FARMERS' COLUMN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 151, 1 March 1915, Page 3

FARMERS' COLUMN.

THE ONE THOUSAND GALLON COW. In these days of milk records we arc likely to hear both more and less of the thousand-gallon cow. We will hear less, because many who have hitherto believed that they had such will find their illusions destroyed when the milk yieid is carefully noted week by week, and ihen totalled up at the end of a year. Consequently the number alleged tc he yielding this amount will «ea¥<? to be talked about. On the other hand, the necessity of grading our cows up tc as high a plane as possible brings into prominence the value of any cow that comes up to this figure, not only for her own immediate yield, but also because she will transmit her abilitic-s tc her offspring. Keeping off some of the celebrated herds of the country ar a whole—which have already been graded up by trial and selection —the innr-- !>,':• ot "thousand-galloners" in the country is very small indeed. Within the writer's own experience, while his average of good and bad has often been well over (500 gallons per head, only on two occasions, so far as he can remember, did he own cows showing over the thousand gallon mark. The mass of the animals passing through his hands in, say, the last thirty years w r ere, of course, of the ordinary market sort —of no special breeding—but they were of the same standing as other people's. Now that milk recording has come to stay, and no one will look at a bull whose mother, and even grandmother, gave less than a thousand gallons per annum, we may expect within the next few years to see the number of good milkers very largely on the increase, but up to the present there is nothing to brag about. —Primrose lieConneill, B.Sc, in "The Dairy."

CHANGE IN STOCK-FEEDING IDEAS. A very remarkable change lias come ever the ideas oii the great mass of faimers on the question of fend hi f, their •live-stock within the 3jtt ten j (.■ n>. A ii r-.ii fa:i f-r told th? y.iter quirb oceritij t)i<it in former ycaia t: f <3 fc'.« asjiiials all kinds aLtiost aiijlmHv .o long as they had plenty, but that he had now quite altered his ideas in this matter. Formerly he used to allow them any amount of hay, when a great proportion was trampled underfoot, and that for littering purposes he used load after load of straw to get rid of it. Nowadays, however, everything is rigidly looked after, and only as much food of all kinds allowed as the animals can clean up, while less litter is wasted as well. The farmer in question knew nothing about albuminoid ratios or the compounding of rations asset forth in text-books, but he had got hold of the foundation idea that food ought to be fed- according to results, that we had been wasting it all laong, and there was great room for improvement. It may be pointed out in passing that the grading and mixing of foods to suit the kind of animal and the size of the same has been advocated and detailed in scientific books for a generation now, but it was probably the development of the keeping of. milk records which brought the matter! into public notice and use. As part of the recording, a note of the foods used was made, and it was almost always found that there were immense variations in the amounts allowed, and in the cost expended per gallon of milk produced as between different herds. In other words, some were wasting the food by too high an allowance. This enquiry was first carried out in the west of Scotland by the Ayrshire breeders aiu\ ill the south by the authorities of Wye

College in Kent, but it is now being taken up very generally, and in connection with all other classes of stock, such as bullocks and pigs. Even in the case of horses much may be done. Tramway companies and largo horseowners, who had to keep hundreds oz horses before petrol or electricity came to the front, found that much money could be saved by looking rigidly after the amount of oats, hay, and bran%iven per head, and only allowed what kept the animals in good working health, for even a pound weight of any ingredient saved per head daily soon totalled up to a lot of money. On a farm where from six to twelve horses are kept this was never thought of; but it is now, and hay, for instance, is better looked after and fed through a sparred rack so that none be hitched out on to the floor and wasted.—Prim rose MeConncll, B.Sc, in the Dairy.

TELLING AGES OF CATTLE. "Mostly every farmer," a correspondent of the Leader writes, "can tell the age of a horse by its teeth, but tails when he comes to judge the age of a cow. The latter is just as simple, and, while perhaps not so important. is worth knowing. When the calf is born it has a central pair of milk teeth, but the remaining pairs appear within the first month. These are replaced with permanent teeth, and herein is the key for estimating a cow's age with a fair degree of accuracy. "At the age eighteen months the central pair of milk teeth is replaced by the permanent, which are larger and about twice as broad as the first pair. Other pairs come at intervals of about nine months. The second pair, making four permanent teeth, appears at the age of 27 months; the third e.t the age of three years; and the two end pair at the age of 45. months. All the permanent teeth are easily distinguished by their larger size. "After the fourth year there is little change in the appearance of the teeth until they begin to wear. In a few years, however, cho teeth begin t( get narrower and at tin. 1 end of the ninth year there is considerable space between them. From this time on they drop out one by one. Li a cow has horns the age may be estimated with fair accuracy by adding two to the number of rings on the horns, but after a little practice one can tell just aboui how old a cow is by her teeth."