FRIESIANS AGAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 September 1918, Page 6

FRIESIANS AGAIN.

To the Editor. Sil*, —in replying to Mr Ranford's letter of the "20tli iust., I can assure him there is no need to adopt the "squeal before you're 'hurt" policy. I have 110 desire to be the object of any of bis hatlifting experiments, so do not intend to waste much time in ''mud slinging," which he says was characteristic of a previous correspondent's letters. When he first replied to my letter re "the Jersey being on top," he flooded your paper wWi records of Jersey production, but, judging from his last effort, lie finds that he made a wrong start and so cut nil his second rate figures out. In accusing me of inconsistency, lie forgets that he is the more lamentaible example, for while his association expresses appreciation of semi-official testing as a means for showing the merits of the dairy cow, at the first mention of the results of such tests he dubs them of no value and wanders to America for some experiment, which states the Friesian ate the most, but then contradicts itself by giving figures to show that the Jersey really ate 3 lb more than the Friesian. Now, Sir, I should have thought that 'Mr Ranford would have given some explanation concerning tha latter part of that little test, but he seemed to be so busy crying out that the Friesian was an enormous eater that he forgot that according to those figures the Jersey could only be dubbed a glutton. Fancy him trying to "gull'' the public with the idea that the Jerseys gave more milk than the Friesians. when we have undisputed proofs from all over the world that the latter cow can give about twice as much as the former Up to the present m New Zealand there have been six cows that have exceeded 2000 gallons in a year, while the Jerseys highest is about 1200 gallons, and, judging by the steady increase, m both milk and fat put up by the Frieshns during the last few years it seems certain that they will go higher still, while the good little -Jersey has"not been able to beat her record put up two years aero.

Professor TT. H. Dean, of the Guelph Agricultural College, savs . « We find that the difference in feed which is consumed by a large cow and a small one for production of a given quantity of milk or butter is largely in the roiHi tood the cheap food, and whether a cow be a large one or a small one she will require just about a certain amount of concentrated feed, and that the difference in feed which is eaten by large and small dairy cows is in the' cheap rough bulky food and not in the concentrated." A notable example of this may be found in the records of May Rilmn. the Guernsey champion cow, and the Holstein Basostine Belle de Kol May Rilma produced 15.07 lbs more fat but the Holstein gave 7.731 lbs more milk, and so her total product was not only more valuable, but she was also a more economical producer, averaging 5 lbs of grain less per day than the Guernsey. Mr Ranford, in his little piece of borrowed poetry, says the Jersey calf is a dream. How hard it must be to have to knock such dear little dreams on the head, or if the owner decides to rear the lot I should say it would prove to be more of a "nightmare," if, after giving them about 18 bobs' worth of new milk r.nd ten bobs' worth of meal and .grass to take them to the sale, and get them "knocked down" for a quid. So Mr Ranford sees signs of weakening in my arguments. I don't think ! I hat anything he has said or proved would cause anyone to quail. In fact. I might say that he fell at his first .hurdle, ami has not recovered himself yet. His first few letters to your paper "ere made up of mere nothing. Not a figure or proof of any kind, and wh.>

'■" -Hd V. no 4„ t ,,„ r „ 0 ,„. n „, , , show a few records in support of his arguments it must have been humilating to find that they could be topped by the Friesians every time. As for his experiment from Ohio, I should say the waste paper bag would be the best place for it, unless he explains its inconsistency in a satisfactory manner. It seems to me, Sir, that these Jersey gentlemen would have done far better to have left Mr Wright's figures alone for all the good they have done the J.B.A.'s cause. I wonder will Mr Ranford or Mr Freeth have the "neck" to say that the fat pay-out for dried milk'would be fair? Four-fifths of a pound of solids in 'every lb of fat would be a great thing for the Jersey if she could get it for nothing, but I think the "low-testing brigade" will see that they get their rights. I should like to hear what Mr Freeth has to say about solids increasing with fat but perhaps he is away enjoying the spending of that .44 bonus which ho dreamt he earned. The Jersey men contend that the best cheese is made from milk containing a high fat content. I doubt if there is a cheese factory in Taranaki that does not make whey butter, and as some of the average tests were as low as 3.5!), it seems that the cheese cries out against too much fat. The Oaonui dairy company had an average test of 3.53, and yet they made £llOO worth of whey butter. Evidently their cheese did not absorb more than about 3.4 or 8.5 per cent fat. The average cheese contains 34 per cent fat and 30 per cent casein, so if 3.4 of fat went into the cheese, it is evident that 3 per cent casein goes in, out of 8.01 solids not fat or a little over a third of the solids not fat go into the cheese. Now, Sir, according to official figures, there is .82 lbs more solids not fat to a lb of fat in Friesian milk than there is in Jersey milk, so it meaus that the Friesian gives over .27 lbs more casein to every lb of butter fat and gets nothing for it. No wonder the black and whites get the name of eating a lot of grub. Theße solids they don't get any credit for, all take food to produce then. Jfi fßjfe the solids pot tot are

the most important part of the cheese, as they supply the fles-li and muscle producing elements.—l am, etc., H. Q. MUIR. Oaonui, 20th September. To the Editor. Sir, —I have to thank Mr Muir for noticing my letter and for enlightenment, though perhaps that was unintentional. He does not disprove my contention, however, namely that a man wishing to improve the milking qualities of his herd cannot depend on doing so by buying a pedigree Friesian bull, nay, risks rather getting heifers that are poor doers and worse milkers, looking as if they were cut out of a plank, with bags the size of a cricket ball. The reason is not far to seek. I wasn't really puzzled. In the effort to maintain size, which is quite feasible, a beef type will crop up now and again and the breeders sooner than make a small immediate loss, send an animal of that type out to work iharm to the breed and disgustj whoever owns it. Selling their surplus bulls to farmers may not be a profitable line for the breeders, but if it is they will soon be losing on it, for the farmers will turn them down cold.—l am, etc., FARMER. Tataraiamaka, 19th September.