FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 42, 10 July 1914, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY.

VALUE OF THE PUREBRED SIRE. A STRONG CASE ESTABLISHED. Mr E. Griffiths, of New Plymouth, tl>; well-known Jersey breeder, writes to the editor under yesterday's date, as follows.— .Sir,—Your leader of recent dale fender this heading should commend itself to every dairy farmer in the Dominion. Mr Singleton, of the Dairy Produce Division of the Department of Agriculture, the officer who has token such a keen interest in herd and semiofficial testing, is always preaching Hie doctrine of dairy farmers using the ; j very best pedigree bulls obtainable. ! I He shows in black and white how im- | j mensely profitable the investment in a pedigree bull from a recognised but terf&t family is to the fanner and to tlie Dominion. It is a deplorable thing that notwithstanding all tluat has been written and said on this subject that not more than live farmers in every 100 are using purebred bulls.. New Zealand fanners are not singular in this respect. Agricultural farmers in every country are endeavouring to make farmers practise what they cannot heJp admitting is a money making proposition. An authority writing in "Kimball's Hairy Farmer," puts the matter somewhat in this way. There is an axiom that the sire is half the herd, but I will go a steo further and state that in my opinion he seems to be about nine-tenths of it. One must breed either up or down. As the keystone to the arched bridge, so is he to his surrounding herd. If ire ie a weakling, the whole structure comes to nought. Fix on one of the established dairy ' breeds. The so-called "general pur--1 pose" and l: dual purpose" cows are det lusions of the past. This W undoubtedly an age of concentration, specialisation and eompetition, and no man has ever been able to breed a good beef animal aaid a good heavy producing dairy cow at the same time. No matter what breed you l finally select, the one great truth and unassailable fact remains, viz., a rich man may afford a poor sire, but a poor man never! He should have the very best he can possibly secure, for he simply cannot afford to take chances. At the price of good, straight milking cows to-day, every dairy farmer should raise his heifer calves from his good cows, and he. may know his good ones by becoming a member of a cow-testing association, organisations tnat have accomplished untold! good in advanc- ; ing the dairy interests. If a good purebred sire improves the butter-fat capacity of hia daughters ion the average oi-ly one pound per week above the production of their dams (this is a lev estimate, for I have known cases where bulls' daughters are averaging upwards of 31bs. weekly of butter-fat higher production than their , dams), it would mean that in a milking 1 period of forty weeks and calculating [ butter-fat at lit per lb., these daughters | would earn nearly £2 more than : their dams. The average cow is a ! good milker for at least six years. During that period, her aggregate net earning would exceed that of her dam bv £l2. In an ordinary herd of, *ay 35 to 40 head, there should be at (least twelve heifers each year worth raising, making it possible for a bidl to earn twelve times thie above £l2 or £144 for the three years tliat a bull is ordinarily i kept in service. Therefore, the cost of j providing each of the mentioned twelve heifers with one good parent would , look something like this I Pure Bred. Grade. £s. d. £s. d. Cost of Sire . . 40 0 0 o 0 0 I Int. 3 years 5 per ■cent 6 0 0 15 0 Cost of keeping 3 years .. .. IS 0 0 18 0 0 'JV>ta! exp. 3yrs. 64 0 0 23 15 0 ■ 11ms the extra*coet of good sire for "-.vis 40 5 0 Fatiii cost of good s're, lyr . . 13 8 4 1-Atra cost of good aire e a c ll daughter ll 2 4 Leaving out tie male calves, it would appear that it cost £l3 8s 4d to provide Olio good purebred parent for the twelve heifer calives raised each year, or £1 2s 4d per heifer. The £1 2s 4d expended brings in a return of £2 pelyear for six years, or £l2 in all—a dear addition of £l2 to the income of each daughter, or a net profit of £lO J7s Sd, and of £:i!)l Ills for 3b daughters in lliree years. These figures are intere-ting. ami will hear careful thought and study. On this basis, who would want to eoni tiliiie with a grade bull, even if lie w-ere forced to borrow, or part with a few of hi.-, poorer cow* b; order to secure a good pure-bred? It I all a simple business which must pppeal forcibly to any thinking man. The more run down the. farm the more the crying need of modern ni"thods. '.fining need of modern methods. The poorer and loss productive the herd, the los, warrant for less economy in the selection o* a. bull and the more need of a reliable pure-bred sire from : which t'j raise heifer caives to replace j unprofitable rtoi-k. I Don't make the mistake of believing that ju-t because, a bull is -registered" i or U entered in a herd book he is of j necessity a good one. Many registered .-bulls, lacking several generations of consistent producing ancestors, 'have I roved bitter disappointments to their I'.pnrchasi t*. All good pure-breds are I registered animals, but all good pure'hreils are not good an'rmals. ■So fir.,t of all the herd bull should be a good individual, of good dairy type and free from disease. Second, he should descend, on both sides of his pedigree, from producing animaht as proven by their official records. And, third, he -hould have the power, called prepotency, of transmitting his inherited traits to ibis own offspring and stamping them •with his individuality. A bull can ■transmit, only that which he inherits. "Like begets like," and if he does not inherit desirable dairy qualities he certainly cannot transmit them. Altogether, it would seem well for any one desirous of improving his herd to definitely decide to do at least three fillings, and not be led astray by any comments of his neighbour. I-et him first decide upon the most desirable breed for his purpose, and then by hook or by crook secure the best possible specimen of that breed he can possibly obtain to head his herd. Let him next select, by means of the scales and the Habcoek test, bis best cows, and keep their heifer calves. Lastly, let him rear these ralves as carefully and conscientiously as. he can, developing them properly and eventually replacing with them, when they come in to profit, the older members of the herd. Nothing rerv hard, nothing verv difficult of »'■- : ■■.oii|iii-.!iiiii-nt. no great trick to it all; I Lilly a little ambition and a desire to ] nitike the most and have the best pos- | sible. Any progressive dairy farmer can accomplish the same wonderful reI suits thut many successful men have accomplished, if lie will only try.

