FARM AND GARDEN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 342, 4 March 1911, Page 6

FARM AND GARDEN.

THE DAIRYING OUTLOOK.

A SEASON OF PROGRESSION. BAD TIME FOR CONSIGNORS. Never in the history of the factory system of buttermaking in this country has such an advance been recorded in the quality of the butter exported as is the case of this season, and never was an improvement more urgently needed. It has all been due to cream pasteurisation, a principle the experts of the Department of Agriculture have succeeded in persuading the dairy companies to adopt. What with the use of the combined churn, which has enabled a high-water content to be incorporate in the butter with such success, and more worn-out pastures and older factory buildings, the quality of many factory brands was showing a serious falling off. Cream pasleurisation has changed all this, with the result that at the present moment there is a higher proportion of choice butter being exported than in any past season. Unfortunately, though New Zealand factories have raised the standard of their butter they have had to face an unsatisfactory market, and instead of the margin between New Zealand and Danish butters being reduced it has seldom been so marked. The comparatively low price of butter recorded during the greater part of this season will be severely felt, as the great bulk of the butter of this island was shipped Home on consignment, mainly to the single London firm acting under agreement with the National Dairy Association. The experience, it is predicted, will aim a severe blow at the association's Home marketing scheme, as many supporters of it realise that it is a poor policy to fight the largest firms in the business. If the scheme is to succeed, they contend, it will have to be on an altogether amended basis. It will be remembered that the firm handling the produce of factories shipping through the association undertook to reduce the margin between New Zealand and Danish butter, and to spend a certain sum in advertising New Zealand butter. There is no indication that it has been able to effect the former desirable revolution, but possibly the cablegram stating that the front page of the "Daily Mail" has been covered by an advertisement for New Zealand butter is evidence that the advertising campaign of the National Dairy Association's agents has been initiated.

FAT SHEEP DISPLAYS.

A COMPARISON. Several of the displays of fat sheep at the late summer shows of this season have been remarkable for the quality of the exhibits in the fat sheep section. It is only to be expected that at such a time of the year well fattened sheep and iambs should be forthcoming in good numbers. There has been the usual "tail," proving that all farmers are not a judge of when a beast is in prime marketing condition. The chief drawback has been the inability of even some of the most successful fatteners to be able to choose even pens, a really even pen being the exception rather than the rule. The best fatted sheep and lambs of the year were probably those penned at the little Waitotara show, Messrs Parsons, Symes and Wilson exhibiting some very fine pens. Next came the Feilding show, which, for the number penned, was the best display seen in the Dominion this season. The exhibition at Masterton was not nearly so good. One fact which detracted from the last-named show was that exhibitors were allowed to pen shorn with unshorn animals, a rule which has nothing whatever to recommend it. There should, obviously, he separate elapses for shorn and unshorn sheep ;ind lambs. The Kaetihi show brought out some lambs which were as good as anythng seen at Masterton.

DAIRY COWS.

WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE A HIGH-TYPE HERD. In these dayn when milk producers are awakening to the possibilities of the heavy-producing cows, ;i new spirit encouraged by the work of herdtesting, which the Dairy Produce Division of the Department of Agriculture is taking up with such success, it, is instructive to read what dairy farmers in other countries are doing by means oi high grade cows. Writing recently of a working Jersey hi'fd n writer in an American journal says:— "All herds of dairy cattle work either for or against their ownersarid so far as words go th°re would seem no reason to differentiate one herd from another. But words aci»*c secondary meaning sometimes, by reason' of the needs of such meaning, and among the breeders of dairy cattle a working herd means one that works profitably for its proprietor. Perhaps a further subtle distinction is sometimes implied when a herd is named as a working herd. It maybe meant to distinguish such a herd as nee maintained primarily for the production ui milk, as against a herd kept as a nursery of breeding stock. And yet the latter should excel in milk production, and should be handled with a view to the largest production, a record of which should be faithfully preserved. A herd of this kind is clearly entitled to the designation of a working herd, kxhtiiples are many among breeders of pedigree dairy cattle, and figures are continually supplied from private and official sources of the results attained in such breeding establishments. One of the latest and most impressive of sucsi exhibits comes from a New York herd, where 110 cows have completed yearly records This includes all the cows in the herd which have been milked for a year; the average hay not X>' "> swelled by ;

omitting a few of the lowest milkers yielders. The total 110 cows averaged for the year 69491b of milk per cow. An interesting age-grouping has been made of these cows by their owners. Twelve of them are over ten years of age, and the matron of honour has passed her seventeenth year — ths oldest cow that has qualified for the Register of Merit of the American Jersey Cattle Club. The oldest group of twelve milkers averaged 7508 pounds of milk per cow, which tested an average of 5.289 per cent, butterfat. This is equivalent to an average butter yield for the year of 456.6S points. The second group contains fifty-seven cows between five and ten years of age, and their average milk yield was a triHe under the first group standing at 7:J91 pounds. The average fat content was 5.167 pounds which is equivalent to 43.26 pounds of butter per cow. The older group is thus seen to be yielding a trifle better than the younger, but this evidence would not be sufficient from which to generalise. The younger group, those under five years which have completed a year's milking period, number forty - one. Their average weight of milk was 6.172 per cow, with a fat content of 5.158 per cent, on the average, or an equivalent butter product of 366.19 pounds per cow. The financial side of the exhibit is equally impressive; the milk sold to the creamery at the price of the product from other herds having only the advantage of a high-fat te«t. The average price paid for butter by the creamery was Is per lb, and on that basis of exchange the oldest group of cows earned a little over £3l per cow for the year. The next group put to its credit an average earning of £3O, and the youngest cows, a lot of them heifers with their first calves, brought to the credit side of the farm's ledger an average of £25. This is book-keeping with cows. It is book-keeping with the right kind of cows. Compare the returns from the average dairy herd and see what a great gulf roll 3 between them and the splendid earnings of this working herd of Jerseys. It is by such figures, rather than by the yields that mount toward the phenomenal, that a breed's standing is fixed in the favour of the farmer who use 3 the dairy cow as a factory for his storage. While such results are not within the attainment of every dairy farmer, yet the blood that makes such good results possible, that has been concentrated in this and other dairy breeds with a view to the greatest production, is within easy reach of all farmers. And they are using it more and more every year."