FACTS ABOUT RED POLLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 466, 22 September 1928, Page 29

FACTS ABOUT RED POLLS

ENGLISH HERD’S RECORD The largest herd of Red Polls in the breed, namely that of Thomas S. Metthews, of Sporle, affords (says the Livestock Journal, England) a fine example of the affinity between milk and beef in Red Poll cattle. It is a herd made up of such cattle Which last year produced an average of 5,6391 b. from 50 cows and heifers. This average, it would be emphasised, is not the outcome of exceptionally high yields in the case of a minority. There are only ten 1,000-gallon yielders, the

highest being 12,6631 b., with an average of 4 per cent, of butter-fat. Of •umber in the herd there are only four under 7,000 and these average close on 6,8001 b. The butter-fat percentages of the whole herd average close upon 4 per cent.; there being numerous instances of 5 per cent, being exceeded. The lactation period for the whole of the Sporle herd is approximately 330 days. There are several cows in the herd which have had ten or more calves, and of theres, nearly fourteen years old, has had fourteen calves; with her last twin bulls she yielded 5,25731 b. of milk. No herd more effectively reflects all

the qualities of the breed than tha Brightwell Red Polls of the Right Hon. . E. G. Prettyman, who has continuously, year in and year out. secured 800-gallon averages with cows ; and heifers fed not by modern forcing ■ methods, but by a natural mode of life, i with complete freedom from indoor . confinement. This herd has not only . kept up its yields with an average of 8,2771 b. for cows and heifers, but, as the fat stock bears witness, it has , again furnished the highest-priced i steers grazed in the open for Ipswich fat stock markets.