FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 157, 28 July 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

■TIKOKANGI DAIRY COMPANY. The following is the text of tlie report to lie submitted 'by tlie directors to the shareholders of the Tikora'Jgi Co-operative Dairy Factory Company, Ltd., on Monday, 2nd August:—''Your directors, in presenting their annual report, have pleasure in stating that the quantity of milk received has exceeded that of any previous year. During the past season the new factory has been completed, anil your directors are installing a combined churn, which, with certain other alterations now in hand, will, they hope, tend to greater efficiency. 3lr. W. Young has resigned his position as manager, and his successor, Mr. W. Kilpatrick, entered upon his duties about the middle of June. The working account shows a credit balance of £220, which it is proposed to utilise as a final payment for ,bufctcr-fat. Milk received, 5.030,22111b; average test, 4.03; butter-fat, 203,2001b; butter made, 224,0001b j average price xeaJised for butter, 11,15 pence per lb; nett value of butter-fat, 10.07 pence per lb; pounds of milk to produce lib of butter, 22.42. The retiring directors are Messrs. Matthews and Knuckey, both eligible for re-election," The working account for the year sliowb that £BBIO 4e lOd was paid in advances for butter-fat. Expenses totalled £832 Os 4d, wages £315 10s lOd, depreciation £147 10s lid, and other items brought the total expenditure to £10,215 10s 4d. On the credit side appears the one item, "Butter, £10,435 10s 4d." RAISING THE NEW ZEALAND STANDARD. GRATIFYING STATE ACfIWIY. A State department could do no more important work in the interests of tlie dairy industry than producing purebred dairy sires of an authenticated miking pedigree for sale, to milk producers; and this is what the Hon. T. Mackenzie. Minister for Agriculture, is enthusiastically planning to carry out. It is rather unfortunate that this important work is being initiated when retrenchment is the order of the day, for bo much depends on the foundation, a n id the value of purebred special purpose dairy cattle, cost money at the present moment. It has truly been the case that the Government for once has not been able to outbid the private individual, for wc have seen this season the Taranaki cockatoo beat the Government agent more than once at a Taranaki Jersey sale. The Department wants the best blood, and evidently knows the best blood when it is available, but it is a very careful purchaser in uteae days. Wlien it cannot get what it wants it buys the next best if obtainable at a price witliin its means. The foundation of the State Jersey herd now located at the Ruakura Experiment Station, in tne Waikato, is, therefore, not composed of the best individual animals which could ■be secured, but nevertheless it is'a capital collection and contains good representative;! of practically all the most successful families «f Channel Island cattle imported to this country, comprising /.lescmdants iof the be'st -Island, English, and American importations. From our knowledge of the individual animals, combined with a study of the'r pedigrees, it is evident that the method of selection has been on the right prin'cipfe—milk prod|uot|Hte ipoweirV *ratJ!Lcr than show points. Even the progeny available of the animals secured after the- first season would materially advance the standard of any dairyman's herd, but when tlie Department will be in the position of setting tlie great example of supplying with every animal it sells the milking pedigree of dam and granddam, and with the progress ot the years that of the Other maternal ancestors we can foresee that the annual auction sales of the young Jersey stock —and other purebred 'dairy stock, too—of the experiment stations will be the record breaking events in the live stock world of "This countri'. Wellington Times. TUBERCULOSIS. WHAT THE DANES ARE DOING. The thorough manner in which Lk'nmark is dealing with bovine tuberculosis is a striking object to other countries. Not only is pasteurisation of the skim milk at factories compulsory, but constant supervision is maintained over stock and careful system of isolation conducted. Although the Danes liavc not been able to eliminate the disease from their dairy, herds—so great was the grip the disease had on them before the w/brk of impression commenced—there is now, as a result of the systematic war waged against it, less tuberculosis present than any other country in tile northern hemisphere, even including America. The principle at the root of the Danish system of repression is the Bang system 'of isolation. This has proved singularly effective, and is now Iwing generally held up for imitation in otlu'r countries. Its success in Denmark has been largely due to a voluntary system of treatment. Many owners have, transformed their herds from a badly infected condition to one of entire freedom from tlie disease, and this without serious loss, except where animals hail to be destroyed owing to their showing advanced tuberculosis. An owner either acts on the assumption that the whole of his herd is infected, or else he applies the tuberculin test, and then separates the sound from the tainted animals. It is the next generation that hi? expects to get the "best results from. Where a whole herd is treated as tuberculosis, the calves arc isolated, and they are reared upon milk that has been boiled, to kill any germs that might exist. Then, the caives are testeil twice a year to ascertain whether t.he disease is present. In either case the testing is carried out. This is the method introduced by Professor Bang. The calves are separated from their mothers the seeond'day after birth (on the first day the colustrum.is indispensable), and fed on boiled milk only. Some weeks afterwards tlicy are inoculated with tuberculin, whereupon those which react are eliminated. Secondly all tlie cattle of a herd, are inoculated, and the unhealthy are slaughtered as soon as possible. Tuberculin inoculation is carried out on all cattle twice a year.