DAIRY FARMING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4653, 25 January 1924, Page 3

DAIRY FARMING.

the best breed. A HIGHLY DEBATABLE POINT. A question often heard in show rings and where stock questions outcrop is “What breed of dairy cattle de you preefir ?” or. “What breed of dairy cattle is best for dairy use These questions are quite futile and unanswerable unless many aspects or a highly debatable question are considered. A farmer may prefer one particular breed but be quite conscious of the fact that on his particular farm there would be a daneroug experiment, if not an absolute failure. The governing factor "f the choice of herds is firstly climatic, secondly farm conditions, pasture shelter, etc. Farming by text-book is quite a good thing—if you get textbook results, but, unfortunately, this is not always the case. It is the merest folly to put the Jersey upon ha’f-conditioned land oir where extremes of climate.prevail. It is on such lands as these, which constitute a very large proportion of the occupied areas of the Dominion, that the hardy Shorthorn and the Shorthorn grade are the absolute essential

to success. The Shorthorn will hold the country almost as well as the * robust and foraging Hereford, and thrive under conditions that would carry a weaker constitutioned beast into the lonely grave. The supporters of the Shorthorn claim that if the attention now given to the Jersey was expended on the milking Shorthorn the evidence of the milk cheque would show no, great disparity with its popular rival, also that the cares of the herd would be greatly decreased. There is no disputing the value of the Jersey, and it is not difficult to u'jJerstand that this beautiful and docile little milk producer claims a place in the hearts of the farmers that it would be hard to fill- The decline of interest in the hardier animal is held by many sound judges of dairy potentialities to be a grave error. There is no evidence available that the Friesian can take the Shorthorn’s place in the production of grade milkers. The evidence tends the other way. The beef value of the Shorthorn grade, if the evidence of the pail fails, is a factor that al<o counts in the summing up of the case for and against the industry and any point which tends towards its welfare should receive consideration. and .this Shorthorn question is not the least of the issues.