OFFICIAL COW TESTING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4806, 4 February 1925, Page 3

OFFICIAL COW TESTING.

PERIOD TOO LONG. DANGER TO BREEDING. Die common argument need in defending the 365-day test for pedigree cattle 1 of this country is that other countries arc doing it, and our breeders must do the same if they are to hoid their own in the race for high records. In other words (says the “Dairyfarmer”), it is thought that production must be pushed to its utmost irrespective of the harm- that may be done to the breeding capacity of our most valuable female stock . and perpetuation of these types i'J our most important consideration. It is American breeders who have set the pace and who,have encouraged the undesirable 365-day test in this country, as well as the still more undesirable extreme forcing which has already ruined a number of most promising New Zealand cows and threatens to ruin a good many others. Fortunately, therefore, American breeders are awakening to the evil of the forced test. They are realising tli.'.d as at present conducted semiofficial testing is too costly, with the result that men of limited means ar 3 being discouraged from taking part in it, and that it is becoming a race to be carried on only by specialists. An American paper, “The Field,” <3 heading a campaign for an official test 'hat every breeder can .participate in. This paper thus sets out the problem': “The question ,is not how many phenomenal producing cows, but how many profitable producers and reproducers there are. Nor is '.t desired that an average shall be compiled from a few great records, but from the whole, and that every cov. rtisien shall show her value to the herd and to the breed by her ability lo yield a profitable flow-of milk even year and to give as a dividend to th J hnet'xr a living calf that will develop ir:-j *i profitable breeding animal.” Whc will deny the wisdom of this very sane observation ? And we are sure the great majority of our breeders will agree with it. They are coming to realise that it is more profitable to sell a number of sires from tps’.ed cows to the ordinary dairyman th-r.i a few at a high price to fellow breeders. It is the farmer who must be catered to, and the good test put up under natural conditions appeals to the farmer more than de the the tests put up under highly artificial conditions. OUR OPPORTUNITY. With the remarkably favourable conditions under whlcih dairying is conducted in this country we have a rare opportunity of leading the world, and oi doing this without .the“aid of the forced and artificial test. Mr C. E. Robertson reported that the most-talkcd-of thing among American breeders of pedigree Jersey stock was the record of Vivandiere under tyrtce--. a-day milking and never housed. • To the Americans it was easily a world’s re? ord, for in that country a-Jay milking is ihe common procedure when Jersey cows are under c.-mi-official test. And likewise the record put up by Waipiko Masterpiece in, haying hits first six daughters averaging 610.491 b of fat starting tiieir tests at 1 year 348 days, or. twice-a-day milking and never housed, is another world's record that must have astounded our American friends; And just as we easily leal the world for twice-a-day milking, so we could also lead the world If we only tested our cows for a more natural season of, say, 300' days.