COLOUR IN DAIRY CATTLE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4685, 9 April 1924, Page 1

COLOUR IN DAIRY CATTLE

ADAPTION TO CLIMATE. EVILS OF SUN SCALD. Writing in the Syracuse, on the question of the adaptation of certain colours in animals to different climates, Professor Robert Wallace says he found, when in India in 1887, that the law that black men inhabit the tropics and white men the temperate climate was also universal in the animal kingdom. Jt has been shown since that this is essential for the life of the various individuals ; that black skin slops the entrance of the ultra-violet or X-rays of the spectrum, which would injure the nerve centre, and sooner or later destroy the individual Curiously enough, cattle in India have nearly all white hair in combination with their black skin, and for that reason the relation between colour and climate have been previously overlooked by Europeans, The natives knew it, but not so the white men. While white skinned cattle and white hair cattle may thrive under European conditions, it is quite certain that they will not do so to the fullest extent under the influence of the summer sun in the United States. America, continues Professor Wallace, has departed from the true colour of-the Ayrshire breed, which is red or brown, with possible white spots here and there, and has bred for a white animal, which blisters in the sun and the hair stands on end and looks unseemly. No animal suffering from sun scald can posssibly do its best in milk production, or even remain healthy. The talk about making the Holstein cow white seems to be following the same vicious course. The same mistake has been made in Canada with the Ayrshire, and indications are that the Holstein is to follow the same misguided course. Judging from the parade of dairy cattle at Syracuse show, Professor Wallace believes that the Jersey is all right, for the majority colouring In America is distinctly darker than that in the island, which is all in the right direction. The Jersey has gained in constitutional vigour and size since it came to America. And it seems to have made up to some extent on the Guernsey. The Ayrshire is also a much bigger and finer cow.in America than she is at Home. It will be necessary in the case of the Ayrshire to introduce blood from the fountain head in Scotland to keep the real Ayrshire type.