BOYS AND GIRLS ANIMAL HUSBANDRY CLUB

DAIRYING PROJECT

Four Months' Practical Course in Use of Babcock Tester and Herd Record Work

(1) Enrollment-The Dairying Division of the Animal Husbandry Club is primarily for boys, but there is nothing to prevent any girl who wishes from undertaking the work. As its purpose is to train boys to become efficient cow testers, so that after completing the course and passing the required examination we can certify them as competent to test dairy cows for state registration, it is necessary to make the age limit for enrollment at least 13 years on the first day of January preceding.

(2) Preparatory Course-The preparatory course covers four months and includes, in addition to a study of milk, its composition, care, handling, and sanitation, herd management, feeds and feeding, etc., four months' continuous testing of two or more dairy cows, using the Babcock tester and keeping herd records.

(3) Certificate as Cow Tester-On the completion of the course and required reports, all members who receive a grade of 90% or over, after a final test of their competence by the State Leader in Dairying or some one appointed by him, will receive a certificate authorizing them to contract with farmers to test a limited number of dairy cows (depending upon the age and capability of the boy), once a month during a period of one year, and to charge at the rate of $1 per head therefor. At the completion of the year all cows so tested will be subject to certification the same as though tested by a regular cow tester. The State Leader in Dairying will maintain such supervision and check on the work of each boy engaged in official testing as to validate the accuracy of his records.

(4) Equipment-To undertake this course a Babcock tester is indispensable. This should be provided by every rural school district as a part of the Boys and Girls Club work equipment.

(5) The Work-Any intelligent, sturdy, dependable boy, who is 13 years old or older, can readily be taught in this four months' course to do these several things properly and accurately, namely:

(a) To weigh a bucket of milk, deduct the weight of the bucket, and enter the net weight of the milk in a book;

(b) To mix thoroughly the milk of a cow by pouring it from one bucket to another two or three times, and dipping out a sample with the sampler.

(c) To test such sample with a Babcock tester, determine the per cent of butter-fat therein, and enter this in a book;

(d) To multiply the number of pounds of milk at a given milking by the number of days between the tests, and to compute the amount of butter-fat produced during the same time by multiplying such weight of milk by the per cent of butter-fat; and

(e) Finally, to do the foregoing once a week as a regular business for a year, handling (for boys under 17) a maximum of fifteen cows per week, and for older boys such additional number as the State Leader may authorize, at a compensation of $1 per head to be paid by the owner.

(6) Penalties-While we expect all our cow-testing club members to make good with honest, conscientious, and accurate work, if it should happen that a boy grows careless in his weighing, sampling, or testing, so that his records are worthless, it would not be long before the State Leader would happen in the district to check his work. Now, the accuracy of a cow tester is a very simple thing to check. Finding such boy inaccurate, the State Leader would take such measures as in his opinion the circumstances warranted, and might even revoke the boy's certificate.

(7) Alternate or Substitute-Suppose, again, that a boy, who is doing his work properly, is taken ill, or some cause for which he is not responsible necessitates his relinquishing the work temporarily or permanently. We require each boy, when he begins contract testing, to name some other boy in the district (likewise authorized to do contract testing) as his alternate, to supply his place in case of temporary disability; such boy to receive pro-rata pay for the work done during such time. Where a boy must relinquish his testing permanently, he must notify the Extension Division 30 days in advance, if possible, so that the latter may provide a substitute; otherwise he will forfeit the pay due him for work previously performed. In all cases where relinquishment is necessary and a satisfactory substitute is found to complete the testing, when the contract is completed, the original boy will receive his pro rata.

(8) Testing Days-While we recommend Friday night and Saturday morning as the regular time for weighing and sampling, so that the testing can be done Saturday morning, it is permissible occasionally, when a boy desires to attend a party, or is ill, or in winter during a bad storm, to do the work one or two days before or after the regular date. But such occasions must not be too frequent or without some reasonable justification.

(9) Contract Testing-Boys who are certified as testers will be aided, so far as possible, by the Extension Division to secure contracts with local farmers and dairymen to test their dairy herds for the compensation specified. $1 per cow for the year's test, and will be supplied literature and blank forms of contracts. Such contracts will provide in part as follows:

(a) That the herd is to be tested once every four weeks during the eight months between April 1 and December 1, and once every five weeks between December 1 and April, or twelve herd tests during the year.

(b) That the State Leader in Dairying (who will be a party to the contract) will exercise such supervision and checks upon the testing of the boy as to guarantee the validity of his work, and that all cows so tested will be subject to state registration (if qualifying) the same as though tested in a regular cowtesting association.

(e) That the owner of the herd agrees during the progress of the testing and on its completion (when the testing is performed to the satisfaction of the State Leader in Dairying, but not otherwise) to pay the boy at the rate of $1 per cow for the herd tested, as follows: At the end of three months, 10 cents per head; at the end of six months, 15 cents per head; at the end of nine months, 25 cents per head, and on the completion of the year the remainder due, namely, 50 cents per head, such payments to be made only on the order of the State Leader in Dairying. Where the herd owner supplies milk or cream to a creamery, the payments, as above, to be made by the creamery and deducted from his cream check.

