Bulletin 142, Dairying in Florida


 (7) W heat bran ............................ 6 pounds
 Cottonseed meal ......................... 212 pounds
 Beet pulp .............................. 10 pounds
 Timothy hay ........................... 7 pounds
 (8) Wheat bran ............................ 9 pounds
 Cottonseed meal ......................... 3 pounds
 Japanese cane .......................... 15 pounds
 (9) Corn ................... ............... 5 pounds
 Cottonseed meal ........................ 212 pounds
 Cowpea hay ............................ 12 pounds
 Silage .................. ............... 30 pounds
 By feeding. properly balanced rations, the cows do better and
put more milk into the pail; the milk is produced at less cost,
and at a greater profit to the dairyman.

 FEED AND LABOR COSTS AT THE EXPERIMENT STATION
 The cost of producing milk at the Experiment Station for the
year ending June 30, 1917, can be readily determined from the
record cards. The feeds used were bran, cottonseed meal, vel-
vet-bean meal, cornmeal, peanut meal, shorts, and silage. The
larger portion of the feed was, however, cottonseed meal and
bran, fed in the proportion of 1 to 3, and silage.
 For the herd of twenty-one cows, the average yearly milk pro-
duction was 516 gallons, and it was necessary that each cow pro-
duce 329 gallons of milk to pay for the feed and labor. The feed
cost alone of a gallon of milk varied from 7.9 cents to 18.2 cents,
varying with the individuals in the herd.
 The average labor cost of a gallon of milk was 6.7 cents. This
included all necessary work about the barn, such as milking,
feeding, cleaning out the barn, hauling manure to the fields, etc.
The average total feed and labor cost of producing milk was 19
cents a gallon. These figures do not include taxes, interest on
investment, nor depreciation. Neither do they include the cost
of retailing milk, all of which items should be considered in
establishing the price to the consumer.

 HAY IS NOT A NECESSITY
 Too many dairymen believe that hay is a necessity in the dairy
ration. It is true that cows can and do consume large amounts
of roughage, but at the price of hay in Florida no dairyman can
afford to use it. He must substitute some cheaper roughage.
Some dairymen buy alfalfa hay at $25 to $30 a ton. As long as
good hay sells at such prices it will not be found an economical:
feed for dairy cows.