Care For The Cows.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 25, 29 July 1896, Page 2

Care For The Cows.

In what we term our great staple product, butter, there has been no stone left unturned to endeavor to produce an article of the highest standard of excellence. So great is the value of the dairy industry to the colony tiiat we have laws forbidding the export of anything but a good article, and with these precautions, coupled with the fact that individual butter-ruakers do their level best to produce a good article, it does seem strange that less care is bestowed on the cows Here we are at the bead of the dairy industry, and we treat the cows pretty shabbily. In the summer the cows dont want any attention ; in the winter they do want care ; in far too rare cases do they get it. Apart from the fact of not storing up something for the cows during the time when the grass is short and watery, little or no effort has been made to provide shelter. Warmth to the cows during winter is, in a very greac measure, food. Yet few seem to think the cows worthy of the attention they deserve. Now there is little excuse for not providing some shelter for the cows during the rough months of winter. A rough building of slabs would not bft a very expensive undertaking, and its good effects would soon be manifest. But the question narrows itself down to this : It is not so much a matter of sheer neglect on the part of a dairyman in this matter ; it is a sort of feeling that " they don't know how long they may be dairying," '• prices might go down, and they'd sell off," or " the settlers might try sheep." And this is what may be said to be the whole secret of the matter. There is too little fixity of purpose among dairymen throughout the colony, and until there is more warmth and enthusiasm and real cooperation among milk suppliers generally " care for the cows " will only be a question of minor importance. At all events the question of shelter for stock is one that should, apart from a human point of view, suggest itself to every owner of dairy stock. — Hawera Star. ____