BETTER DAIRY HERDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1007, 25 June 1930, Page 13

BETTER DAIRY HERDS

BULLS WITH BUTTER-FAT BACKING

IMPORTANT SCHEME ADOPTED From our own Correspondent HAMILTON, Tuesday. A great forward step in its avowed object of effecting improvement in the dairy herds of New Zealand was taken by the Dominion Group Herd Testing Federation at its meeting at Hamilton last evening, when a scheme providing for the butter-fat backing of pedigree bulls which were sires of marked heifer calves was confirmed. This is likely to revolutionise the whole of the stud-breeding industry. The scheme provides that all pedigree bulls calved after July 1, 1931, must be from dams that have reached a certain standard of production if they arc to be eligible as sires of marked grade heifer calves. The rules governing the marking of heifer calves provide that their dams* must have a minimum butter-fat backing, and the 1

federation has now completed the * scheme by insisting that the sire also : must be from a dam with production credentials. S the federation has met the position by not making its scheme operative ex- | cept in the case of pedigree bulls calved j on or after July 1,1931. Its objective will therefore take a little longer to attain. ; but it will b© fulfilled without causing that hardship that so often occurs in bringing in new proposals of this nature. Mr. H. J. Marchant. president of the Now Zealand Dairy Breeders* Federation, reported to the conference that, at a meeting of his federation held last week at Palmerston North, the bi coders bad shown a more svmpa- j thetic feeling toward the scheme than they had at first evinced. The conference was unanimous in ! its approval of the scheme, and author- j ised the management committee to for- J mulate rules and regulations. It was also decided unanimously that, after July l. 1931. all sires of marked calves should be certificated. I The question as to whether this 1 should be done by the various breed : societies, or by the federation, was \ left in the hands of the management committee.