THE MILKING SHORTHORN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 543, 19 February 1913, Page 7

THE MILKING SHORTHORN.

A. TYPE TO BE ENCOURAGED. Now that we have at last secured some Guernsey cattle, a mo3t acceptable addition to uur stock of milking animals, we have practically all the dairy breeds worth having, excepting the great non-pedigree milking cattle of England. Of Shorthorns We have had many importations, but they have been almost entirely of the beef type, and while some of these have been described as descended from deep-milking cows, they have been beefers first and last. True, we have had many good milking Shorthorns, some of the best cows the country has seen, but there has been a dearth of the genuine dairy Shorthorn*bull with which to perpetuate the type. Even now good milking Shorthorns are to be found here and there but they are too often deep milkers for only part of the seapon. What we badly need is the non-pedi-gree type, the Shorthorn that ha 3 been saved from the "improvement" effected in the breed by the admirers of the beef animal. When it comes to pedigree versus milking power, we carf afford to largely discount the former. It is certainly too much in the nature of a lottery to attempt to build up a dairy herd from the pedigree English Shorthorn. Even the State importations selected principally for their dairy qualities, have largely failed at the pail, What is needed is the strain which has been bred principally for dairying purposes from generation to generation, and these are td be found in England, if the purchaser goes to the right place for them. is to be hoped the Government will choose the non-pedigree milking Shorthorn as the next objective of its importation campaign. As to State importations of purebred dairy stock, this is not only urgently needed in the interests of the industry, but is one of those things which even a Government Department would find highly profitable. Where there are ten pure bred dairy bulls required now by N«»w Zealand dairy farmers, there will be a hundred a few years hence. With herdtesting work spreading over the land, the appreciation of the milk-record sire is rapidly, expanding. Private breeders will not be in a position for many years to com? to supply more than a fraction of the bulls required. It remains for the State to make up the deficiency.