PROGRESSIVE DAIRYING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 198, 11 August 1908, Page 4

PROGRESSIVE DAIRYING.

TESTING A WAKEA HERD. In these days of progressive dairying the progressive dairyman wants" to know the comparative merits of the cows from which'he makes bis living. When he buys a cow he'd sooner pav"i price according lo a certified production "f butter-fat than in proportion to the size of the teals. Of course, the nonprogressive dairyman continues to Inn as he always did, by guess-work, ll'c also goes on milking,' vear in an,l year out, (jnitc content to know that he' in* so many acres of land which should ! curry so many dairy cows, and that his '»" is equal to the demands upon it. He knows that "I'olly" iU .d "Daily" arc lie largest- milk-producer* i,, llu . herd, and reckons that that's the ~o r t ot cow to breed from. The „,„„.,„„.,,- sive dairyman forgets that he is n,7t in business to supply ln j, k tu „ , , Ihe factory isn't looking for milk except that it contains butter-fat if it were possible for the unprogrcssive dairyman to take along to his creamery manager every day for a month half a dozen cans of ~ white lluid rcsembliji" milk, but containing 1W butter-far. thered be no golden •■twentieth" for l»m.. lied have, no cheque to come because he'd delivered to the factory j, O butter-fat.

Ihen it follows that the dairy faring is in business for the production and sale of butter-fat. The bigger his bur-tcr-fat figures, the bigger his ehci|ue. He can get more fat, of course, bv lidding to his farm and running more cows. But that takes considerable capital What he wants to do is to get better results from the same number of cows. But he won't gel that by studying Ilia lactory balance-sheet or the '"correct card" for next month's races. His hod can be made more productive by better attention, but, better still, the quality of the dairy cows can be improved by testing, judicious culling, and attention to breeding. Your tinprogressive fanner will tell you that testing and weighing take up too much time. Certainly it takes up time, and time is money. But time sensibly spent means money. It may be taken as a general standard, a well-informed dairy farmer and breeder tells us, that it will cost Jt-1 10s per annum per cow for grazing and the labor of milking. To be worth keeping, a cow should make £lO in a season for

her owner, but even at Hut figure ther, is no fortune in the game. It is quit/ possible to yet ilair.y cows lluti will make .114 or ,Cl 3 a season and up wards, aiul at the same time there are hundreds of. so-called dairy cows thai are returning only .tti or £7 a .year. Those cows, then, must be. a losing proposition, and tlic more of them the farmer lias the more money he is losing each year, it's easy to lind'out widen cows are |irolitable and which ai'i: •'wasters.'' It will take only a few seconds to place the paii upon the scales after milking each cow, and about live seconds should sulHcc w make, the entry of her yield in her allotted column or space upon a sheet kept at the scales for that purpose. This may be done at each milking, but for ordinary purposes a weekly test should sullice. But, al't'T a couple of seasons the great majority of fanners will become so convinced of the value of the testing system, and so adept at the art, that every meal will be recorded. Then, at the end of the season, he' will "pass out" the wasters, and for next year introduce cows of proved quality or heifers from the ricnest .butter-fat producers in his herd, bred from a purebred bull, Jersey or some other known butter-fat champion*. Au American writer reckons that a cow at tin- age of four years, incapable of producing soUolbs of at least 4 |K-r cent of .milk, will scarcely insure enough prolit to warrant her occupying a place that might be iilled liy it w-jrker of* larger capacity. Such a yield would mean illOlbs of buttcr-I'al.' which, at Kl'/id pur lb for butter fat, would return to her owner £8 ss. We lake it that our progressive dairymen are locking for better things than aJS 5s a cowi while there are others who are tugging away at old "wasters'' that can't ' lift a X.'> cheque. Mr. -las. Uurgoss, of Warea, wvll- ■ known throughout Taranaki and the J Dominion generally, has just complet'd j the figures of a season's tc.-Aing of lut | herd of thirty cows. The ' results I should be most useful to him in deterj mining the fate of some of his cows. \ Trior to this testing, Mr. I'urgcss did ' not know how his cows compared in butter-fat yield. This information i.e now has, and in some instances the cows producing practically similar quantities of milk show a great disparity in the butter-fat figures. The milk from each cow (night and morning I «a~ weighed once a -week, and a composite sample tested every fourth week through the season. The herd 'may now be divided into two lots of fifteen cows each. The first fifteen averaged lilUTlbs of milk, of a '4.01 test;, giving 2531bs of butter-fat per cow, worth (at lO'/od per lb) JJI2 7s sd. The other fifteen produced an . average of 45201b.,. of milk per cow, on a 3.!)1i test, lSUlbs of butler-fat, worth CS 15s ll'/jd per cow. The figures show-, however, that all the cows in the lirst fifteen calved in August and .September, whilst the second lot included October, November, and December ealvers. The liest cow was an aged one, calved on September 22nd. llcr yield was TSUUIbs of milk, giving 300.20 ibs of butter-fa: (4.1 U test), which was worth .CM l;i----7d. Another cow, calved eleven days earlier, gave 38S31bs of milk, average lest 4.18, the 1b7.211bs of butter-J'al being worth HI ISs lbd. In this case we have high test, but compartively small yield. Test is not everything. I'ivi cows calved in August and September, averaged £\l 7s 4d apiece. Another live, calved ill the same months, averaged £l3 14s Sil. Another interesting comparison:—Twelve cows gave 57'2Glhs of milk and upwards, yet the cow which gave 572(>lbs was second on Ira INt as far as profit was concern™. Mr. Hinges., has figured out that the average of three heifers was X.S Ills 7d; of ',) second ealvers, til 3s; and of 18 wilh more than second calf .I'll 12s ]<)'/.. i'llcvcn August ealvers averaged :Cl2 Os .Id: nine September ealvers, ;C 1 i ss: three October ealvers X.'.) lis Til: seven later, £8 Is 3d. The.average for the herd was as follows:—Milk, 543f> 1 / 2 lbs; test, 3.8(1 per cent; butter-fat, 21(i.51b5; value at lo>/,d per lb of bntter-fal, Jilt) lis Bd'/ = d. This is a good record, which shows that Jlr. Burgess must have been attending a good deal, to the selection and breeding of his cows even before be purchased his testing apparatus.