OUTLINE OF REQUIRED WORK

Four Months' Preparatory Course in Dairying and Keeping Herd Records Necessary School Equipment:

One 8-bottle Babcock tester, complete with glassware.

Two dozen extra milk test bottles.

Two extra skim-milk test bottles.

Two extra 6-inch, 9-gram. cream test bottles.

One-half dozen x4-in. test tubes.

One ounce rennet extract.

Two pairs dividers.

One extra acid measure.

One dairy thermometer.

One small porcelain pitcher for pouring acid.

Five gallons sulphuric acid.

Student's Equipment:

(Total cost, about $18.)

One scales-preferably decimal scales weighing to 60 pounds, graduated in tenths (cost, $3.50), but if inconvenient to purchase same, the ordinary 50-lb. spring scales graduated in half pounds will do.

One 16-quart pail.

One sampler (see Fig, 8).

Sample bottles-as many bottles as cows to test. Half- or quarter-pint bottles with large mouths, so sampler can be emptied in them without spilling. Pickle bottles or fruit jars with corks or covers are satisfactory.

One dairy thermometer (see Fig. 1-cost about 35 cents).

One home-made box for carrying samples.

Record books (supplied by Extension Division).

Prescribed Four Months' Course-Leading to Certificate as Qualified Cow Tester: (1) Student must be a member of the Boys and Girls Animal Husbandry Club, of the required age, and duly enrolled in the Dairy Division: (2) The District Public School and the student must have the equipment prescribed above:

(3) The Student during the four months must perform all of the work required in the course, comprising the lessons, exercises and problems contained in this bulletin, those in Bulletins 1 and 3, Animal Husbandry course, perform practicum (4), submit the reports required (5), and pass examination (6);

(4) Practicum-Student must weigh and sample the milk night and morning, once every two weeks for 32 consecutive weeks, of two or more cows, and keep the record on herd-record blanks furnished.*

(5) Reports-Student must submit the following reports to the Extension Division for scoring: Report required on Lessons I-IV, inclusive (Cattle), An. Hus. course; report required in Dairy Division course, including herd record and judging reports.

(6) Examination-Students scoring 90% or better in reports (5), will be examined by State Leader in Dairying by testing their proficiency in the use of the Babcock tester and in herd record work, and on his recommendation

(7) Certificate as Qualified Cow Tester will be issued in accordance with (6). *In selecting cows for testing choose one of the best milkers in the herd, one of the poorest, and if more than two, then an average milker. The same cows must be tested during the period.

LESSON I

Milk: Its Composition, Use, and Sanitary Handling

M

COMPOSITION

ILK is composed of the following substances: Butter-fat, casein, albumen, sugar, mineral matter, and water.

Butter-fat comprises from 1.5% to 6% of the weight of milk. It floats in the milk as little globules of oil or fat of varying sizes, differing with different cows and breeds. Because it is a little lighter than the milk serum, which is chiefly water (sp. g. .9), it tends to rise to the top of the pan or goes to the center in a separator. While cream is mostly butter-fat, it also contains a similar concentration of the other "solids" (all the substances in milk other than water), but in lesser degree of separation. When cream is churned, the globules of butter-fat are made to coalesce into a mass (butter), and may be so removed from the other substances in the

cream.

Casein is the curdy substance or clot which forms when milk sours or when rennet is added. One of its principal elements is nitrogen. Casein and butter-fat are the substances in milk from which cheese is made.

Albumen is likewise a nitrogenous substance and corresponds to the white of an egg. The thin skin which forms on the top of milk when it is boiled is albumen.

Milk Sugar is obtained by evaporating whey and then refining out the mineral matter. Whey is the watery substance remaining when the butter-fat, casein, and albumen are removed from milk. It is composed of milk sugar, mineral matter, and water. Milk sugar is not so sweet as ordinary sugar, but has the same chemical elements as the latter, namely, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

Mineral Matter in milk is chiefly lime, iron, and phosphorus-substances necessary in the making of animal bone and tissues.

Water in milk represents from 80% to 90% of its total weight-the poorer the milk the greater proportion of water to solids. As water is not very expensive, while the food solids of milk are quite expensive, it follows that the only true basis on which to measure the value of milk is by determining the amount of solids in it. As butter-fat is the most valuable of such solids, creameries and many other purchasers of milk or cream pay according to the per cent of butter-fat instead of by the weight, or gallons, of milk alone.

USES OF MILK

Milk, first of all, is the food of the young of the chief division of the animal kingdom (mammals), which includes man as well as cattle, sheep, horses, swine, and many other domesticated and wild animals. It contains practically every substance required by the organisms of all