DAIRY CATTLE BREEDS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 November 1926, Page 9

DAIRY CATTLE BREEDS

TESTS AT RUAKURA FARM. OBJECTION TO A STATEMENT. Exception to a statement made by the manager of the Ruakura Government Farm, in which he compared different breeds of dairy cattle, was taken at a combined meeting of the New Zealand Milking Shorthorn Association and the New Zealand Ayrshire Cattle Breeders’ Association, held in Auckland. The statement objected to is as follows: “The experience at Ruakura has shown that when fed under exactly similar conditions on rich Waikato dairying country the proved Jersey is the only cow the dairyman can afford to keep if he hopes to win success.” The chairman, Mr. W. J. Jenkins, of Canterbury, president of the Milking Shorthorn Association, said a request had been made to the Hon. O. J. Hawken, Minister of Agriculture, for full details of the experiment which led the manager of the farm to come to his conclusions. Replying to the Minister the manager stated: "It is my opinion that under similar conditions in good pasture in the Waikato, or for that matter, elsewhere in the North Island, Jerseys are capable of producing a higher average of butterfat than any other breed. This opinion is by no means restricted to a season’s experience of the Ruakura herd, but is based principally on my close contact with different breeds of cattle for a period of 20 years in the largest dairying district in the North Island.” It was decided to communicate with the Minister conveying the objection of both associations to the statement made.