Cow=testing Association

Horowhenua Chronicle, 13 May 1911, Page 4

Cow=testing Association

WHAT FARMERS THINK. The value of cow-testing and of cow-testing associations wa.s referred to on Friday at the annual meeting of the Wairarapa and East Coast P. and A. Society, held at Carterton. I The president (Mr W. Howard Booth) said that the cow-testing association inaugurated by the Diary Division of the Department of Agriculture at Dalefield and at other centres had proved of the utmost importance to dairy farmers, and also showed Jiow far even a practical farmer can get astray when ask-id to pick out his moat profitable cow. "I don't think nearly enough car.be said in praise of these cow-testing associations," said. Mr Booth, "and I. consider the Division and Mr Singleton deserve our congratu'at.w: <s as a P. and A. Society for bringing the testing to such a. succ©3,;hil issue. There is no simpler or .Tore effective method by which, a farmer can pick out the wasters fro.n h's herd than by careful testing. Each successive test has confirmed extraordinary variations. For instance, at Dalefield 22 cows of the '» =st }.<■ id produced as much as 38 of the worst; at Stratford, 20 of the best as much as 41 of the woret ; at Ca i\bridge, 25 as much as 42; and at Kanpokonui, 21 as much as 45. . . It shows that in the poorest herds approximately two cows are 'bsir:;.; fed and milked for the total rmttorfat produced by one cow in the Ue«t herd. In another instance it nas noted that .the owner milk d one cow 204 days for milk of a ino-ifcy value of only £5 18s 3d, whereas another cow in the eame herd was milked only 143 days for milk valued at £9 10s 3d.