ADVANCE WESTLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 17 August 1932, Page 4

ADVANCE WESTLAND

AN EXAMPLE TO THE DOMINION

Practically all that the average New Zealander associates with Westland is gold, coal and plenty of rain, but apart from these decided advantages that part of the Dominion is generally presumed to be a wild desolate piece of country with certainly uo pretensions to dairy advancement. Yet in one phase at least of modern farming, Weotland leads New Zealand. No less than 50 per cent, of the cows in Westland are under group herd test as against the proportion for the whole Dominion of only 16 per cent. And that the cattle down ther© can hold their own with their sisters in more favoured dairying licalities is evidenced by the fact that the 5962 tested by the West Coast Herd Trr,tin Association last sea\ u averaged 233.59 lb fat in 227 days.

It is only two years ago that Mr 0. M. Hume', Dominion Supervisor of Herd Testing, carried the gospel of herd improvement into New Zealand’s youngest dairying district. The Coast farmers were quick to realise the advantages that testing offered them and in a Very short time the young association was formed. Now, in the second year of its existence, it has tested 50 per cent, of the cows on the Coast.