Champion Butter Cow.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 24 November 1917, Page 1

Champion Butter Cow.

A REMARKABLE RECORD. (Sydney "Morning Herald.) The covcbed- honour among dairymen of champion butter cow of Australia eomes to New South Wales after being held by Victoria for the past two years. The Milking Shorthorn cow, Melba VII. of Darbalara, has ; completed twelve month's official test by* the department of Agriculture for a record of 17,3641b milk, yielding. 1021,591b butter. The previous record established in 1914-15, was 14,9721b milk, yielding 10071b butter, by, the' Victorian Department of Agriculture's Red Poll' cow, Muria. Melba VH, finished the year's test in full production, returning? 621b butter, or 21b a day, for- the final month.

The Department of Agriculture some three years ago offered a prize of £100 for the first New South Wales cow to produce 10001b of butter in twelve months, under official test, conditionally upon the cow dropping a calf within 18 months of the previous calving. Melba VII. is duo to calve again in February next, so that she has qualified for the high distinction of the Government prize. It is to be noted that whilo she now holds the Australian record for a year's butter production, another Darbalara cow, Lily 111. holds the twclvp months' milk record with 17,5761b.

If tie net value of Melba VII. 's butv ter is taken at Is 2%d per lb her output for the year would represent £61 l4s. In addition to the natural pasturage she consumed during the 12 months the following: 13891b oaten chaff, value £2 9s 7d; 24Slb lucerne chaff, 8s JOd; 18151b bran, £4 10s 9d; 5411b pollard, £1 lis 6d; 19551b crushed oats, £6 18s 7d; lS3lb boiled corn, 9s 8d: 1011b oil cake, £1 5s 7d. Total value, £17 14s 6d. The fodder was almost entirely composed of products that grow Ir, abundance in the Gundagai district. The value of the butter, as calculated, would thus leave a balance of £44 over the cost of hand-feeding.

Melba 11, of Darablara (V. IV., M.S. H. 8.) is by Emblem of Darbalara (100 M.5.H.8.) from Melba IV. of Darbalara (1576), bred by, and the property of, the Scottish-Australian Investment Company, Ltd., Darbalara Estate, Gundagai. As a two-year-old ,on her first calf, Melba VII. officially tested 80951b milk, equal to 4121b butter in nine months. As a four-year-old, 14,6221b milk, equal to 6S7lb of butter, in nine months, and 16,8991b milk, equal to 8221b butter, in twelve months. Now, as a six-year-old, 14,3711b equal to S36lb butter in nine monthß, and 17,3641b milk, equal to 1021%1b butter, in twelve months.

Apart from the fact that she has been carrying a calf for the last six months of her present lactation her performance is all the more remarkable from the fact that in the middle of her lactation to fulfil the condition of "Sydney Mail" test prize, which she had won in her previous lactations, she was exhibited at the last Sydney R-oyal Show, and was three weeks on road, rail, and show ground before she returned to her own pastures, and her sixth official monthly test was taken shortly after her return. Good as her record is, no one will doubt that, if she had remained quietly on her own pastures, and avoided all the knocking about incidental to a trip from Darbalara to Sydney and back, she would have done even better.

Melba VII. is of splendid iframe and outline and, like her famous sire, Emplem of Darbalara, she is full of character and quality. She is extremely docile and even tempered, has a robust constitution, and is a remarkably go«d "doer." Whey dry she fattens very rapidly to a heavy weight, but in full milk this condition goes into the bucket, and she becomes very fine in flesh. As a breeder, Melba VII. has' been just as successful as she has been' under tesi. Her first calf, Elected of Warbalara; has never been beaten in his class at the Milton (South Coast) Show, and took the championship there at years old. At the Royal Agricultural Society's Show, 1917. lie was first m bulls, three years and under four, and was only beaten for the championship bv Kitchener of Darbalara, and Lily's Cupid of Darbalara. Her- second calf, Melba XI. of Darbalara, was first as a two-year old "in milk," and reserve champion to Camelia.