The Calf Sacrifice.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 12, 9 October 1907, Page 2

The Calf Sacrifice.

.WHAT THE FARMERS SAY. BECAUSE COWS ARE CHEAP. Wairarapa farmers (writes our Wairarapa correspondent) generally corroborate The Dominion's statements regarding tho possibility of a cattle famine in tho course of tho next few years—that is, if tho indiscriminate slaughter of calves is pursued as at present. At tho samo time, tho Wairarapa dairy-farmer continues the slaughter with the same cheerfulness as his Taranaki and. Mauawatu brethren. Tho reason why the calves are killed is that it pays to do so. Good dairy cows may bo bought for from £3 to £4, although it is admitted that some go as high as £10. Still, tho averago is not more than £5.. The best dairy herd in tho FortyMile Bush, numbering 51 cows, whoso butter-fat returns averaged £13 each for tho season, was sold tho other day at £7 10s. per head. ! It takes three years before a calf becomes reproductive, and in that time sho costs her owner £5 10s. for her keep. If tho farmer can buy dairy cows for from £3 to £5 per head, it is not likely that ho will go to the troublo of rearing them. As a matter of fact, calves to bo brought up properly nowadays drink plenty of milk. Milk means butter-fat, aiid butter-fat means money. If some scientist could. promulgate a calf-food, say, in tabloid form, with all tho nutriment of milk, and yet containing no milk, tho chances are that tho calf would live, perhaps in timo to becomo a happy mother, instead of being unceremoniously knocked on tho.head as at present. Pigs are fed on whey, for some time at least, but not calves; and by keeping pigs tho farmer utilises the waste products of tho factory, where all his milk goes. .A prominent slieepfarmcr in tho Wairarapa, who was asked his opinion, admitted that there might bo a scarcity of beef if tho slaughter of calves continued; but ho considered that in ono way it was a good thing, owing to tho fact that in numberless cases tho animals wore not worth keeping. To keep thorn meant deterioration in the breed. Stationowners themselves,' who bred carefully for fat stock, destroyed calves which wero of no account. Another point ■was" that land in New ■Zealand, or rather land in many parts of New Zealand, was too valuable to be utilised only as cattle ranches. This might be a circumstance now, but before many .years it would bo a feature, and every acre would bo used up for what it was really worth."