Don't Put Creamery Before the Cows, Says A.C. Kimrey, Dairy Extension Specialist, Oct. 16, 1925

Better to Grow Than Buy Cows

Farmers in the cotton and tobacco sections of North Carolina depend almost entirely on buying new cows when the family cow becomes old. They feel they can always buy a good cow, but they can’t Generally, they buy a cow that someone else has found unsatisfactory, or they remain without one and the family suffers.

“There is no dairy industry in eastern Carolina until folks begin to raise cows,” says A.C. Kimrey, dairy extension specialist at State College. “Many times, enthusiastic persons want to establish a creamery or some other dairy products plant before there are any cows in a section. Experience has shown that the opposite plan is more successful. Cows must first be raised for the sake of the cow. Then when the cows and the feedstuffs are being produced, the creamery may follow successfully.

“In most of our eastern counties, with their great feed-growing facilities, cows may be raised more cheaply than they may be bought. There is an opportunity to market locally all surplus cows that may be produced for a long time to come. Those farmers who are willing to produce feed and give their cows attention can develop a profitable sideline to their present system of farming. The man who tries to raise cows without giving them the proper care such as regular milking, careful feeding of the calves or proper protection from the bad weather, will get a poor quality of animals and little profit from the venture.”

For the man who wishes to raise cows, it is best to start with the native stock and breed these by using a good sire in the herd. This method is somewhat slow, states Mr. Kimrey, but it I safe and dairying succeeds best when it is developed along safe lines.

From the front page of The News Record, Marshall, N.C., Friday, Oct. 16, 1925. “The only newspaper published in Madison County.” State College in this story is now called N.C. State University, Raleigh, part of the land-grant system and therefore involved in the Cooperative Extension Service.

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92074087/1925-10-16/ed-1/seq-1/