FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 October 1916, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY.

MORE MONEY PROM DAIRYING, EXPERIENCE OF A PRACTICAL' ! ',. EARMER. Mr. Jfcunoa Burgess, 01 warea, explains in the following article, contributed to the Lyttelton Times, how he raised the average butterfat production of his dairy herd by 1001b per head, without any heavv tipense. Nearly six.y years ago one of the pupils attending the same school with me was a boy named Ernest Matthews. His father' was a chemist, dcing business in Cambridgeshire, and keeping about half a dozen Jersey cows on a few acres of grass that he had. Young Matthews, from boyhood, took a keen interest in the cows, and as each Saturday half-holiday came round he used to weigh the miik from each cow and take a sample of the milk, which was put into a glass cylinder graded to show the precentage of cream which rose. By these means, primitive as they were in comparison with the Badcock tester, he in a very few years wonderfully increased the production ftom his father's small herd. Young Matthews, realising the possibilities of the great improvement that could be made by these methods, followed them up, and eventually became secretary to the Jersey Breeders' Association in England and a recognised authority among Jersey breeders.

Naturally, this example made an im,pression upon the writer of this paper, and ten years ago, after a conversation on the subject with Mr. Harkness, the secretary to the North Island National Dairy Association, I decided to go thoroughly into it. From that time till now the milk of each cow in my herd has been weighed, morning and night, on one day in each week right through the s'ason, and a sample taken for testing. At the end of each season the rcsuiw are worked out, and the production 01 ea'h cow ascertained. Heifer;; from the bo>( cows, by a purebred bull of milking strain, are kept to fill vacancies in the herd, and, although every good cow cannot be depended upon to produce a good heifer, the large majority will do it. So much is this the case, that where the dam has been put to a good bull, three out of every four heifers have Droved quite as good, and often better, "than their mothers; whereas when heifers were bought from untested herds, my experience was that not more than one out of four turned out to be really good. Results have fully justified the practice, •and from an average production of 1871b of butter-fat the season before testing ww started, it had risen last season to 28:>;b'. This is by no means up to the reh'rn from many herds in Taranaki, but as it has been obtained under ordinary farm conditions, with very little ontlay, by means which are within the reach of all, it should be sufficient to induce ntlurs who have not yet done so, to at one<' start weighing and testing. ' In comparing the returns, from different herds many things should be taken into consideration, such as these:—

1. A first-class herd may be got together by buying at a high price cow.3 that have been tested and found good by someone else.

2. The land in some localities produces mah more luxuriant feed than in others. 3. One herd may be composed of all mature cows in their prime, and another of cows from first-calvers to very old cues,

4. And, again, one herd may be composed of cows of a large breed and the nest of cows of a smallireed, and probably 20 per cent, more of the small brad than of the large can be kept upon the same amount of feed. '.'he real problem is how to obtain the greatest return from equal quantities of land of similar quality. The writer's experience has been similar to Hint of hundreds of other.small farmers wh.') have to depend upon their dairy herds for a living. The farm is one of j,ts.t over 100 acres of, land of medium quality, twenty-four miles from port or in'!way, and nothing like so productive as that in many parts of Taranaki. Fiv.m this farm last season well over lO,oUolbs of butter-fat were produced, and eight heifers which will come in this season, and six to come in next :-,naso:i, were carried right through. When building up a herd with the guidance of weighing and testing, and maintaining it by the same means, the herd is always composed of cows varying in age from first calver?. to aged ones, with the result that the production varies little from year to year, except that where the teaching is properly followed, the tendency is almost invariably to increase. Where herds of c.uv'i are bought without records of production, a large proportion will certainly be very inferior, but it is utterly impossible, without weighing and testing, to say which they are. Cows that give thirty or forty pounds of milk at each milking are naturally regarded as very superior ones. But they may, and.often do, fall off very rapidly, maki/ifr a very short season, or their tost may be very low. Only a day or two ago. the writer was looking through the tests of individual cows owned by the farmer who supplies milk with the highest test of any delivered at the local factory, and found them vary from 2.7 to fi.o". Now, if the cow with the 0.0 test gives only 271b of milk daily, she nt'.i produce just as much butter-fat as l.he cow with the 2.7 test will if she "ivic 001b of milk. It will generally be found that the cow giving a moderate qii.-.ntitr of milk tests higher, and milks longer, than one giving a very large quantity, so that at the cud of the ''season she often shows by far the best results To find this out regular weighing and testing are necessary. An oc-c.-icnal weighing and testing is quite as likely to lead to wrong conclusions a e 10 right ones, and may be regarded as u=c less.

