FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1919, Page 2

FARM AND DAIRY.

A WONDERFUL PERFORMANCE. SULTAN'S DAISY CHAMPION BUTTER-FAT PRODUCE. Dairymen, in particular Jersey breedoTS, will be interested to learn that Sultan's Daisy! a well known Jersey in the herd of Messrs E. O'Sulliran and Sons, late of Cardiff and now I of Tariki, lias concluded her tost with the i magnificent record of 1)08.22 lbs of butter-fat, constituting not only a New Zealand record for I the breed, but a British Empire Jersey record I also. Her owners started her in the test with j tho object of winning tho New Zealand Jersey Breeders' Association's 25 guinea prize offer- ' ed for the producers of a minimum of 850 lbs i ot' butter-fat in ouo year. , With a hard winter, a late spring and an I altogether adverse season tho prospects of ' winning wero far from encouraging; but her 1 wonderful constitution and producing ability ' rose above circumstances, and, like the champion she is, she moro than fulfilled tho hopes of her owners. Hor record is the more not- 1 able because the country on which she was i tested is far front inviting from a recordbreaking point, of view, being 2000 feet abovti ; sea level, and broken by deep gullies, over ] two of which she had to pass on slab cross- < ir.gs to get to her paddocks. In the middle of June five inches of snow fell and lay on the ground for three days, but Sultan's Daisy was never stabled, and has never spent a i night in a shed since she was a calf. She received a ration of chaff and Meggltt's meal, but, apart from this, the conditions of test wero those of the ordinary well-fed cow. She received a good supply of grass, green oats, turnips and hay. Without some extra attention, as may reasonably he supposed, no cow could put up a record of such dimensions. On aa averago she received daily 6 lbs of bran, including a quarter of a lb of Meggitt's meal from Fobruary Ist till the end of the test. While the test was in progress the cow competed at the Stratford Show, and among other 1 prizes won that for the champion butter-fat competition. The journey of thirteen miles to and from the show made very little difference to her milk yield. Her best day's yield of miik was over 54 whilst on her 365 th (final) day she produced 32.1 lbs. Her average test for the season was 7.27, and her average weight of milk for the season wag 37 ' )bs. For a month her record of butter-fat was 97.98 lbs, constituting also a New Zealand record. Her lowest butter-fat yield for a month was 68.42. In her twelfth and final month she produced 73.88 lbs of butter-fat, thus revealing a noted characteristic of the breed. Tho following table shows her returns for each month butter-fat test lbs milk. Sept. (26 days) .. 64.74 5 4 1197.7 October 86.61 61 1419,9 November 92.56 6.8 1361.2 December 97.98 7.1 1380.1 January 94 09 7.4 1271.0 February 78.66 ' 7.6 1035.0 March 84.54 7.3 1158.1 April 71.43 7.1 1006 1 May 72.64 7.6 955.9 Juno C 8.42 7.9 866.2 July 72 14 8.2 879.8 August 73.88 8.7 849.2 Sept. (4 days) .. lO.tiO 8.7 121.9 i Total 968.22 7.27 13502.7 This is Sultan Daisy's second semi-official rocoTd, for in 1917 she produced 667.31 lbs of butter-fat, winning a gold medal and gaining tho further distinction of being premier I producing Jersey for New Zealand In that year. She is due to calve to Medowvale j Gambollier. a son of the Island bred cow, Susy Gamboge (imp) which has a record of I 534 lbs. of butter-fat in eleven months on November 10th and as both, cows montioned have not to traco their descent very- far back to the great Agotha's Flying Fox, the calf, no matter what the sex, should be a very valuable animal. j Tho question has often been asked: Can a champion produce a champion? Those breeders who argue that high production does not tend to "get" high production do not appear to be on safe ground. La Preference with a semi-official record of 440 lbs of butter-fat in t ten and a half months as three-year-old has just finished her four-year-old career with a , semi-official record of 576 lbs of butter-fat, whilst Meadowvale Sunoflwer, who started her tost at 22 months old in low condition, produced 412 lbs of butter-fat in 10 months. Both these cows are daughters of StfThw Daisy. Further, her son, Defender of Mea- . dowvale, has left daughters which promise to uphold tho reputation of their illustrious grand dam. Mention might also be made of the fact that Sultan's Daisy was milked oniy twice daily. Should sho be tested ,jigaln and milked three times a day; a world's record seems within . her power, seeing that the present Jersey re--1 cord for the world is 1031 lbs of butter-fat, or '>4 lbs. more than Sultan's Daisy has pro- ' duced.