FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1922, Page 8

FARM AND DAIRY.

ENSILAGE MAKING. SOME USEFUL HINTS. At Tikorangi last week several questions were put to Mr. Deem concerning the making of ensilage. Replying, Mr. Deem was of opinion that it was not necessary to use manure of blood and bone mixture too often. He favored basic slag, basic super or super and lime. Thirty pounds of ensilage was a good ration for a cow, and forty pounds was the maximum. He did not think it necessary to change the kind of manure for top dressing from year to year, and he did not favor nitrogenous manures. It was better to put on a light top dressing of manure every year rather than a lot at a time every three or four years. In the Waikato there was a good deal of top dressing twice a year, and he thought it was probably a good proposition. Phosphate was not a quick acting manure alone and anyone applying it must wait awhile for results. In liming he favored not too heavy a dressing at a time; the old idea was to put on very heavy dressings. He was surprised to hear that tares were very hard to grow in the district. He favored golden tares, and while they had been very scarce they promised to be more plentiful. The difference in the seeds was that the golden tare seed was a golden color, the other was a grey black. As to the grass grub, it had been very bad, and he recommended feeding hay on the patches affected, as the stock would firm the ground, and that would help the grass to make a fresh start. He did not think top dressing the affected parts with blood and bone would assist much. These pests were always worse where grass was sown after a grain, crop. He could not give them a preventative for club root; they must look for a turnip that was at least fairly immnue from the disease. As to paspalum, he thought it was a good thing to have a paddock with a good proportion of that grass, but a farmer must keep it from seeding, or else it would soon be over the farm. As to lucerne, they had some splendid paddocks in South Taranaki, and the man who was successful had a splendid asset. He handed round photos taken of the champion crop of mangolds, 150 odd tons to the acre. The crop, he said, was the work of two little girls named Ward, of Okaiawa, and it was a great sight. He thought they would win the championship of the Dominion. BEST COWS ARE CHEAPEST. If there is one thing to be learned from the experience of cow testing associations it is the contrast between the comparatively low cost at which the good cows produce milk and butterfat and the high cost of everything the farmer gets from the low producing cow. Cows producing more than SOOO pounds of milk and 400 pounds of fat a year did so at a feed cost of 17£ cents a pound. Cows averaging 5969 pounds of milk and 300 pounds of fat did So at a feed cost of 21 cents a pound. Cows averaging 4228 pounds of milk and 200 pound a of fat did ; o at a fied cost of 23.3 cents a pound. Cows averaging 2339 pounds of milk and 100 pounds of fat, did so at a feed

cost of 37.3 cents a pound. In labour cost, interest and overhead the difference is even more striking. The 100 pound cow retuffns a pound of fat for every 2.60 days of care, the 200 pound cow returns a pound for every l.fS days, the 300 pound cow for every 1.04 days, and the 400 pound cow for ever 0.74 day. Poor cows are unprofitable.