CARE IN IDENTIFICATION OF CALVES IS IMPORTANT FOR IMPROVEMENT OF DAIRY HERDS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 28, 22 August 1949, Page 4

CARE IN IDENTIFICATION OF CALVES IS IMPORTANT FOR IMPROVEMENT OF DAIRY HERDS

(Bv W H Mandeno, Consulting Officer, N.Z. Dairy Board, Whakatane) 7 Whether calves are pedigree or grade it is equally important that they be recorded at birth along with some unchangeable m *£atoi. The best way is to tattoo the ear in tnose breeds not too dark m pigmentation. This tattooing is done for farmers not equipped with instruments by

Some people imagine that pedigree stock are the only ones whose ancestry is known. This is of course a recognition of the fact that registration in Herd Books is an essential part of breed organisation. It involves the acceptance by the Breed Society that a breeder is certain of the parentage of the calves he registers. There is no practical check on the farmer’s accuracy, so that from the very beginning we depend on the personal integrity of the man who records the birth of stock. It is fortunate that breeders generally have facilities for mading and identification to give assurance in this respect. Shed Sheets Available

their cows before the bull’s daughters are milked—to enable the daughters! to be tattooed as .calves. Calf Marking

Calf marking is an addition to the testing officer’s busiest part of the year for he is then recording breed, age, calving date, etc. It is reasonable for the farmer to have the calves under conditions suitable for the job. Infection of the ear due to entry of bacteria through the needle holes is rare, but risk is minimised by provision of a bucket of steriliser. The equipment is necessarily sterilised between farms. Whilst the testing officer may reasonably refuse to do the work under extreme conditions it is the responsibility of the farmer to ensure that the job is done. The convener of the group should be notified in case of any difficulties. The successive testing discount is now made conditional on the adoption of practices basic to better breeding. Thus the sire and dam of at least half the calves reared and identified must both be recorded on the “Allocation Sheet.” Care should be taken that these sheets are posted in the back of the test folder for the year in which the calves are born. This ensures that they are not lost when the heifer calves two years later and can be positively identified.

The New Zealand Dairy Board has for years made available Shed Sheets on which details of mating and particulars of calves are recorded. Whilst eminently suitable for the use of pedigree breeder:, these sheets are primarily for the farmers who test their cows and thus demonstrate their desire for herd recording. Thus there are today thousands of cows rejoicing in no fancy names in herds which have no particular claim to “blueness” of blood. These cows do however', have in their ears tattoos enabling the important part of their ancestry to be found with as much certainty as any stud. The uniformity of tattooing throughout-the country as a result of amalgamation of Testing Associations under Dairy Board licenses, enables the owner of an animal found to have been officially identified to obtain details of her parentage wherever she may have been reared in New Zealand. The basis of breeding herds is the controlled and recorded mating, but all gain is lost if the calves reaired cannot in later life be recognised apart. An important consideration in assessing the worth of a bull is the comparison of a line of daughters with their respective dams as regards milk, test, and butterfat. This when added to the average of all the get of a bull gives as accurate a Sire Survey as possible for the particular management conditions. Daughter-dam comparisons are only of value . where several pairs are available or where a cow has several daughters which enable the breeding value to be judged from different samples of her inheritance.

As well as supplying the testing officer with the tattoo for insertion in the testing records, by having the earmark on the Shed Sheet it is important to enter on the “Allocation Sheet” the name of the heifer and her testing number. This enables over the years a “pedigree”, to be known for several generations behind the members of even grade herds.

Official sire surveys and entries for the Lifetime Merit Register can be based only on officially identified stock. Too often stock prove to be good in later life and their value is lost to the industry because widely recognised identification has not been ensured at birth. The checking of tattoos where cows reach the standards required for N.M.R. or I.M.R. is now a prerequisite to publication.

Official tattooing is a service extended to members of Herd Improvement Associations. Thus sire surveying is possible only where herds are continuously tested—or at most have a break on one season. Official tattooing can be arranged for farmers who stop testing, but this applies only to calves born in the first season after discontinuing testing. It should be noted then that purchasers of bulls which they require surveyed officially must test