it alone can make one. ”

“ If the grass gives out, the cow is given enough feed to make up the difference. I do not let the grass stay short, for if it stays short, the roots will also be short and in that condition it can not withstand drought. Any kind of grass will yield two or three times as much feed per acre, if allowed to grow a month at a time as it will if pastured off short all of the time. I let the cattle eat the grass off the pasture about as often as alfalfa is cut. Everyone knows that if they would cut their alfalfa every three days they would have hardly a hat full of hay at the end of the season. ”

“ The cow boys on the range rarely think of milking a cow that has lost her calf. The typical beef animals give so little milk that they can go dry at any time even on good grass with little or no injury to themselves. Some dairy cows would die even though sucked by a big husky calf if they were not milked, because they give so much more than the calf could take. The dairy cow is bred and trained for generations to digest all she can and to give it all away, keeping nothing with which to protect herself against hard times. ”

“ There are thousands of acres of corn stalks being pastured in Nebraska and Iowa that have not much more value as they stand in the field than the dead grass by the roadside. Saved and utilized they are the great source of wealth that as yet is almost untouched. Their yield is like a low-grade ore found in abundance. Dry fodder containing no grain is worth at least half as much per ton as alfalfa and the yield is approximately two tons per acre. ”

“ There is nothing more foolish than to substitute the dairy [Pg 10] breeds for common cattle before we substitute the dairy man for the farmer or else convert the farmer to the dairyman’s methods in feeding. The corn stalks and waste feed make the cheapest milk and the red cow is the most economical means of converting such feeds into milk, provided we want only a small production with the least possible effort. It takes more labor to prepare feed for animals and feed it to them than it does to let the animals range around over the field and do the best they can. ”

“ I do not know just to what extent a cow requires a balanced ration. Since some feeds have values over others that the chemical analysis does not show, I think the balanced ration figures and tables have been overworked. They are not entirely valueless, however. Some [Pg 29] will be placed in this book. Everyone knows that a cow should not be fed one kind of feed only. We should give as great a variety of feeds as possible and the cow’s likes and dislikes, together with the results in the milk pail, give about all the information concerning a balanced feed that the writer has ever used. ”

“ Since even the steers can not protect themselves to live where the Herefords will thrive, what can we ever expect of a producing cow? When she has given all away then goes up against the period of short pasture or semi-starvation, she begins immediately to readjust to meet the new conditions. But the work of generations can not be undone in a life time and she fails to meet the emergency and loses the vitality she naturally possesses. ”

“ Where there is an undersupply of any thing, there is the best market and the more profitable business. So it is that by paying or withholding the price this great Dame Public keeps all courting her favor and doing the things she wants most to have done. She wins with every winner and then taxes his income, and lets the loser lose alone. ”

“ It is the spirit that says “Come let us reason together” that points the way to “Peace on earth, good will toward men.”
There is one thing that all should remember and that is that we are all of us the public. There is no corporation “without a heart and without a soul” more heartless than the public. ”

“ If one farmer raises forty bushels of corn per acre and another can raise sixty, each receives compensation in proportion to his crop. But if one merchant had that much advantage over his competitor the unfortunate one would be put clear out of business. Customers to a merchant are as valuable as pigs are to a farmer and it is perfectly legal to get the other fellow’s customers in broad daylight. ”

“ But for most of us the question is whether we should feed alfalfa to the cow and the cow’s milk to the pig or let the pig eat his own alfalfa. A hog’s ration may be balanced with alfalfa hay or with alfalfa or rape pasture. The question is whether milk and corn makes as cheap a gain as alfalfa and corn. It is very difficult to find experiments that answer this question and it is the most practical one in the world. ”

“ Different experiments always vary slightly as to the amount of grain required to make a certain growth. But taking the most advantageous ration that we can prepare with milk and corn as shown by these experiments, we may conclude that something like 300 pounds of grain and 500 pounds of milk will make one hundred pounds of growth on one hundred pound hogs, and that about 350 pounds of grain fed to hogs on pasture will make the same amount of growth. Let each farmer figure out what pasture and grain cost him and he can get approximately the real value of skim milk. ”

“ Any new process or new invention puts many people out of business for the public turns coldly from the old to the new service which it more desires. If we produce too much of anything the price always goes below cost. ”

“ Growth is the natural development of bone, muscle, nervous system, circulation, etc., that the animal needs for hard work [Pg 51] when mature. Breeders of pure bred cattle, who expect to make records with their young stock, feed them grain every day. I do not think this is necessary or practical for the farmer to do, but certain it is, that no promising heifer should ever be allowed to get thin. She should have good pasture during all of the summer and should have plenty of well-cured feed, corn fodder or corn silage, and a fair amount of alfalfa every day during the winter. ”

“ The udder should be attached high behind and the thighs should be narrow. In fact, we want a cow that is not an “easy keeper” but that will milk out clean. The cow should be soft skinned and fine haired. Beware of the wild-eyed, nervous, quick-moving cow for she wastes her energy. Beware of the sluggish cow for she will be sluggish in appetite and will convert her feed into fat instead of milk. Perhaps the best way to describe the disposition of a good dairy cow would be to say that she is alert and intelligent but calm and sensible. ”

“ In fact, I have never heard of range cattle being tubercular. Nevertheless, under conditions that exist on the average farm, the tuberculosis germ will thrive and cause havoc. It pays to be careful not to introduce such a disease into the herd. Often the fattest, sleekest cattle are affected and while they do not die from it quickly, yet as it progresses in a herd an animal will now and then die from the disease. Hogs and even chickens running with the cattle become affected and much loss results.
The accuracy of the tuberclin test in the main has been established beyond doubt. ”

“ During the last few years those who have fed grain and alfalfa as we used to feed, have found it difficult to meet expenses. We used to be taught that, since a cow required so much to maintain her body whether she produced milk or not and only the amount she consumed above that amount could be available for milk production, it was well to feed as much grain as possible without injuring the cow or reducing her flow. ”

“ I would want one acre of alfalfa and one acre of pasture for every cow that I expected to keep. If we have a large number of young stock, the pasture would need to be increased. I would fill these silos with corn, grain and all, and use the silage to feed only the cows giving milk. I would use a Smalley feed cutter with snapping attachments and use cut-up dry fodder containing no grain as the principal feed for the dry cows and all young stock on the place. The farmer usually milks only one-half as many cows as he has cattle all together. ”

“ Balanced Ration. Cattle like variety in their feed. Not all cattle have the same tastes and desires. When one cow refuses to eat her grain, it is well to try her on some other mixture. A good feeder usually has several grain feeds on hand at a time and is continually changing and trying out rations. By checking his results at the pail, he acquires knowledge that is more practical than any chemist can impart. We know that a cow’s food must contain the necessary elements needed for her bodily maintenance and the production of milk. ”

“ But although we are all up against the same general laws that govern business there is a difference between farming and most other business. A contractor will build a building for us if we agree to pay a price that he figures will pay his cost plus a profit. ”