THE RED POLL'S PLACE.

Otaki Mail, 20 October 1922, Page 4

THE RED POLL'S PLACE.

OBSERVATIONS ON DOMINION'S 1 DAIRY HERDS. A feature of the annual meeting of: the Red Poll Association •at the Cenral Development Farm the other evening, and one pregnant with informa-1 Hon, was an address delivered by Mr.l A. 11. Cockayne, Biologist to the Agriculture Department. Mr Cockayne showed that his biological work takes a practical form in relation to matters appertaining to our dairying industry, and his observations and deductions are well worth repetition. FACTORS IN DAIRYING IMPROVEMENT. in me iUijjiuveuitiii 01 our dairying , lUu , 3U j, ~jiii mi oocivuyno, uific „„ g wul , u ,wi o iu ox: iaiven into ■uoiioiueraiion—lre.edom trom disease, neui iuipiovement, reeding auu suoceasiui uiuiKe.ung. nurmg me laoi year of" so yieai attention 'had been given lu the 1.131 01 tnese phases,

out a was in itamy no more iinporm..ui than me ouieis, and it was a pay uumers did not give as much attention to the other three points as they had done to marketing. Herd 'improvement was undoubtedly, the. oasis tor the improvement of the industry, but all trie points he had named were necessary to the general betterment of farm management and dairying in this, country. Successful dairy larm management consisted of converting fodder and crops into milk me medium oi the dairy cow, unci to have ample crops for thai 'purpose. The dairy cow was nothing ■ more or less than a machine, and in | order to get an efficient machine there i was nothing that would assist Jh« 1 fanner more in that direction that testing.

PREDOMINANCE OF THE SHORT- i , HORN'. As lo herd improvement, a very .m- > j'portani factor was the type oi sire lu j improve the herd. But there was I something else besides purebred stock, j I Every dairy tanner knew that pure- | \ hied siock had to get more attention ■ * than ordinary cattle, and that brought him to the grade cow. There were three important groups of grades in this country—first the grade Shorthorns, numbering 550.000, including heifers; next the grade Jerseys, 430,000, headed by purebred or grade j

-ires; and thiid, the Friesians, 100,000, and Avrshires 40,000. The Shorthorns ' in the vast majority of instances were by sires of mixed ancestry and doubtful milk or heel capacity. The Shorthorns, however, were the predominant dairy cows of New Zealand, 1 overtopping all other breeds. There ; must be some reason for this, and they wanted to learn what the characteristics oi the Shorthorn were. The Urst of these was the lactation period, short or average. Tiro second was the predominance of the breed where the conditions were adverse, and where the grass was not supplemented by [odder crops—on poor country the Shorthorn reigned supreme. The third factor was that the progeny of grade Shorthorns generally were erratic, so'i'ar as concerned milk production, and there was not a large percentage of efficient animals. The ! shorthorn, however, would live in conditions that were adverse! to other animals, ane* that was because its i j general constitution was better than i most other breeds. There was an ob- ' jectiouable feature though, because of i i the short lactation period, no matter ] ■ whether .teed was abundant or not. | '.BETTER GRADE ANIMAL" WANTED, j • But we want o offer for second- ' class country an animal -of as good or better constitution, than the Shorti horn, with a lactation period sufflcient- | ly long to make use of feed when 'ft. i is abundant and produce milk when the grass fails through drought. That j was the problem that faced them— I they wanted something that would do "equally well on Jersey or Friesian i country, though he did not claim that any other breeds would oust these two purebred types on land that was suit- * able to them. UTILITY OF THE RED POLL.

5 The question was, could the ißed j Poll till the bill in order to enable a ' larger butterfat return per acre on j land where Shorthorns were used. Mr Cockayne said he had an idea the Red Poll sire was perhaps capable of being used to produce crossbred stock that, would be adaptable to secondclass country in the same way as a Jersey on good country. What nad the Red Poll to offer? First, its con- " stitution was unexcelled; secondly, it adapted itself to conditions to which it wjas .subjected very well indeed, and provided feed was satisfactory it | Kept on milking well. Where feed was not plentiful it dropped off in milk simply, and instead of giving a large quantity kept in fair condition and carried through the winter satis»factorilv. We had then in the Red ; , Poll an animal with an excellent conI stitution. a long lactation period J when there was plenty of feed, and j the male was a useful animal to cross I with other breeds owing to its pre- } potent qualities which transmitted the ! deep coat colour and hardy constitu-

Hon. and the offspring had more pronounced Poll qualities than "any on the dam's side. With The characteristics of the Red Poll one was apt to place ii as a dual purpose animal.' "So far as dual purpose Is concerned," said Mr Cockayne, "I for one- range the Red Poll with the single-purpose and in no way can it be called dual-purpose. There is some slight misconception of just what dual-pur-pose means. You may as well take a horse that has won a New Zealand Cup and attempt to do the autumn ploughing with it. 'Laughter.) I don't think that a possibility, and dual purpose, to my mind, is a logical absurdity." All the dual-purpose points the advocates of these dairy breeds were able to stress were .that the bull calves could be kept and -old at a reasonable figure, or .in the case of a female if by accident it- lacked milking qualities, or tnrougb old age. it could be sold ax a price m excels of the single-purpose type.- The fort' remaiasii, &Q2£ever, that tc£

dairyman fed for milk production and not for beef. That should not be forgotten, and the few pounds that may be made by the sale of such stock as that just referred to must never Be considered at the cost of low production. The crossbred Shorthorn could be improved from the dairy fanner's standpoint, but it would te stupid to do so in the direction of producing beef. It would be far better for the fanner to go in for more intensive methods and use high-class animals such as the Friesian. GRADING UP THE BREED. With regard to improving the Shorthorn, it could come about by using Red Poll eircs and grading the bull up, or by running purebred Shorthorn sires with Poll females. The latter course seemed more logical, but they had to take into consideration | the fact that results did not always turn out as expected. The Jersey sire had been advocated to grade up Hie Shorthorn, but he differed entirely with that from the point of view of the 1 type of country suitable for the ♦Jersey strain. The only method of I improving the Shorthorn herds on I poor country was by the use of sire:

that would produce a heavier milking capacity in the progeny. CHEAPER TO PRODUCE MILK THAN BEEF. Mr, W. J. McCullooh: The dairy farmer in New-Zealand would be foolish to feed for the production of beef as well as milk. Mr Cockayne: Before the sale of a beef animal it has to have a. lot of feed. It is a fact that crops converted by cows into milk_are more profitable to the farmer than if those crops were converted into beef and sold as beef. Mr McCulloch: Would not the beef and milk cow pay better in England than in New Zealand?

Mr Cockayne stated they could not compare the United States or England with New Zealand as regards dairy-, ing. The conditions/were quite different. Here the dairy farmer, no matter how small, generally bred his own stock. In England the farmer rarely did so. They had a considerable growth of feed for a short time, i and the dairy fanner went out to buy stock to use it. He would buy the 1 cow or cows required, use them for the milking season, keep them in good ; condition and sell them as beef at

the end of the season. This was generally profitable to them. Replying to Mr G. W. Osborne (Can- > terbury), Mr Cockayne said the general consensus of opinion was that the Red Poll was as economical in the use of feed as any of our breeds, not excluding the Jersey, but the dairyman must try and get a class of stock to fit in with the local feed conditions. I The large percentage of Shorthorns was a. potent fact in-the low average, production of the herds of the Domin-" ion, and to raise that average was well worth an effort. -i_