THE VALUE OF TESTING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 66, 18 November 1913, Page 6

THE VALUE OF TESTING.

A FINE HERD AT WAREA.

In the' course of their recent tour round the .Mountain Messrs R. Dingle and '!'. H. Benn stopped at the farm of .Mr James Burgess, of Warea, and naturally they were interested in Mr Burges,s' dairy herd. Mr Burgess has been testing bis herd,for the past six years, and by means of culling and keeping bis best fieifer calves he has obtained a very creditable herd—a herd of thirty-one, it is claimed, which returns more than some sixty-cow herds do. Mr Burgess has always made a point of having a good sire, and has favored the Ayrshire blood, paying good prices for the animals he' selects. His cows display some Jersey blood—about one part Jersey | to three parts Ayrshire. Below is given a twenty-eight days' record of the test of the cows in Mr Burgess' herd, and the figures go to prove the good results which can be obtained by testing, careful culling and the use of a good sire of any of the recognised dairy breeds. It should be explained that some of the low tests recorded are due to the fact that some cows have been milked continuously for some years, following are the figures:—lst 52.97, 2nd 51.05, 3rd 49.83, 4th 49.73, sth 48 8$ 6th 48.05, 7th 47.74, Bth 46.15, 9th 45.56 (first calf), 10th 44.63, 11th 4152, 12th 44.22, 13th 43.54, 14th 42.92, 15th 42.86, 16th 42.48, 17th 1118' 18th 40.49 (first calf), 19th 40 lo' 20th 39.07. 21 st 38.70, 22nd 38 51,' 23rd 38.08, 24th 37.11, 25th 36V 26th 34.26 (first calf), 27th 33.26'; 28th 32.91,' 29th 25.52, 30th 24.53, 31st 48.51.