MORE PRODUCTION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 6, 21 January 1942, Page 2

MORE PRODUCTION

BUTTERFAT PER COW FIGURES FOR THE YEAR Average butterfat production from the 1,779,603 cows in milk during the season 1940-41 was 251.321b., according to interim figures in herd testing statistics compiled in the New Zea.and Dairy Hoard's annualreport. An increase of 39,729 cows on the previous y£ar, when the average production was 238.521b fat, is represented, but this is a long way below the peak year, 1934-35, when the number of cows in milk was 1,827,902. The steady decline evident each year since 1934-35 has now been ar-< icsted, due to the response of farmers tC' the call l'or increased production, a.though with increasing labour difficulties it is doubtful if the trend can be maintained. Production Fluctuates The season's average production, however, probably largely due to seasonal conditions, fluctuates considerably, having been in 1934-35 224.20 lb fat and in succeeding years 233.25 lb fat, 245.051b, 238.341b. 215.941b, 238.521b, and 251.241b fat for the 1940-41 season. The number of cows under test lose from 220,082, or 13 per cent of the total—-the lowest percentage since 1922-23—for the 1930-40 season, to 296,674, or 16.7 per cent of the total milked in the 1940-41 season. That percentage, though the highest for eight seasons, is well below the 1927-2S and 1928-29 seasons, when just over 20 per cent of the cows milked in the Dominion were placed under test. The season 1933-34 saw the greatest number of cows, 296.647, placed under test, but the percentage of the whole was only 16.4, for in that year 1,816,402, the third highest number of cows in the history of dairying, were milked. This season it is expected that the number of cows under test for more than 100 days will exceed 300.000. Average Productions The average production for the 1940-41 season of the 288,963 cows milked for 100 days or more was 275.041b fat, an increase of 15.251b fat cm the previous year and of 8.53 lb fat on the previous highest average, 266.51, in tiie 1936-37 season, when 15.9 per cent of the total cows were tested. The effective average production gathered from information supplied by fanners in a census taken last January, which is to be repeated this year and collated by the Herd Recording Council, shows that the Dominion effective average was 232.71b fat, excluding all farmers licenced for town supply. Taranaki headed the list with an average production of 257.91b fat. Wellington and Auckland being next with 2vlolb and 239.9 lb fat respectively. Taranaki's high production is also borne out by the herd testing returns, in which the Dominion average, representing 15.7 per cent of the total dairy cows, Avas 276.0411} fat. The average for caws tested in Taranaki was 294.80ih or 18.81b above the Dominion average, Wellington 283.751b, Auckland 276.941b, and Hawke's Bay 274.361b fat being next. Taranaki, however, does not show up too well in the percentage of cows, under test, its percentage, 11.5, being just slightly above the lowest, Hawke's Bay, 11.3, and well below Auckland, which heads the list with 19.8 per cent, or just under a fifth of its total. Taranaki, however, for the 1940-41 season showed a marked improvement on the previous year, when the percentage of oows under test was only 9.7, or less than one in 10.