DAIRY BREEDS OF CATTLE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 366, 8 May 1889, Page 4

DAIRY BREEDS OF CATTLE.

Writing upon this subject a correspondent of the English Live, Stock Journal dwells upon the fact, now pretty generally recoge nised, that so called dairy breeds owe their special milk-producing powers more to the care devoted by breeders to developing their capacities in this particular direction than to any inherent excellence in the breed itself as compared with any other breed. This is a point to which we have often' drawn attention in recommending farmers _to establish a dairy herd of their own breeding. The writer above referred to say that Professor Sheldon in his great work on " Dairy Farming,'' desci'ibes nearly all breeds in the British Islands, and states nearly all there is to be said in their favour from a dairy point of view, but many of these are in their present types of development purely beef breeds alone, and nothing else is claimed for them even by their warmest admirers. There are several breeds, he points out, which are noted both for beef and milk producing qualities. He enumerates as the seven breeds of most importance from the dairyman's point of view the following : — Shorthorn, Red Polls, Ayrshire, Jersey, Guernsey, Welch, and Kerry. Some of these have several subdivisions into distant varieties, such as the 1 Welsh and Kerry, while the Dutch cow, or Holslein-Friesian, is a famous breed, though lit cannot be considered a British one.' He goes on to say : " The dairy qualities of some breeds over others have been brought about mostly by bleeding and selection, as it is doubtful if soil and climate have had very much to do with it. Those \arieties which have nob been celebrated tor milking power?, owe this deficiency quite as much to their masters who allowed it to drop out of sight as to anything else, as there is no inherent defect in any variety in this respect. This is proved by two facts — viz. , that some individuals, or even whole herds of a nondairy breed, have been known to milk quite as well as those which have always had a dairy name ; and, secondly, that all breeds must have been derived in remote ages from 'a common ancestor, 5 even although we may trace their descent in comparatively recent times from several varieties of the genus Bos. " It follows, therefore, that those which are nob good milkers ac present could be, in course of time, made so by selection and breeding. It would be doubtful, however, if this were worth the trouble for anyone to try nowadays, when types are so firmly fixed, and when there are dairy breeds enough to choose from and suitable to every part of the' country. Of course, one great: object is to have animals which will fatten after they have done with milking, and though many oppose this idea, there does nob seem any reason why selection should not develop this property as well as any other. "At the same time those breeds which ai - e beefers only must give some milk, if ifc were only to rear their own young. Some years ago it was a notorious fact that pedigree cows sometimes could not* give milk enough to suckle their own calves, and had to be helped with the yield of • common animals.' Breeders are more enlightened in this matter now, however, and we have pedigree animals (as the Shorthorns at the Dairy Show) which cannot be surpassed, or even equalled in this respect. Those who work with other breeds than the seven mentioned above, therefore, while nofc going so far as to convert them into dairy animals, will yet do well to make them as good milkers as possible, and where other things are equal to retain for breeding purposes those cows which naturally yield most. " The further improvement of dairy cows has been often treated of from every point of view ; it should be our aim to make them still more suitable for the dairy without injuring their other qualities, and to bear in mind that — all things being taken into consideration — one breed is perhaps as good as another ; but much depends on the circumstances under which they are kept, and the ability of the owner to manage skilfully."