And in time the Ihcrd will become 15-10 or 13-32 pure, and be raised to a high degree of eliicieucy. Then it will be time to thing of buying a few registered pure-bred heifers', and in ji surprisingly short time a herd can be made all pure-breds, and a profitable market established for bull calves as well as for surplus females. But shun, shun the grade bull as you would a pestilence, and do not count too closely the cost of a purebred sire. There might be some sense in a farmer saying that he could not afford a long price for a line cow, hut that does not apply to a bull, because of his influence over the entire herd. In some localities neighbors combine and own a bull in partnership, or be is sold from one to another when it becomes necessary to avoid inbreeding, thus reducing the cost of controlling a good sire. The successful dairy farmer of to-day is the far-sighted man who buys good, breeds better, and owns be.it. PAYMENT OF MILK ON GRADE. (To the Editor.) Sir,—During the recent shows, with their attendant conferences of the National Dairy Association and Dairy Factory Managers' Association, one of the main points of discussion has been on the payment of butter-fat according to ?rade of milk supplied. While being greatly in favor of all progressive, measures for the up-lceep of the quality and irice of Taranaki's staple produce. I h-ust the shareholders and suppliers to the various factories will give the natter in its bearing towards themselves due consideration before consenting to any radical change in the payBent of their butter-fat. In all the deliberations at the recent conferences, irom the chief dairy expert to the lowest factory manager, it seems to have been tacitly agreed upon that all factory managers were perfection, and the blame 'or all low-grade butter and cheese was entirely due to the negligence of the supplier. By some gentlemen at the re-. >ent conferences the employment of a separate inspector to attend all eream:ries and factories once a month and all payments to be made in accordance with iris grading, was advocated. To my mind that would lead to trouble and jseless expense and confer but small benefit in the grade of the finished wiicle. All dairy farmers know that however careful they are, occasionally their milk, without any apparent cause, may be slightly off for one milking and yet perfectly right the next milking. Under that system one supplier might be penalised for a whole month for one day's second-grade milk while another supplier, with much worse milk, might escape detection by having his miJk good on the day of inspection. Then, again, the inspector would always have to be putting someone on second-grade in order to keep his billet, for if all suppliers were supplying a first-grade article his billet would soon be at an end. The matter for the consideration of the suppliers is in the event of any disagreement between a manager and inspector and supplier is to supply a means whereby the supplier can have some definite cheek on the manager in all disputes as to the grade of milk he supplies. Having lived a great deal among dairy farmers, I have heard of suppliers who, being dissatisfied with their test, have had their milk tested elsewhere and immediately their test has risen several points. I now notice that in many places the locker system ia in vogue whereby a supplier can be absolutely safeguarded in regard to his test. Whereas managers, like suppliers, are only human, in all disputes, unless there is some safeguard for the supplier, he would lie apt to fare badly if the manager's decision was final. I hope at our annual meeting the directors will be able to make the whole sdheme absolutely clear to all suppliers with regard to proposed grading of milk in order that before any change is sanctioned, each and every supplier may know exactly how the grading will be tarried out. To my mind it would be superfluous among the suppliers to the Moa factory, as I am led to believe all our output has been first grade, and if that is so, why further harass the already much-worried cow-farmer and incur an unnecessary expenditure?—l am, etc., H. A. HUNT. Waiongomi, S/7/1914.