' A herd of cows, bought with good rn.ih.hig records, may confidently be exl- - to make a high retuni for a few years, but unless a bull of good mi'king strain is used, and records of production kept, it will rapidly deteriorate when vacancies in the herd have to be filled up. To go on milking a certain number of cows, year after year, without taking the. trouble to ascertain which are paying and which are not, is ecrtninlv not the way to obtain the best return for the labor and cost of dairy farm'll:'. The average return from each cow milked in the Dominion is estimated to be (..bout 1803b of butter fat. Were this increased to 2801b an it easily could be were weighing and testing gencr.illy ndoptcd what an enormous amount would be added to the farmers' income, ami what a difference it would make tc ;he general prosperity of the Dominion. Inverting again to personal experience. During the last ten years, only three co'.vs or heifers have been bought. The rc-'t have been bred on the farm. The Ayrshire breed has been adopted, and a pure-bred bull of milking strain used. At the end of each season a sufficient

number of eows making the lowest return, or getting too old, have been sold to make room for heifers from cows waking the highest returns. It will be seen that the cows are not of a lar"e breed, that a good deal of stock in addi-t-iin to the cows actually milked is carried, that the increased production of butter-fat 19 not due to buying highpriced cows, or having the herd entirely composed of cows in their prime; whilst the land is only modiera\tely fertile. Under these conditions it is only fair to pssi;mc that the increased production is chiefly due to the use of a good bull, combined with selecting the best heifers for the herd, which is only possible through the assistance of weighing and testing. At the present prices ruling for butter-fat, an increase of 1001b of butter-fat per cow meant an added profit n?: at least £7 10s per cow, or for a small herd of only thirty cows £'225 a year, and any farmer can easily raise the output of his herd to an average of 2801b in a very few years if he will take the trouble to regularly weigh and tost, and take care to use none but good bulls. The limit of 2801b of butter-fat has been only stated because it has been passed whilst working under ordinary conditions, involving no work or expense that aimest any dairy farmer cannot face, but there is no reason why 3001b or more should not be obtained without any great outlay of capital.

Plenty of food, grown on the farm, is of course, essential. Cows cannot create butter-fat, but only manufacture it out of the food consumed. Weighing and testing will show which are bt-si adapted for the work required to be done. There U nothing at which a dairy farmer can employ a small part of his time that will repay him so well as weighing and testing. It enables him to tell exactly wliat each cow is worth, and how many are not worth keeping. If dairy farmers will generally adopt the practice, nothing else at so small a cost will have so big an influence in increasing the returns made by their herds.

Mr. Lightbiiitl. of Hastings, waited upon the Council of the Masterton Chamber of Commerce at its last meeting, and brought under the notice of members an industry for the utilisation of the by-products of the freezing works. He pointed out that the paunches of sheep and cattle could be treated and made into commercial goods, such as pocket wallets, handbags, etc.. and laid on the table samples of the leather as treated ready for manufacture. Mr. Liglitband stated that if sufficient money was subscribed to erect works to the value of .-foOOO or £7OOO an industry could he established that would employ between 1M) and 170 people. It was pointed out that arrangements could possibly bo completed with the Wellington Farmers' Meat Company for the purchase of by-products from the works