A Potent Weapon

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 161, 26 July 1937, Page 8

A Potent Weapon

VALUE OF HERD TEST Dominion-wide Survcy of Sires to be Made ELIMINATING DISEASE Herd-testing is % potent weapon ia the hands of the farmer to make a success of his business," said Mr C, M. Hume, recording supervisor of the New Zealand Dairy Board, when speaking at the annual meeting of the Heretaunga Group Herd-Testing Association pn Saturday. "

Mr Hume said he was pleased to re- * . port that the number of cows under test in New Zealand lasfc year hnd increased by 30,000, and he expected that the coming season would be a record; that .perhaps 17 per cent of the cows throughout the Dominion would be under test. These figures would, however, be a long way behind those: of Denmark, where 40 per cent of the cows were under test i-iiuially. It was now 15 years since group herd-testing had been introdueed in New Zealand, and with what had .been achieved, Mr Hume' said, he was more convinced than ever that herd-testing was the "basis lor successful dairy-farming. It not only created an interest in every individual in the herd, but it enabled the farmer tto assess tlie value of the herd sire and thus progressively increase the production per cow from year to year. An important point was that herds which Were constantly under test were undoubtedly better fed and bette# handled than herds which were not being tested. Jn referring to the Dominion-wide survey of sires which is to b© instituted during the coming season, Mr Hume said that the necessary applicatipn i'orms • would be available io the secretaries of the associations next week./ It was anticipated that. tMas work would have but a small begihning but that as its benefits became appreciated, it would grow in favour year by year. In the sire-survey work there wero three under-lying principles:

(1) A service to the testing mem* ber "whereby he would obtain definlte information as to the suecess or others wise of the herd sire he was using. (2) A service to breeders of stnd dairy bulls as to the success or otherwise of those bulls. (3) A service to the industry through the results of all the survey s, which, it was anticipated, would definitely indicate the trend in herd-building to-day, In addition to the sire-survey work, continued Mr -Hume, the Dairy Board, through the herd-testing orgauisations, intended to collect data on tlie incidence of disease. This data, he said, would to a- considerable extent be tabulated from the monthly herd-test* ing returns. It was fully recognised and appreciated that no undue work in this connection must .be placed on the members or on the herd-testing officers. On the other hand, all would agree that the ascertaining of the true position was long overdue. The herd-testing association, explained Mr Hume, had not claimed that the mere act of testing would improve the returns . of the dairy herd. The figures, however, did 'disclose the returns of the individual units, so giving information which was not. obtainable ia any other way. The thinking farmer then had the requisite knowledge oa which to build his business. "Having that knowledge and applying it are, however, two different thxngs," said Mr Hume. "It is in this resyeet that every farmer testing year by year fails to profit in the way that lie should. There are, however, quxte a number of forces outside the farmer 'ti own eontrol — for instance, disease^ which in some cases is under his cantrol, and weather conditions. The fact that these keep the production of tha farm down should not be levolled against the herd-testing service. Disease is a problem quite apart froxa herd-testing except that testing on a uuiversal and comprehensive scala would undoubtedly lead to the elimination of stock which has a strong susceptibility to. disease. "I am confident that increased herdtestings would constitute a definite at4 lack on the disease question providing that there was associated with it a definite policy for eradication from tha industry those animals which weri proving undesirable," Mr Hume concluaede. '