REVOLUTIONISED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 219, 30 September 1940, Page 5

REVOLUTIONISED

SUGGESTION OF INTEREST TO FARMERS EASING THE LABOUR PROBLEM A recent caller at the BEACON Office was a district farmer who propounded, and proposes to adopt, a move which Avill be considered revolutionary by those in the dairying industry. Actually, the scheme, which is the simple operation of milking without stripping, has been tried in North Auckland. The farmer said that stripping, especially thorough stripping, was harmful in that it made for a constant and heavy drain cm the cows. Advantages of the quick release system were that one man could milk a large herd on his own and in a very short tiihe —thus considerably easing thej liabour problem; the cows Avere not kept waiting in the yard and udder troubles were found to be few. Supporting his contention that non-stripping did not affect the butterfat yield, the farmer prpduceil a letter written to the Editor of a North Auckland newspaper by a Mr N. A. Vallance. The letter read:—■ "The herd testing returns for the •Northern Wairoa area of the Northland Association as published in last Wednesday's issue of your paper made interesting reading, Congratulations are due to the owners of the top herds in the various sections, according to herd sizes, but particularly I would like to heartily congratulate Mr- K. Meier, of Ruawai, on his splendid achieviement, that o-f carrying off the banner for herds of over 75 cows tested in the Northern Wairoa area. Unorthodox' Plan. "Looking casually at the record as put up by Mr Meier, the average reader or farmer for that mattctf would perhaps see nothing out of the ordinary, but as one who has eagerly. followed the unorthodox plan of milking that this energetic farmer has pursued during the past three or four seasons,. I would say to fellow farmers "Reserve your judgment, look into the facts, then perhaps we could all wake up and | get somewhere."

"I had the pleasure of meeting Mr M«ier on his farm and had the whole shed and milking system shown and fully explained to me.. To hear him say that single-handed he could milk his 80 cows in less than an hour was somewhat startling to one brought up to the orthodox system of machine milking, and naturally we look for weaknesses in the new scheme. The chief weakness most people looked for was a poor butterfat average but the final result discloses the average of 2811bs fat for 80 cows in only 236 days and quickly dispels that little fear. "Surely dairy farming takes on a different- outlook when' one man can handle 80 cows and produce 22,480 lbs fat and fatten large numbers of pigs into the bargain. "Good* luck and best wishes, Mi Meier! Your non-stripping scheme of modern milking has us thinking, and is worthy of deep consideration in these days when man-power is at a premium and increased primary production so necessary." The experiment will no dgubt be watched with keen interest.