THE JERSEY AS A DAIRY COW

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 81, 14 July 1910, Page 3

THE JERSEY AS A DAIRY COW

INTERESTING PAPER BY MR. E. GRIFFITHS.

At the annual meeting of the New Zealand Jersey Cattle Breeders' Association held at New Plymouth yesterday, Mr. E. Griffiths read the following interesting paper:— No paper under this heading would be complete without some reference to the early history or origin of the Jersey cow, because its very history helps to enable us to appreciate, and to understand, why the Jersey is such a remarkable dairy dairy cow. For upwards of one hundred and twenty years the little island of Jersey (in the English Channel) lias prohibited the importation of cattle of any kind to its shoves, and thereby has very jealously guarded the purity of its strain of dairy cattle. Though they were originated and matured in the fertile valleys of old Normandy, they were later transplanted to Jersey, and a writer says: ''There the same people of sturdy body and vigorous brain entered into a co-partnership with that noblest and most useful of so-called brute creation, and in that co-partnership have not only shown the world the possibilities of a small patch of soil, but have developed a machine that for its contribution to human welfare has never been surpassed." The Jersey Islanders, realising what a remarkable strain of dairy cows they possessed, set themselves the task of not only maintaining the high standard obtained by prohibiting importations, but of further improving it. For generation after generation they studied and practised the question of selection and breeding, always aiming at a higher butterproduction. At the several shows held on the Island every year the keenest competition takes place in the classes for butter production. The cows are milked on the show grounds, and the milk is carefully weighed and churned. These contests show; up the heavy but-ter-producers—and their sons naturally become very popular sires. Every year this makes a step in the direction of progress. Every heifer calf is bred with the intention that she will be a greater producer of butter than her dam, and | every bull calf in the hope that he will be the sire of greater cows than his dam. j-Ia it any wonder, then, that these careful, conscientious farmers, who love their cows like Arabs h do their steeds," i should have been enabled to give to the world that wonderful "queen of the dairy"—the Jersey cow? As my paper is entitled ''The Jersey as a dairy cow/' the first point to bo made clear is, "'What is a dairy cow?" To us in New Zealand she must be — (a) The most economical producer of milk for manufacturing into butter * or cheese;

(b) A cow which will give the greatest annual net £s. d. return to ker owner; . (c) A cow which will respond to the good treatment which is possible in the dairying lands of iNew Zealand; (d) A cow of sound constitution;

(e) A cow that can transmit her profitable qualities to her offspring with reasonable certainty. I am not considering the question of town milk -supply, because that is such a very small portion of the dairying industry, but, in passing, I would call your attention to the frequency with which you may notice the bold sign on the carts of milk vendors, "pure . Jersey jailk." Have you ever seon the n.ime of any other bread, mentioned in thisi manner?

The economical production of butter.fat is the great aim of every dairj'man. He is not in the business for.the fun of it. He is there to make money, and it he is shown a way of improving i;.s methods and increasing his income t lie will readily adopt any new r>our=e which appears reasonable, but in .he matter of the best breed of cows to keep, life is too short for every farmer to experiment with all breeds of dairy cows so as to find out which is the most profitable, and therefore he is dependent upon the public tests which have been held for this purpose. Without doubt the greatest breed contest ever held took place at the great St. Louis Exhibition in 1905. The Shorthorn, Holstein, Brown Swiss and Jersey societies of America I selected the very best animals from their [respective breeders. The animals were sent to St. Louis, and cared for under most advantageous conditions for 120 days (four months). Their milk was weighed and tested, and the daily food consumed by each animal was carefully recorded. All of these records were supervised by Professor Farrington. The result of the contest was an easy win for the Jerseys.- They not only produced far more butter than any other breed, but produced-their butter at a cost per pound far below that of any other breed. A very noticeable feature was the remarkable manner in which the Jerseys stuck to their work, some of the cows giving more butter in the last ten days of the contest that during the first ten days. The result of the downright manner of this great Jersey victory has been felt the world over by an annually greater demand for good Jerseys. •The most up-to-date dairying country in the world' is" Denmark, the home of the beautiful black and white cattle, but of late years these scientific farmers have realised the value of Jersey cattfe, and they are now replacing the homebred cattle with Jerseys at a remarkable rate. Last year far more cattle were exported from the island of Jersey to Denmark than to any other country.

