The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY, MONDAY, MARCH 27, 1911. DAIRY HERDS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 March 1911, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY, MONDAY, MARCH 27, 1911. DAIRY HERDS.

The extreme importance of having only well-tovted and carefully selected cows in a dairy herd is'becoming more widely recognised every your. Lately a good deal of consideration has been given to the subject of how hest to minimise the causes which lead up to the prevalence of "waster" cows. Tin's; it seems to us, is the more important of the two aspects. The chief safeguard' against such prevalence is care in .selecting the sire of the herds. The male is of ten or twenty times more importance Mian the female in this regard. Some wise, well-reasoned comments upon the matter have been passed by a noted authority on pastoral matters and problems: namely, Professor Harper, of Carnelf University. Recently he remarked that the average farmer in raising his own dairy calves •little appreciates the net cost of a cheap or inferior bull when in search of an animal to mate with ihie cows. This, says the professor, has been well illustrated in a herd of dairy cattle of which very accurate data have been recorded as to tiro flow of milk and the amount of butterfat produced during the past four generations. hi this particular herd the condition, such .as the breeding of tilie cows, the feeding and the management, were as even throughout the four 'generations as could' be obtained in practice, so that any marked increase or decrease in the production of the offspring caai he credited to the sire used.

The first sire under observation got three producing females that averaged 390 lb of fat a. year. The second bull even excelled the first, as he got nine producing females that averaged 3921b of fat a year. The third bull used, was rather inferior, and illustrates the point at issue. He got eight producing females that averaged only 2851b of fat a year. Tlbis is a falling off of 1071b per cow a year. For the eight females this means a. loss of 85Glb of butter-fat a. year, which at 20d u lb means an annual loss of £71 6s 8d so Jong as these cows are retained. If they are retained five years after they begin-to produce, which is, perhaps, the average length of time"for animals of. this kind to breed, then the loss amounts to over £350. This represents the actual loss to tho iarmer on account of the- use of ...is particular sire. From this illustration it would seem that the farmer or dairyman in search of an animal to .head his herd should be very, careful in his choice. He should not trust to chance, hut should select ■an animal whose,ancestors have been unifomly noted for their ihu'gh production.