HERD TESTING.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 2 September 1920, Page 4

HERD TESTING.

—_—»_ BENEFICIAL MErHODS. Now that the dairying season is igain here it is to be hoped that lerd-testing work will b^. stimulated right throughout the Dominion. The Individual and national L,ss of feeding and handling unprofitable cows must be enormous. And not till the individual yield of milk and fat for the whole j ear is tabulated and presented in black and white will the majority of dairy farmers realise the money they are losing- not only in milking the unprofitable cow, or the "camouflagers," as they have been aptly termed, but in breeding from them. The keenest of dairymen have had all their calculations upset when judging on exterior form for milking quality has been pitted against the actual figures of the year's testing work. No business in the world would succeed for long if the men engaged in it did not know which were their profitable and which were their unprofitable articles. A. tiadesman buys an article at a certain price and sells it at a figure which allows him a profit after deducting the ratio cost of selling it. But the dairy farmer is largely working in the dark. He knows wiiat injiiey his herd is producing because of hia factory cheques, but he has little idea of the actual cost of producing it. Probably if he had half the land and half the labour and half the cows— but the selected profitable ones of the herd—he would be making more, and this with half the worry and probably a real pleasure in his systeinatised work. This is a movement we hope the re-organised Department of Agriculture will take in hand. It would be a legitimate sphere of the Department's activities. Poor old Conservative England, who is supposed to be so out of date and so slow to move in matters of this kind, is stimulating this business by every possible means. A recent account of a Home Recording Society, that of Penrith, established under the supervision of the Board of Agriculture, states that two full-time recorders are kept busy, with a parttlmo recorder in attendance. The members are all small farmers, the largest on the bouk of the society having a herd of thirty~six, the average number of cowc to the farm being about a dozen. Every cow is numbered, and this with the society's letter "P" must bo tattooed on her left ear if not previously mark< d by another recording society. She is then identified for life. The society has ear-marKed and had recorded on its list 1543 cows up to the end of last year. Calves from registered cows aro tattooed on the right ear with a mane of two interlaced angles and a number, so that their history can bo traced. This is considered valuable to prospective purchasers who cun by this means ascertain if the dam has goxl milking records. It has been found that properly certified milk records of the dam greatly helps ihe sale of bulls. It is gratifying to know that Home auciioueers are coming to realise the value of inilx records in the sale value of dairy stocK. One firm of Penrith auctioneers has given special prizes for cows vvith attested milic records entered in the aututrn sales at Ponrith. After all, the Homeland can still teach us something.