An amusing story indicative of the position in Denmark is told by a Jersey breeder who recently visited Denmark at the invitation of the Jersey Society there. After having inspected various ! Jersey herds the visitor expressed a desire to see a herd of home-bred black and white cattle. He was taken to the barn | of a noted breeder, and could not help commenting upon the beautiful, sleek I and 1 contented appearance of the wellcrroomed cows standing in their stalls. He then asked to see the bulls of the herd. The host gave an involuntary smile and led the visitor to the large bull boxes, and on throwing open the doors our friend was amazed to find two beautiful Jersey bulls! The farmer smiled, and said he had to do it, and then led the visitor to inspect his calves, all of which were by Jersey bulls. The old idea that Jerseys are poor, delicate fixatures, without constitutions, is quite exploded. In the Piost exposed parts of Taranaki both pure-bred and oracle Jerseys are giving excellent results. The' farmer with his herd of pure-bred and half-bred Jerseys is the envy of all his neighbors. It is not the cows that they are envious about, but it is the monthly cheque which he draws that worries them. If long life can be i taken as an indication of good constitution, then Jerseys must be a hardy race, for you will find 1 Jersey cows 13 and 14 •years old in every herd breeding and milking like second ealvers. This is the rule—not the exception. .A notable example is that of Mr. Cornwall's old cow "Grannie." When in her nineteenth year she dropped a healthy heifer calf, and for some time milked over 40 pounds daily. And there is every reason why Jerseys should be profitable and healthy in their old age.

They have been bred for it for so manv generations that they just go on living and making profits for their owners. It's in them, and it has to come out—they can't help it. Of course, when 1 talk of hardiness and constitution I assume that the cows get reasonable feeding and attention. To the man who literally starves his cows it does not matter what breed of cow he keeps—all will be alike to him. With good treatment the Jersey is as hardy as any other breed for any part of New Zealand where dairying is carried on. When one hears the Jersey described as delicate it is either by the man whose experience is limited co one cow or it is tlie man who does" not know how to care for his cows, and as he will not make a success at the business he is bound to quit sooner or later, and his opinion does not count.

Apart from her productiveness as a, dairy cow, the one element above all others which places the Jersey on a pedestal by itself is its power to reproduce its profitable qualities in its offspring with reasonable certainty. If it were not for this fact, would we see the i big prices which are often paid for two or three-teated cows? The explanation of this hereditary feature is readily found in the selection of sires for a period of about 200 years, and it is a feature which adds enormously to the selling value of all Jerseys. Extreme productiveness of occasional animals i does not stamp the breed to which it be-' longs as capable of high average production, and if the remarkable performance! of "Jacoba Irene" in producing 11261bs' of butter in 365 days recently were an isolated case she might be looked upon as a freak, but her authenticated record is backed up by many other very fine performances. During the past twelve' months in the United States of America' alone ten other Jersey cows have authen-l ticated records of 7551bs of butter in the year and upwards, two of them having exceeded 1000 lbs. of butter each, and doubtless many more would have put up equal records had they been officially tested. In New Zealand very few, year's records have been kept, but that we have some good Jerseys is proven by "Grannie's Girl's" record of 8271bs of ibutter in 365 days. In butter-fat contests in all parts of the world the Jerseys show their superiority over other breeds by securing the greater portion of the prize money, and invariable securing first honors. The steadily increasing land values in New Zealand act as a compelling force) in directing the farmer to look more closely to his sources of profit; he can no longer afford to feed and milk cows which do not give a fair value of milk in return, and he is enquiring of each cow per medium of the Babcock tester just what each cow is paying for her board. His enquiries show him that almost every animal with Jersey blood in her veins is paying him full rates and a hancLsome profit as well. This discovery is the cause of the popularity of the 1 Jersey, not only in New Zealand, but throughout the dairying world. To sum the Jersey up, she is a specialist par excellence as a manufacturer of butterfat.