The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1912 HERD TESTING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 90, 11 December 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1912 HERD TESTING.

Summarising tho results of the last season’s work of the three herd testing associations under departmental control, Mr. W. M. Singleton contributes an interesting article to the Journal of the Department of Agriculture. The subject is of special interest to local dairymen, because, though Mr. Singleton mentions no names, tho Association which showed the best results is the Stratford Association. The dairy expert says: ■ “One of these three associations increased the production of its average cow from 218.771 b. fat for the season 1910- to 241.561 b. fat for the season 1911- This is equal to 22.791 b. fat per cow. In this association there were nineteen members who were in during the whole of both seasons, and without exception their herds evidenced an increased production per average cow. This is a great record,

and not every association can hope to equal it. Neither could such a record 1)0 expected were all the suppliers to a factory to join such an association. Not but that such should be the case, but it is well known that the associations number amongst their members, with few exceptions, the most progressive dairymen of their districts. The factory supporting this association handles, at the height of the season, the milk of some 6786 cows. The increased yield of the 583 association cows, at* 22.791 b. fat per cow, amounts to 13,286.571 b. fat, worth, at Is per pound, £664 6s 6d. Had this same increase obtained throughout all the herds supplying this factory, the extra butter-fat supplied would have amounted to 151,6531b.,' worth, at is per pound, £7732 13s. I his amount would make a pretty handsome bonus for a factory of this size to pay its suppliers. The increased yield of the average cow of this association amounts to over 10 per cent, of her yield for the season 1910-11. Tins is a higher percentage than obtains with j

any of the other associations, and is probably accounted for by the fact that during the second year tins association was almost entirely supported by first-year members, who had culled effectively by intelligently using their testing-records.”