FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 49, 15 July 1914, Page 6

FARM AND DAIRY.

cow-TicsTixc;

Wiiting in the last number of tue Journal uf Agriculture. Mr. W.M. .Singleton says: -iliiiij lessons huvc hitherto Ix rii drawn from tlus figures representiiifT ti»' yields of cows tested in some of the New Zealand cow-testing associations. 'Die ligures are replete with interesting information, and some fnrth.T thought* they suggest. may be inter,. (j| )!f to >.'cw Zealand dairymen. ,\u n" deavour has been made to follow the yields of individual cows through two consecutive seasons, and the returns from Kanpokoniii, Stratford and Cambridge associations have received attention in this direction. Records of yoi|)i<> cows only have been received. The first thought that such work indicates is that an exceedingly large percentage ofyoung cows are not considered worthy of a second year's testing. In herds tested two consecutive seasons, the litres indicate that of every hundred young cows, two, tiiree, and i'onr vears ot a«e, tested during the first season, Old; sixty-Seven were considered worthy of a second trial—tliat is, the o wn- : s culled one from every three. Of f!io,c Sixty-seven retained for the second reason. tile two seasons' records indicate that a further ten miglit very well have been culled, leaving only, fifty-seven of the original hundred producing a minimum of lolllb fat as two-vear-olds ISOlh as three-year-olds, 1!>011« as four-;,ear-olds, and iDßlhs as five-year-olds. Tho-ic animals starting the test at fihree years

and four years of age would, pn'sumably, lie tin- owner's selection from a larger number of animals of equal sxv which commented their first ketationpenorl the same season. It would appear that the figures suggest that the Per centagc of "fair" rows is likely w, little more than 51) per cent, of those heifers wlhich commence milking. The-, associations which incMnled these co'.vs I had an average of -2251 !> hutter-fat for