FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1918, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY.

BREEDING GOOD HEIFERS. The most interesting and prolitablo undertaking in dairy fanning is the 'breedins,' of heifers. Jt ia interesting because of the opportunity to watch the young things grow and develop under your hand, confirming, or possibly refuting, some pet theory of feed ami breeding; and profitably, because it adds to the herd better animals than you could expec! to purchase at anywhere near the actual cost of the home-grown product. From the time it is born until it comes in milk the dairy heifer should be tha object of special care and attention. Too often these young animals are left to take whatever fare comes their way, for good or ill, usually none too gooi{. It is true that omissions of earlier days •:annot be wholly compensated by any amount of after care, but to quite an extent the second year may be made to offset neglect of the first. The heifer should be bred to come fresh at abou*. two years of age. A long milking period* is desirable the first year as it encourages the habit. While the individual characteristic will decide this to a certain extent, much can be done by proper encouragement and ample feed, Much has been said as to the comparative merits of breed and feed. Breeding is an excellent thing—no question about its advantages. But feed, when judiciously prepared and proportioned, will do wonders with an anjmal handicapped in heredity. Not every man may feel that he can possess a purebred, but any man may do better than he is doing with the animals at his disposal by studying care-v fully the principles of 'feeds and feeding, by applying modern conveniences of care and treatment in the cow-house, by testing and proving what he is accomplishing in every instance, and lastly, by giving his animals the personal interest without which allelse will be a failure. • This personal interest will manifest itself in a careful oversight of the freshening heifers, and should not be left entirely to any hired hand, no matter how capable. If the heifers are in the pasture 1 they should be visited regularly, or better still, brought to the cow-house and' fed with the herd. This will do much toward gentling them and preparing them for milking. Each should have her own still and be treated the .same as the cows. Let them he handled gently; petting will do a good deal to preparing a heifer, inclined to be timid, for what is before her. Confidence in her caretaker may make a decided change in one inclined to be ner vous, as some high-strung dairy animal are. Manipulation of the udder accuis'' toms the young tiling to the human ha v., so there will be no trouble in mil' ing later on. All these things count and go far in the making of a good cow. THE FUTURE OF DAIRYING. ''Hoard's Dairyman," a well-known American paper, nays:—Secretary Houston and Food Administrator Hoover called about 1)0 representatives of live stock interests to Washington to confer with them upon the conservation and production of live stock and live stock products. The world's supply of animal products is low, and it is wise to take some steps to increase the supply. We have not reached the period, and will not in many years to come, when our population must subsist largely on a vegetable diet. The red blood of our nation requires milk and its products and meat. Secretary Houston, in his remarks, called attention to the fact that seventeen years ago we had 195 million head of cattle, hogs, and sheep, and to-day 188 millions, with an added population of 28 millions. Further, war is a great destroyer of animals. This condition assures the live stock interests of this country a good demand for all kinds of farm animals. At the present time the prices of dairy products are too cheap when compared with the prices of grain and other feeds. If the promising three-billion bushel corn crop ripens grain and feed will he cheaper. If frosts come early and there is much soft corn, live stock will have its"place then, for no better disposition can 'be made of soft corn than to feed it to live protein, and the dairy cow is the best animals for furnishing these products. No animal on the farm will produce as much human food from a given amount of feed as the dairy eow. A fair cow will produce as much food in one year as three steers. Steers must be slaughtered to get their food, but cows yield food daily and year after year without being killed. Our present situation is going to teach the consumer the food value of dairy products, and this should lead him to willingly pay as much for them as he pays for other animal products. Dairyproducts have never sold for what they were worth in comparison with meat as food. Milk is our cheapest animal food product to-day, yet more complaint is made about the high prices of dairy products than about the high prices of'meat. It only shows the ignorance of the consumer in regard to the relative value of foods. Men who own (dairy cows should lay plans to keep them and to give them good care. The prices for dairy products are going to be more nearly in keeping with the prices of other food products than they have been in the past. More[over, the demand is going to be larger, fpr people are fast learning the food value of dairy products. Since the beginning of the war the dairy division has already beeen instrumental in getting over 2,000,0001b of skim milk,to be made daily into cottage cheese. This is a small factor, but it is a start in the right direction.