FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 173, 31 October 1910, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY

CAPE EUMOXT COMPANY. The thirteenth report and lulancesheet of the Cape E-gmont Co-operative Dairy Company, Pungarehu, for the year ending -May :il, liilO, is us follows: Your directors have pleasure in laying before the shareholders the thirteenth report and balance-sheet of the company. The amount of milk received was 8,5(>2,571 I'D., being 1,1183,232 lb. in excess of the previous nine months, Shareholders received an average of 11.25 ft per lb. butter-fat delivered at the cheese factory, and r.ii average of 11.22 d per lb. butter-fat delivered at both cheese and butter factories. Milk received as, cheese factory, 5.0<J1,344 lb.; milk received at the butter factory, 471,527 lb.; butter-fat total (cheese and' butter factories), 332,471 lb.; average test. 3.88; cheese made (factory weights), 790,043 lb.; cheese made (selling weights), shrinkage deducted, 777,874 lb.; butter made, 22,232 lb,; an average of 2.25 lb. cheese (factory weights) or 2.5 lb. (selling weights) from lib. of butter-fat. Alter paying advances on milk received, there remained a gross balance to credits of £lO4l .His, which, after deducting £2OB lis Sd for depreciation, £IO3B 19s 5d already paid to shareholders as a final advance of three farthings per lb. butter-fat, and £lO7 Os 7d as a dividend of 5 per cent, on paid-up shares, there remains a credit balance of £220 14s 4d. Of this sum. £Ol 12s 2d is carried forward on factory account, and £10;j 2s 2d, the credit balance of the store department, is still to be dealt with. During the past year the balance of the 3000 shares in the company have been allotted. Your directors have deemed it wise to ask the shareholders (as stateu. elsewhere by special resolution) to increase the capital from £3OOO to £OOOO, as the applications for shares received and the allotments necessary per Articles of Association cannot at present be satisiied. Mr. W. H. Keasberry, finding, the .duties of secretary and manager of the store department too heavy singlehanded, resigned both positions on May 31 last. Eventually it was arranged that Mr. Keasberrq should retain the management of the store department, ana Mr. A. O'Brien be appointed secretary from June 1. As requested by the shareholders at the last annual meeting, thb directors added a co-operative and public store to the business of the company. The shareholders are to be congratulated on the venture, which has proved most successful, the store department showing a nett profit of £165 2s 2d for a period of little over seven months' trading, after allowing for depreciation and a liberal sum for bank interest. This will permit a rebate of 10 per cent, on purchases made by shareholders and share-milkers. You will be asked to elect three directors in place of Messrs. William Symons and M. Fleming, who retire by rotation, and A. George Wade, who has lately resigned. Y'our directors regret that Mr. M. J. Brennan, through pressure of business, has resigned the position of auditor to the company. Mr. J. S. McKellar has been appointed his successor. It will be necessary to elect an auditor in place of Mr. J. S. McKellar, who is eligible for re-election.

MILK AND BUTTER-FAT TEST. THE WAIRARAPA COMPETITION. The talk of Carterton district on Tuesday was the big butter-fat competition of the Wairarapa and East Coast P. ana A. Society. No less than thirty-one cows took part in the four days' milk and fat test, made under the close su-j pervision of the society's officials, as- 1 sisted by an officer of the Department of Agriculture (Mr. A. F. Wilson) on the Carrington estate, owned by Mr. W. Howard Booth. The winner is a crossbred Holstein, Mr. W. Saywell's Duchess, from the crossbred Holstein herd of Mr. Coleman Phillips. She gave 2461b. of 3.5 per cent, milk. The conditions of the test are (says the New Zealand Times) decidedly remarkable, one point being allowed for each ten pounds of milk and seven points for each pound of butter-fat. This means that a cow giving a great yield of milk must win over the cow giving a smaller amount of a more valuable fluid; in other words, the cow ensuring the highest return according to the price paid to suppliers to local cheese factories does not win, but a cow giving a large yield of a poor quality of milk. For instance, the third cow, Mr. D. Buchanan's (Longburn) Jean, an Ayrshire-Jersey cross, would have won had the i competition been decided on a but-ter-fat basis, as she gave 17iy 2 lb. of 5.2 1 milk, or 8.91b. of fat. If the dairy faci tories of the district, as indeed the whole Dominion, pay for milk on its butterfat standard, this surely should have been the guide in determining the respective value of the milk yielded by thecows in the show competition. THE LEADING COWS. Following are the returns of the leajjt ing cows: — I W. Saywell's Duchess, Holstein cross, I 2401b. of 3.5 milk, or S.Ol of fat. ■ C. G. William's Violet, Shorthorn- ■ Avrshire, 21iy 2 lb. of 4.1 milk, or ■ 8.071b. of fat ■ D. Buchanan's Jean, Ayrshire-Jersey, ■ 17iy 2 lb. of 5.2 milk, or 8.9 of fatß W. J. Lovelock's (Palmerston) Lady ■ of Cliffside, Holstein, 2681b. ofH 2.8 milk, of 7.501b. of fat ■ There are many interesting thingsH connection with the competition. iH winner of two years ago, H. Shorthorn-Ayrshire, was only sevflj teenth this year. At home she has averaging GOIb. of milk a day, but at competition her average dropped to r^M The collection of cows is worthy of ■■ occasion. The thirty-one have from 1540 lb. to 15S5y, lb. of 4.0 nl Hitherto the highest individual yieliH milk was 231 lb. in 1908. This year this record has been passed by three cows.

