The red farmer’s cow is often called the dual-purpose animal. She is about half way between the beef and the dairy. She protects herself well but not to the limit as does the Hereford. She produces milk well but not nearly so well as do the highly-bred and highly-developed strictly dairy types. Not one of these three types of cows will do to substitute for any other. Each has a place to fill and each is the best animal in her place. There is nothing more foolish than to substitute the dairy 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. If farm dairying is to be carried on in the future just as it has been in the past, the red cow is the farmer’s best friend and he is not a fool for recognizing her as such. This is not a pet theory of mine. It is a conclusion that I have had to swallow against my will. The situation has nothing of promise for the future. If we become a dairy state, we will have to put more labor and effort into milk production and do more like they do in other states. The stalks left standing in the field, feeding but a few thick-skinned cattle make the cheapest milk, only in case we figure the by-product feeds as of no value. We could produce a great deal more cattle for beef and for dairy purposes if we utilized what we now waste. If all the corn in our state was shocked this year, think how much good feed would remain after the grain is husked out. Think how many cattle might be wintered. The stalks from one acre of average corn if properly conserved yield nearly enough rough feed for one cow during the entire winter. Fifty acres yield fully enough for forty head of cattle. Of course we should use alfalfa for part of the ration but alfalfa is our cheapest feed that is not a by-product. Grain will be required for cattle that milk, but raising calves and keeping dry stock is as much a part of milk production as anything else. All such cattle can be well-nourished and developed without grain. It will not pay to refine them to such an extent that they can not live on rough feed.