A PROFITABLE COW

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 352, 12 May 1928, Page 25

A PROFITABLE COW

rather than for actual profit. Thus it is only natural that there should be less attention paid to improving the breed. To-day a great part of the fat cattle offering both for home consumption and for export is drawn from the dairy herds, while clean, even lines of typical beef cattle are not common. Especially is this the case in districts like Auckland and Taranaki, where dairying plays such a big part.

Little more than a century ago the numerous breeds as we know them to-day were not heard of. Cattle in certain parts of the British Isles, for instance, were known for various characteristics, but the straight, clean types of dairy and beef cattle as we know them to-day were not in existence.

In fact, it would be hard to see how there can be actually any clean breed which does not have some break in its ancestry. If there is, then it has not originated from the United Kingdom. It has only been by consistent breeding under a control working toward a definite aim that the various breeds have evolved.

Even at the beginning of the present century a few herds of wild cattle

Norfolk Island Pine Butter-box ;s. Experiments have been made by B. Abbey, manager of the Western District Co-operative Butter-box Co., Warrnambool, with the manufacture of butter-boxes from Norfolk Island pine wood. A box made of this timber was filled with butter and placed in cool store for seven weeks. When tested, the butter was found to be without taint and was graded 93, being one point lower than when put into storage.

and there was little Intermingling. Since then there has been considerable development, giving us to-day the Herefords, Shorthorns, Devons, Aberdeen Angus and others not well known in this country. Aberdeen Angus are not mentioned by any writer until toward the close of the eighteenth century, when an increased demand set in for hornless cattle. The last century has seen the development of the distinct dairy type, the animal upon which New Zealand breeders to-day are mostly concentrating their attention. Breeding today is mostly directed with a definite purpose. In New Zealand the purpose is largely butter-fat production. Thus the characteristics of the beef beast are sacrificed. With the gradual trend toward mixed farming and increased production on smaller holdings it is not only natural but desirable that every effort should be concentrated on the development of the beast which gives the highest per head return. Nevertheless on the big holdings, where beef-breeding is carried on, it is certainly desirable that only the best sires should be used. There is little profit in careless breeding. DEMAND FOR WOOL PRODUCTION BELOW REQUIREMENTS “It is recognised as an unassailable fact that the production of wool, and especially Merino wool, is not at present keeping pace with the world’s requirements, and that the position is more likely to be aggravated than ameliorated in the future,” says “The Sydney Mail.” “Given normal conditions of demand in all wool-using centres, with wool going freely into consumption, the world markets are not yielding the necessary volume,” continues the article. “This is a regrettable fact from every standpoint, because it necessarily means a circle’ of years in which prices, through scarcity, are forced up and ultimately reach a danger point culminating in a slump. The importance of the question as to whether wool production can be increased becomes apparent, and it is more desirable that this should be probed to its depths than that efforts should be concentrated upon ekeing out supplies and developing the demand for substitutes.”