OPUNAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1921, Page 6

OPUNAKE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Dairy factories are making a bid for the* local markets. Hawera and Manutahi dairy factory butter is on sale in our local stores. Jersey dairy cattle are the only class of stock that are maintaining good prices at the saleyards. The chopping and changing from Shorthorns. Ayrshires, etc., to Jerseys indicates that dairymen are not working on their own butter-fat and weighing tests, but taking the standard reached by the Jersey men. A dairyman who has been working on right lines with his Ayrshire or Holstein herds would not throw up the sponge so quickly. For instance. ona Gaonui dairyman (Mr. J. C. O’Rorke), who has for some years been carefully testing and weighing milk from his herd, is so well satisfied with the improvement made in his herd that he is not likely to take up the popular Jersey in preference to the Holstein. His average test for his Holstein herd is just about double that of the association’s average test. Years ago we had some fine herds of Shorthorns and Ayrshires on the coast. Now they are a “piebald” selection—the Jersey stripe is showing up in all the crosses. If a dairyman has methodically improved the butter-fat capacity of his herd he would not be prone io disperse that herd . The contractor for the erection of our cottage hospital is making good progress. The recent floods have increased the difficulty in constructing the dam in the river in connection with the hydroelectric works. Just before the arrival of the Gover-nor-General (Lord Jellicoe), an angry sea swept away about 90 feet of the Opunake jetty.