Eight-and-a-half-year-old Carnation Homestead Daisy Madcap, lovingly known at the Farms as “Daisy,” Friday night brought the international title for butterfat production back to the United States. She won over the Canadian world’s champion, Alcartra Gerben, after a 365-day test which was such a close race that at least four men at the Farms were uneasy for the whole year and the same four didn’t sleep for three nights before she won.

A Close Race

It was a close one all the way. She won by 4.6 pounds of milk – in other words, by only 1/100th of a pound a day. Or, since she was milked four times a day, by only 1/400th of a pound of milk per milking. “It was a photo finish,” said G.S. Bulkey, general director of Dairy Extension, who had flown up from Los Angeles for the event “which Daisy won in a final spurt.”

All Carnation cows are milked by hand, by men wearing sterilized clothing, and when on test, in the restful seclusion of their own stalls, but Daisy’s treatment has been a little special. Henry Duve, cattle superintendent, has been feeding her himself. As one company official put it, “He’s been by with a handful of fresh hay every half hour for a year.” As a result, Daisy has gained 100 pounds but Mr. Duve has refused to go on trips, out to parties, or on vacations. In fact, in 365 days he has only been away from the farm twice for more than 12 hours. And he, Russell Pfeiffer, general manager, and M. H. Berry, farm superintendent, might very well have lost at least part of the weight Daisy put on. Mr. Pfeiffer, Mr. Duve, Mr. Berry and doubtless Pete Buesser, Daisy’s milker, didn’t sleep for several nights before the test was over.

1767 Pounds of Butter

Posing for photographs with Daisy was her son, whose birthday came Jan. 7. His shoulder came almost as high as his mother’s – and she weighs 1900 pounds, is nine-feet long from nose to tail and stands nearly five feet, head to toe. A display showing what she produced during the past year is almost as impressive as she is. Milking an average of 57 quarts a day, one year’s butter production came to 1767 pounds, or when butter cartons were stacked like bricks, made a wall eight-feet high and 15 yards long.

The new champion, a Snoqualmie Valley product, has beaten the record for all times, all countries and all breeds. And what will she do now that it’s over? Once her next calf comes, she’ll start another test. But meanwhile, Duve, Pfeiffer, Buesser and Berry have some plans of their own. They’re going to get some sleep!