FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 314, 2 July 1912, Page 8

FARM AND DAIRY

DOLLARS L\ DAIRYING. An American paper to hand by a recent mail contains a very interesting article under the above significant title, and we commend the excerpts from it to the earnest consideration of our Nev' Zealand dairy farmers. Prices for good dairying land are high to-day in the Dominion, exceptionally high iii some places, but we have yet to learn that those who have given the highest prices have made a mistake. The crux of the whole position, as we have previously pointed out, lies in the system adopted by our dairy farmers. They cannot hope to make a success of dairying u their .herds are poor milkers and are, into the bargain, ill-fed. "For profitable butter production two requisites are absolutely indispensible," says the article from which we quote: "The first is high-grade or purebred cows that by nature and breeding give a large quantity of milk containing a high percent-' age of butter-fat. The second is good reed and care. And one is as essential as the other. For although there is a vast difference in cows, some naturally producing many times as much butter as others on the same feed, provided the feed is of the proper kind and quantity, still the best cow cannot be expected to , give a large yield on poor or insufficient food; neither will the scrub cow. Neither yof them will pay without proper care and feed. But the all-important point is that it is not in the scrub cow to give a profitable yield of butter how ever well you feed and care for her."

To show the actual possibilities of butter production by the most 'highly-devel-oped cows, properly fed and managed, the following statistics of a single year's production by a few cows that at present lead the world are given by the American authority:— Holstein.—Pontiac Clothilde's De Koe 2nd, No. 69,991, in one year produced 2,318.01b of milk, testing 4.02 per cent, butter-fat, and producing a total of 1017.821b of butter-fat. Holstein—flolantha 4th's Johanna; year's record, milk 27.432.51b; butter-fat 998,1761b.

Jersey—Jacoba Irene; year's record, milk 17,253.21b; butter-fat 5.53 per cent.; total butter-fat 954.11b.

Guernsey.—Dolly Dimple; milk, 18,461 lb; butter-fat, 4.91 per cent.; total but-ter-fat, 907.041b.

Guernsey.—Yeksa Sunbeam; milk, 14,920.81b; total butter-fat, 857.161b. Ayrshire.—Netherhall Brownie 9th; milk 17,1101b; butter-fat, 4.53 per cent.; total butter-fat, 820.811b.

The advice given by the American paper is sound, and may be commended to all dairy farmers, who will, of course, recognise that in certain matters what may be necessary in America may not be required in New Zealand:

J To double the average butter production of your cows, and this can and ■ should be done, it will be necessary to I get rid of all low-test, scrub cows, retain the better cows, mate them with a purebred dairy breed bull, retain the 'female offspring, and continue to grade up steadily by using a purebred bull, year after year, of the same breed used at the start. But this is not enough; one has also to feed well. We asked a farmer if it would not be a good idea for him to Teplace his poor, scrub cows with a lot of good cows, and his surprising answer was: 'No; to tell the honest truth, good cows would not stand the poor care I give my cattle." Further enquiry brought out the fact that he pastured his cows on poor grass during the summer and fed nothing but hay in winter. Properly-fed cows require daily lib of grain for every 31b of milk produced, from 251b to 501b of corn silage and what clover or Alfalfa hay they will eat. They should not be expected to do well and prove profitable if fed on stale hay, acid corn fodder and oat straw. In winter cows have to be well housed in light, ventilated stables, and the water they drink two or three times a day should not be colder than that from a deep well. Cows need daily grooming as much as do horses, and pay better for good care. In summer do not turn on to grass too soon. Provide an abundance of fresh water at all times, and see that the cows have adeqaute shade. On poor pastures feed green corn fodder and other available food. Do not leave cows on bare, unsheltered pastures for flies to torment. Feed and'milk regularly. Breed heifers to drop their first calves at 24 to 30 months of age. Give cows six to eight -weeks' rest before calving. Test the cows and know what it costs to feed each one, and what she pays back for feed and care. To do all this makes you a modern, intelligent dairyman, and you should belong to a dairy cattle breeders' association, a cow-test-ing association, and every organisation that will help to keep you informed and up-to-date in the care and management of dairy cows. t CROPS FOR DAIRY FARMS. Dairy fanners anticipating their cows coming early in spring should look well ahead to see that there should be plenty of succulent food to keep them in profit until the grass is sufficiently grown to give the cows a full bite (says a writer in a northern paper). It must be remembered that cows cannot nip short ; grass so well as can sheep or horses, and unless they can get a plentiful supply of food without having to 'ramble too far for it they cannot give first-class results, and a liberal supply should be kept up during the whole length of their lactation period. If feed is scarce during this period, and the cows, for want of proper food, fall short of their full milking capacity, the farmer is not doing justice to himself, for if not kept up to the highest mark the cow will in time deteriorate, and at the beginning of each milking season she will, instead of improving as a milker, start with a lower yield, and will get worse each season, until in many instances she will lose her Teputation as a milker, and will sooner or later have to be turned into beef. Some argue that secreting milk is a kind of habit; if this is so, then it is to our interest to encourage this habit in every possible way, and this cannot be done if feed is scarce. Just the same thing arises when we come to the question which is often discussed as to which time is the best for a heifer to come into milk. If, as some argue, milk secretion s only a habit, then it might reasonably

be said that the sooner she acquires the habit the better for the dairyman; whereas others say that the cow should not be bred from until she is full grown, contending that the demand on the young animal by the growing foetus and her own growth are too severe, and that she is likely to be stunted. In this, however, there is likely to be wide difference of opinion, as there are many factors which guide the uncertainty attending the question. Whether it is advisable to breed a heifer so as to have her drop her first calf at two years depends largely on the individual animal.