TESTING DAIRY HEROS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2039, 26 March 1907, Page 4

TESTING DAIRY HEROS.

STATISTICAL RESULTS. The appended figures relating to Mr. Ward's herd of dairy cows at Linton have boon placed at the disposal of tho Palmerston North Standard for the benefit of dairymen. They are convincing as to the need of full supervision and investigation regarding tho returns from each cow milked. Mr. Ward’s cows havo not yet been culled and tho results show that he has plenty of work before him in this direction. Ho has a herd of 30 cows, and for the purposes of tho investigation as to their capabilities they woro divided into three sections of ton each. It is apparent from the superiority of tho third section that discrimination was exorcised in tlicir selection, but in all other circumstances the cows were upon an equal footing. The experiment was undertaken in January, tho cheque from tho factory for that month being £42 3s lOd, working out at an average for the herd of £1 8s Id per cow. A careful perusal of tho table will result in much interesting information. For instance, it will show a difference of 12s 3d return between tho lowest and best return of the individual cows, it shows that the cows with the highest test are not by any means the best in the herd, that distinction falling to a cow with a test of 3.9, a good test, but by no means out of the way. She, however, was the biggest milker in the herd. In the information sent us no details are given as to tho dates of calving ot the individual cows, which, of course, has an important bearing upon the returns as affecting each cow, but does not enter into, necessarily, a question affecting tho value of tho herd as a whole, this being a detail the owner must take into consideration when ho is determining the relative merits of each member of the herd. With one exception, Mr. Ward’s cows, with the test of 4 or over, are comparatively small milkers his best return being 10541 b of milk for the month, with a test of 4.3. This works out at £1 9s 5Jd, very little behind the actual best cow in tho herd, test 3.9, milk 11831 b, return £2 0s 4Jd. The highest test cow, 4.8, only milked 801J1), and gave a return of £1 8s oil. Another cow with a test of 4.7 only gave 0811 b of milk, with a return of £1 7s oil. It would be interesting to learn at a later date tho result of Mr. Ward’s breeding with these two cows in tho effort to improve their milking qualities, the writer being of opinion improvement must be sought the other way, namely, breed quality of milk by Jersey stock with deep milking cows. For instance, Mr. Ward has a cow with a test of 3.2 which milked 10541 b in the month ; another 3.4, 10851 b; 3.G, 10541 bof milk. A Jersey sire of undoubted butter strain should, and no doubt would, wonderfully improve the testing qualities ol progeny of these cows. Subjoined are the respective returns from each section:—

NO. 1 SECTION. Month’s Butter. Milk Fat Value

NO. 3 SECTION

Test lbs. lbs. £ s. . d 3.2 713 22.816 0 19 11 3.5 081 22.940 1 0 0 3.0 800 24.ISO 1 0 1 3.8 621 23.598 1 0 6 3.5 724 25.340 1 2 2 3.8 681 25.S78 1 2 6; 3.4 7S0 26.520 1 3 2 3.8 728 27.624 1 4 0 3.7 768 27.416 1 4 0 3.2 870 27.S40 1 4 2 Average per cow for month, NO. 2 SECTION. £1 2s. 3.0 775 27.900 1 4 3 3.4 837 28.356 1 4 9=1 4.5 651 29.295 1 5 7 3.5 837 29.295 1 5 7 4.2 750 31.500 1 7 61 4.7 681 32.007 1 8 5 4.S SOI 32.040 1 S 5 3.2 1054 33.728 1 9 5 3.7 961 35.557 1 11 0 Average per cow for month. £1 7s 5d.

4.2 837 35.154 1 11 6 3.S 961 36.518 1 11 11 3.4 36.890 1 12 ‘0 4.0 9l@-. 36.640 1 12 0 3.6 1054 37.944 1 13 24 3.9 992 3S.6S8 1 13 6 3.7 1069 39.553 1 14 7 4.0 992 39.680 1 14 8 4.3 1054 45.322 1 19 5-4 3.9 1183 46.137 2 0 44 Average per cow for month, £1 14s 4il