DAIRY HERDS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1928, Page 4

DAIRY HERDS

CAMPAIGN FOR IMPROVEMENT'. WELLINGTON, Jan. 2. The New Zealand Farmers’ Union and the Royal Show Association, intend to make further overtures to the Government in an endeavour to obtain legislation to deal with the improvement of tho Dominion s dairy

herds. The two bodies desire registration of tho “scrub” bulls in the country on the lines ol the South Australian Dairy Cattle Improvement Act. which is designed to help farmers to buy purebred bulls, and which provides for a levy of 10s i>or bull to he paid each year as a registration fee, the money to he pooled and form the basis of a. fund from which the Government subsidises the purchase of purebred bulls. ' Tn South ‘Australia the amount of tho subsidy granted to purcluiseis is 60 per cent of the piirrcha.se price, and the limit is £3O. Bulls purchased must not be less than ten months old, and not more than five years old. must have passed a tuberculin test by tho Government officer within the six months preceding the sale, must he the progeny of a dam which, undei official test, has reached the 3501 b butter-fat standard in any lactation period, and hhs attained the standard set for the lactation period, and must lie kept in condition satisfactory to the Department of Agriculture,. On the basis of the 58,000 bulls of two vears and over, in the Dominion, it is'est imated that there are. in «H, 65,000 (bulls of six months and over in New Zealand. Legislation based on the South Australian Act, it is estimated by film New Zealand Farmers Union, could provide a sum ol 032.500, or. after deducting administration expenses, £30.000 annually for Ibe subsidising of the purchase of purebred bulls. Assuming that, the average price of hulls bought would bo 30 guineas, ns was the case, with 'Hie six bin-best priced Fricsians sold at a recent Wcrraroa sale, the subsidy would provide for the purchase every year of 1400 purebred hulls in place of the present “scrubs,” and would in ten years make a vast difference to Hie Dominion’s dairy herds. The scheme is designed to apply tobeefs bulls as well ns dairy bulls, since the use of pure Aberdeen Angus, Hereford, or Shorthorn bulls would produce a better quality beef, maturing at an earlier age. Victoria is the latest- Australian Stale fo follow the lend ol South Australia and move for tile introduction of such legislation, the Chamber of Agriculture having formulated a similar scheme.