The ANNUAL PRODUCT of a good fair dairy cow, during several months
after calving, either in summer or winter, if duly fed and kept in
the latter season, will be an average of seven pounds of butter per
week, and from five to three gallons of milk per day. Afterwards, a
weekly average of three or four pounds of butter from barely half
the quantity of milk. It depends on the constitution of the cow, how
nearly she may be milked to the time of her calving, some giving good
milk until within a week or two of that period, others requiring to
be dried 8 or 9 weeks previously. I have heard (says Mr. Lawrence)
of 20 lbs. of butter, and even 22 lbs. made from the milk of one
long-horned cow in seven days; but I have never been fortunate enough
to obtain one that would produce more than 12 lbs. per week, although
I have had a Yorkshire cow which milked 7 gallons per day, yet never
made 5 lbs. of butter in one week. On the average 3 gallons of good
milk will make 1 lb. of butter.