SPLENDID SPECIMENS. The whining cow is disappointing in front, having a very plain head, but her udder is splendidly attached to her body, and she has a character which distinguishes her from the other competitors, and which is the feature of Mary, the "queen" of the Weraroa Experimental Station herd—the remarkable prominence of veins on the udder. The second cow has also a very well attached udder, with a fine front to it. The third cow, which gave the best yield of fat, has a wonderful development of milk veins, being large tortuous channels extending along her body on both sides. She has the head of a dairy cow seldom seen. The fourth cow won last year's butterfat competition at Palmerston. It is only fair to say that she has not been well since calving. Another purebred Holstein of the Pal-

!merston breeder came twenty-sixth, giv- , ing 221 lb. of -2.9 milk in the four days. PIui:VIOL'S WINNERS. The winners in three WAs for milk fat have been:— 1910— W. Saywoll's Holstein cross, •24(1 lb. of milk, 3.5. WO!)—C. Morgan's Ayrshire, 217 lb., 3.8. I IDOS-H. Feist's Shorthorn-Ayrshire, 231 lb.. 3.9.

When purchasing a cow it is highly im--1 portant to be sure that it comes from a place where the cows are and have for some years past been free from abortion. Contagious abortion may be given to a whole herd of cows from a new cow suffering from this infectious disease. To encourage the consumption of milk .' the Society of Dairymen in Germany I have placarded some of the large towns ivrith the following poster: ''Drink milk. Milk is the cheapest, best, and most wholesome food. If you are hungry, eat milk; if you are thirsty, drink milk!" / The Canterbury Central Dairy Company made during last season a thousand tons of butter, of which only four hundred were exported. The six hundred sold in New Zealand enabled them to i pay the highest price for butter-fat in J the Dominion, arid the local trade has this advantage: In the Christchurch market they have a trade mark and reputation that is easily worth £SOOO. We will put it this way: Suppose an enterprising speculator went to tlie Cathedra! city determined to exploit the local butter market. It would most likely be a better proposition for him to pay the Canterbury Central Company £5000"to go out of the local trade than to commence to cut the price to secure a portion only of the business, for under ordinary circumstances he could never expect to secure the whole of the business which it has taken the company twenty years to work up. Although this particular company is very favorably situated, there are many butter factories almost equally well placed for securing the local business who have practically no local market. But far-off hills are always green, and we suppose will be till the end of time.—Dairyman.

The sheep fly or hot has been detected in Tasmania, Flocks usually attacked mav be seen standing in a circle with their heads inwards and their noses to the ground. The fly (Castrus ovis) is smaller 'than either the ox bot or the horse bot, and is most abundant in damp situations and woody districts. They often cause great irritation in their progress up the nostrils of the sheep, and the poor animals run hither and thither snorting, and in great excitement. The bots sometimes get into the brain, and cause death. It" is said that flocks fed where broom is in flower are never in- j fested with the bot, and when many cases arise in a flock, removal to a dry soil is found to be particularly advantageous. Tutu poisoning has been playing havoc among dairy cows and other classes of stock in South Taranaki. This is a very bad time for this poisonous weed, as it throws up a mass of tender shoots, thus making an "appetising dish" for the bovine.

"Not only has a greater number of cows been milked than in the previous season," sa3's the annual report of the Department of Agriculture, "but, it is gratifying to state, the yield per cowhas been greater. There is still' room for considerable improvement in both these points—in the first by increasing the capacity of the farms by more intense cultivation, and in the second by testing the yield of every cow, and eliminating from the herds those which give least profit." A Post reporter, in the course of enquiry in a dairying district recently, found that individual testing was coming greatly into vogue, and there was a complete agreement as to the necessity of "weeding out the wasters." The Chief Veterinarian, Mr. C. J. Reakes, again in his last annual report, draws attention to the necessity for some measure for the adequate protection of horse-owners, in regard to the registration of shoeing smiths, being placed upon the Statute Book. "Naturally," he says, "it should be framed upon such lines as not to press in any degree unfairly upon capable men. What is needed is to prevent untrained or unfit smiths posing as good workmen, and thereby, as a result of incapacity, being able to impair possibly the continued fitness for work, or, what is worse, inflict direct and permanent injury upon the animals. Under present conditions the horse-owner often lias- to take the risk of his equine stock being temporarily or permanently injured to a greater or lesser extent, while the eapable and reliable shoeingsmith has to bear an undeserved share of the odium cast upon his trade as a result of the incapacity of improperly trained or otherwise unfit workmen."