COW TESTING.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1876, 9 October 1913, Page 10

COW TESTING.

SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. Tho cow-testing movement initiated by tho State Department of Agriculture a fow seasons back is now showing signs of spreading rapidly. This method of arriving at the value of- tho individual cows in herds is making very satisfactory strides in the district north of Auckland. There, two trios of factories have combined for the purpose of procuring independent testers for their testing associations. Kaitaia, Oruru, and Herokino are working in together, and tho other trio is North Kaipara, Mungataroto, and Waipu. At Cambridge an association is running strongly, and in other parts of tho Auckland district there is cvidonee that tho i(lea is in great favour. 1 Taranaki, a province in which there aro already a number of active testing associations, .is adding to its list. Among tho now associations are Mangore i, Warea, and Eltham. Tho association run in connection with the big Kaupokonui factory is in its fourth year. ' Other now associations are Bulls, Cheltenham, Norsewood, Matamau, and Ballance. Woodville, which was under tho care of the Department last season, will carry on tho work on its own responsibility this year. Across tho Strait a now association has sprung up at. Golden Bay, and in Canterbury tho movement is getting a footing. Tho movement is having one result that was not generally foreseen at its outset, and that is a much-incroasod demand for bulls of a puro milking strain. Farmers are looking for bulls from dams that have good milk and butter-fat records. And this has given rise to the institution of a system of semi-official tests by tho Agricultural Department. Farmers may submit cows to this test, which is directed and supervised by officers of tho Department, and tho records of every cow aro published in the. Department's Journal. .By this means farmers may know whero to look for tho stock they require. It is put forward as an example of the benefit of this system.to breeders that at a recent Taranaki salo of Plolsteins 170 guineas was paid for a yearling bull whoso dam was shown to have yielded olllb. of butter-fat in tho previous season.