FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 86, 2 October 1911, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY

AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT. At the instance of the directors of the Nireaha Dairy Factory Co., the factory manager is at present experimenting with the separation of whey, with a view to ascertaining whether it would pay to set up special permanent machinery with the object of recovering the butter-fat that now practically goes to waste. Trials on a small scale have been made, and from eight gallons of whey taken from the top of the tank one and a-half pounds of butter were recovered. Whey taken from the bottom of the tank gave no return of butter-fat. The directors have been in communication with the Dairy Commissioner, and as a result the latter will probably visit the district at an early, date, and give facts and figures in respect to the profitableness of skimming whey.

MONTHLY COW-TESTING. •It is generally recognised that monthly sampling affords a fairly reliable record of a cow's milk yield for the year. An experiment conducted at the Agricultural College at Newport, England, gives a ■good idea of the value of <fyiry records, as against weekly, fortnightly and monthly. The test was conducted with 10 typical cow» representative pf light and heavy milkers, varying in age with different calving periods. The average figures ghow that the yield obtained by a daily record with 099 gallops, the weekly record showed 700 gftll<Snss, the fortnightly record 711 pllodfc and the monthly record 760; gajlbn# Examination of the figures, however, indicate# thait at times a considerable variation may take place. In the case of one cow, for instance, monthly records showed a variation of no less than 43 gallons in the year. Another cow, whose daily record was 870 gallons, was only 654 by weekly and 667 by fortnightly, while monthly records dropped her total to 590 gallons.

HERD-TESTING, During the course of his arihual summary of the work of the New Zealand Cow-testing Association, Mr, W, M. Singleton, of the Agricultural Department, makes the following interesting reference to the necessity of feeding:—"The yields this season are scarcely up to those anticipated by the owners., The season has not been so favoraWe"aß its predecessor and cows in many herds, have felt the need of a more generous supply of feed. One of the lessons bow-testing is bringing home to some of the members is the money value of extra feed, and I know that a number of the cows under test this season will be given a better opportunity next season, since more members will provide maize or other feeds as soiling crops in addition to the ordinary pasture. The value of soiling-crops is evidenced by the yields of tyro herds pasturing on farms on oppositfe'sides of the same road. Herd A wa's fed on maize in addition to grass during, the, lateT summer months; herd B was given no supplementary feed. Froto/fcHe flush of the season until the close the average cow in herd A produced 1421b of butterfat ; the average cow in hi#d 881b of butter-fat after The difference is 5411) of fat, worth, at. Is per pound, £2 14s. For a thirty-Cow herd this would amount to £Bl. The owner of herd B had been studying his records, and declares that his cows will have supplementary feed next summer. The average cow of herd A for the season produced Cfllb of fat more than the average cow of herd B."