The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “The West Coast Times.” THURSDAY, JUNE 9th, 1921.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 June 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “The West Coast Times.” THURSDAY, JUNE 9th, 1921.

SUCCESSFUL DAIRYING. Thk farming notes from Kokatahi, published on Tuesday evening in this paper, gave the impress of a very successful dairying season to the KokntahiKoiterangi district this year. Bather might it be considered another successful season, for there have been many/ successful seasons in the past. The possihilties of successful dairying hav ( > been demonstrated before, hut it is doubtful yet if the settlers have assimilated even the primary lessons to be learned in dairying if it is to prosper greatly. It was once remarked that there could he any little sentiment about a cowshed, but there is a go, d deal of affection evidently between the farmer and liis herd, and the corrcs- . pendent who kindly supplied the notes we refer to, mentioned the matter in his reference to the need ol a cow testing association for the district to uncover the robber cows. In that respect it was remarked that the dairyman was often loath to part even with; his poorest cows—and that merely is false sentiment. The average yield per cow for th e Kokatahi-Koiterangi district is set down at £22 7s 6d. This is very fair indeed, hut it is conceivable that the maximum yield must have been very high, and it is the 'maximum rather than the average that the farmer should aim for. With 1500 cows in the district and no regular system of testing, we are persuaded there must be numerous poor milkers doing duty where better cows, eating no more, would yield a far better cash return. The settlers have been urged again and again to institute cow testing, and pnly lately the Progress League took up the matter and urged the course, hut the advice seems to have fallen unheeded. Yet in the face of it the figures justify the need for the care, and the future should even more emphatically still, prompt the adoption of the safe-guard. As our correspondent points out in effect, peak prices are now passing away, and next season and the following years will show ‘a decline in the price for butter fat. To equalise this fall the farmers should see about increasing their production. They must look' to their herd, watch the herd, and provide adequately for the herd. The first essential is the test, and the second is feed. A good cow well ted and cared for will go on in a machine like way yielding the profit for the Interest taken in it by the farmer. No more 1-nd apd no more feed is required for

a good cow than a poor cow; but where depastured the land must he kept in order, and ample fodder he ready at hand for the browsing herd, flint is the farmer’s part, and followed up the farmer’s pleasure will come month by month in the season in receiving the return in substantial cheques. It will be a good thing for all parts of the district where dairying is now so essential an industry to the prosperity of the locality ,to see cow testing taken up in earnest. Equal conditions should prevail at Arahura and Soifth Westland, as at Kokatahi-Koiternngi, an 3 the settlers will soon reap the advantage of their enterprise. In the last named district the figures show that upwards of £3(XK) per month ; s tre average return for dairying, ft is a very pleasing return, and brings prosperity in its train. The affluence enjoyed should encourage the settlers to expand the industry more and more, an 1 though prices may drop, by added pi induction help to increase the annual income and so maintain to the fullest the continued success of dairying.