Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1908. VALUE OF TESTING AND CULLING.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43382, 8 October 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1908. VALUE OF TESTING AND CULLING.

This above all—to thine own self be true, And tt must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

The way to increase onr annual butter and cheese exports from two million sterling to four millions, is to grade up our dairy herds. Some years ago the average cow in New Zealand gave 1301bs butter-fat per annum, while the better sort gave, say 2001 bs, the poorer sort which gave only 60 or 701bs had to be paid for by these 2001 b ones. Whereas in countries where testing individual cows and culling was practised the average yield of butter-fat per cow per annum was increased to 2851bs Thousands of New Zealand cows are milked at a loss. We hear from time to time of individual cows giving 800 or 900 lbs of butter-fal per year. These are of course exceptional instances, still they show what can be achieved.

By carefully grading up the herd until an average of 3001bs of butter fat is reached, you will get at the rate of lOd per lb, a gross return from each animal of £l2 10s, with the skim milk for feeding pigs thrown in. The return if the milk went to a Cheese Factory, instead of a Butter Factory, would of course be greater. A farmer in Victoria calculated that it cost him £4 to keep a cow. From a poor cow the gross return was £4 Is 6d. From a good cow the gross return was $lO 17s 6d. The profit per cow was £6 17s 6d for the good co v, as against Is 6d for the bad one. We know of one Dominion farmer whose cows average £lO 11s 8d or butter-fat alone fthe milk for pig feeding thrown in over and above) so that he is repaid for the trouble of testing. One of the best ways in which We can prepare to withstand competition, is by grading up our herds. If we can increase our output per cow fifty per cent., we can afford to come down in our prices at need, without fear of our industry being crippled. In Denmark the State subsidises the system by means of which the testing and culling is carried on. A body of say a dozen farmers, co-operate aud form a local society and affiliate with the central body. The Government gives a grant. This small, sub-society engages a young man who goes Irom farm to farm, staying overnight and weighing the feed which is distributed to the cows night and morning, also weighing and sampling the milk from each individual cow. He sends in his return to the head office, and each farmer knows just what each cow is doing in costand in return. We are personally acquainted with one family who have several Holstein cows. Four of these animals gave respectively 9,000, 11,000. 13,000, and 15,G00lbs milk per annum, probably two or three times as much on the average as the medium New Zealand cow gives—to say nothing of the scrubs De Col Orcamelle, a noted Holstein cow recently gave 26,2801 bs milk in a year, and in 100 days she made 3551bs butter, about twice as much as the average New Zealand cow does in a year. This is of course a very high and ideal record, but it is by striving after the ideal that the at tainable best is reached. Every farmer should have one of the Government, pamphlets on dairying, also a Spring Balance and a Babcock Tester. The milk should be weighed ouce a month and tested four times a year at least. It will readily be seen, from the facts above cited, that the extra trouble involved in finding out the best animals and weeding out those which tend to steadily keep down the average profits will very soon pay for itself over and over again. By patiently grading up the herds a most serious loss will annually be wiped off the farmer’s balance-sheet, and he will make sure that every bushel of feed he distributes to his cows is safe to come back in the form of Lutter-fat return**. This we ( are sure will commend itself to our progressive dairy farmers and lead to good results, among those who have not hitherto gone in for thorough testing and grading up of i their herds. i