Farm Notes.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4361, 16 January 1909, Page 4

Farm Notes.

Kiev Zealand Dairy Produce. ■ ■■ - B 1 (Continued.) Hr . ; HWk h ive received from the Depart ■ ment of Agriculture a report by the I Dairy Cominiß*i r nCr (Mr D' 'Guddi&) on [ hi« rec jnt visit to Britain in contpjie'it iofirwith the inspection of bdtt&r and Ich ■ese on the Home' -‘markets. The 1 Commissioner also paid a 'risit to DenL mark. t. t i At the presentjuncture anything jjf>affecting the Dairying industry ; is r _‘ of i considerable importance tetbis 'Dominion more especially those on the l&Wd. In ■ speaking of New ' Zealattd 'Cfteaniery butter, Mr Cuddie goes on to say :' 1 |f; A VISIT TO DENMARK -S'-'. —-Butfertesting The names of the dairy companies whose butter seores above a giyen number of points are published in the newspapers, but ! the names of those who are unsuccessful are withheld. To show how difficult it is to reach the high standard of quality set by the judges it maybe mentioned that a special diploma or certificate is given to any * dairy company or factory-proprietor whose name appears in the published list-for ten years without intermission ; and only nine have won this coveted distinction during thiei la&t eighteen

r years. ' . f Any depreciation in the value of the butter which takes place’ during the time it is undergoing the test-is |;paid for by the Government. r i All the samples of butter are I, analysed, arid the weight of ehch i cask is checked and reported oh, as [ well as the quality. The importance attached to the testing of butter for keeping-quality by the Danes r Will be r recognised when it is mentioned that, | in addition to ; the -test' made at in-

tervals the year round at Copen- ; hagen, over tWO hundred locUl annual ; competitions are held for the same purpose in different parts of the pfcountry. >**• >V A certain amount of this work has " been done at the grading stores in Zealand Oh a very small scale. am satisfied, however, that the isystem should be extended, as it t would also be an admirable check on |'the grading of newly-made butter, r Which is unattainable under the con--1 ditions existing in the Dominion,-to | say nothing of the splendid objectI lesson, to the makers themselves. —Co-operation— • 'Tine cannot visit the dairy factories and farms without seeing the benefits which are derived from the" extension of co-operation amongst the farming community of Denmark. Of the 1,350 dairy factories in existence, 1,100 btelong to the farmers, 200 are owned by individual proprietors, mid only 50 private dairies are in operatkm. The dairy farmers seem to combine and work together for advance-

ment and improvement in almost jevery branch of dairy work. They join hands, so to speak, to do many things which in New Zealand are left to the individual, or are left undone altogether; The following associations, composed of dairy ■ farmers, may be referred to as showing the strength and scepe of the co* operative system adopted by the Danes Cow-testing associations, butter - competition associations, I butter - marketing associations, r cattle-bretding associations, egglag assoiciations, • butterbreeding ations, a e is un e list—iations— ;. Only in that 907'the ~ with' a ting arid B>bOWS; farthers iation is loyed to to weigh r cow in. :he feed, samples at if gutter eat the lerds df i yearly ier coW. d of. the ested id 0 '6,724 average jar, .and ei been ut this

the factories in Denmark, and I was informed that this may be taken at 6,00<01b of milk and about 20olb of butter-fat per cow, .which is prohribiy an average of 501 b of butterfat per cow higher than in New Zealand.

Many of the cows in ’ Denmark produce overfio,ooolb of milk per annum. In one district I visited the number of herds of cows producing between 9,00d1b and io,ooolb of 5 Milk per annum was 42. ' Alt many of the farms visited individual records of each cow in the • ierd were examined, and as a rule the figures of the latest tests and the weight of milk given could be seen -bn a small blackboard above the . head of eacli cow, and also the ['previous year’s figures of milk and ' pounds of butter produced.

The Danish farmers who have cows tested freely admit that the knowledge gained of the performance of every cow in the herd is of immense value to them. They have been able tos get rid of the cows which it did not pay them to keep, and to replace them with young stock bred from the best in the herd f with the result that their returns have been greatly increased. • The importance of weighing and testing the milk from any cow in the herd can hardly be overestimated, but comparatively little of this work has been donh in New Zealand.

Following l ' the example of the Danes, manyof the farmers in Scotland have formed milk-record societies, and the movement is proving a successful One. Cow-testing asso-. ciations were also started in' Canada in ’1904 under the direction of the Government/ and since that time over sixty associations have been formed, and the information obtained is ‘ proving d' great benefit to the dairy farmers, who afe dispensing with the inferior cows.

Although there are many first-class herds of dairy cows in New Zealand, it is well known that thousands of the cows now being milked are a financial failure; and the time has arrived when something should be dorie to convince the owners that such is the case.

;If the weighing and testing of the rqilk from the cows in one district could be undertaken by the Department, it would have the effect of creating an interest in the formation of co-operative cow-testing associaJJ tions. throughout the Dominion, and finally result in making dairy farming a much more profitable industry than it is at present. —Danish Cows— The majority of the cows in Denmark are 5 of a dark red colour, and of a rather low-set type. Many of them are not at all symmetrical in form or very pleasing to the eye, but they are of a pronounced dairy type, being deep-bodied, with a good capacity for digesting large quantities of food and turning it into milk. They also possess the very desirable wedge-shape, narrow in front and wide and spacious behind. They have, as a general rule, thin clean thighs, with fine bone, and a fairly good udder with good teats. The teats are in most cases not very large, but of good length. The [udder has a soft silky touch and is snot fleshy, and it milks down well. While the Danish cows are not perhaps show animals, on account of their rather irregular top line and falling away behind the shoulders; most of them have a really good underline, and show nothing of the beefy tendency. The “ business end ” of the Danish cow gives one the impression that she is a real good milker.

In some parts of the country, more particularly in Jutland, the black-and-white cows predominate, and they are also of a real dairy breed, and pay their owners for the good treatment they receive in feeding and handling. A very large number of the cows in Denmark Milk for ten months' in 'the year. The principal foods used for feeding the cows during the winter months are hay, mangolds, dilcake, and straw, and the cows which give the largest quantity of milk are fed higher in proportion to those which give a lesser quantity. It is customary to feed the heifer calves on whole milk for about two weeks at the commencement, and then to gradually replace it with skim-milk ; a small quantity of lin- 1 seed-cake is given after being soaked in the milk. Some roots, such as mangolds or turnips, are chopped up and to this the calves take readily. They are also taught to eat a little hay and a small quantity of grain at an early age; consequently the jcalves which are to be the future cows usually grow up with healthy and vigorous constitutions. (To be continued).