DAIRY HERDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8141, 25 June 1906, Page 2

DAIRY HERDS.

At the Dairy Conference at Palmerston last week an illuminative and highly interesting paper was read by Mr J. G. Harkness, Secretary of the National Dairy Association. In it are some thoughts that local dairymen should take to heart. Mr Harkness said :—lf we strike a fair average, is it below the mark to say that cows in the colony are producing only 1831b of butter-fat per season ? Now, if this is calculated at presentday price, lOd per lb, it gives the re turn of i 7 :0s per cow for the season's milk. Is that considered by you practical dairymen a satisfactory condition ? Are you content to remain there? There is no profit in 1801b' cows, You would net keep a work-! man in your employ who was only paying his board. Yet many to-day are keeping cows of w'lich we may safely say one-fourth actually are not doing this, but bringing them into debt. There is no excuse 'or 8 ic 1 ! wanton waste at this lime of the industry. Suppose the average eould bo raised by a third, we get as the yield, vih'ch-at the übve price would give £lO per lie id. Nc.v, if this assumption be c r ect, an! few dairymen will possi b< the hardihood to deny or question it, the position is this : Should dairy prodrce f 11 in value one-third, by a coi-re.-po idiiiK improvement in our herds to a higher standard, w*o should still bj in the same place financially— able to pay our way, and meet all engagements in connection with the farm, just as il wo were favoured, as we are to-day, with high prices. Surely, the thoughtful man will admit that, while we possess many cows that are good, the proportion of ones that are useless, not actually paying for the labour expended on them and the food they eat, is far too great. There are two things perhaps in this world which it is easy to give, and yet men find them not easy to take. They are medicine and advice. Now, as to the first, you do not want it, and if you did it is just as well left alone. In regard to the second, a average farmer has a strong antipathy to it, Notwithstanding this fact, tho advice gained from experience is tendered in the hope that some seed may find a lodgment, germinate, and bring forth a beneficial result. If you " know how," without being told, how it ought to be done, why don't }'ou do it ? That is a fair proposition. There can be no question that there are scores of men in the industry to-day who are fighting bravely an uphill game in the face of tremendous odds, simply because they are wasting energy, time, and money on animals that ought to be shot. This can be proved. Then, advisedly, I ask if you " know how '' to improve such or replace them with " better," why is it not done ?