YIELD OF AYRSHIRES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8536, 17 September 1907, Page 3

YIELD OF AYRSHIRES.

Mr John Speir, of Newton, a wellknown judge of Ayrshires in Scotland, in a lecture at Cumnock, said that for three years the Highland Agricultural Society, Glasgow, had been doing j good work in the endeavour of encourage the owners of *" nerds of Ayrshires systematically to record the produce, in regard to both quality and quantity, for tie whole of the milking period. During the j season 1905 they had 815 cows under continuous supervision in the districts of Cumnock and Fenwick. The result of this testing was the most conclusive y*>t carried out by the society of the value of selecting cows and bulls for breeding purposes only from mothers which had proved themselves good milkers. From the records of the past year it was seen that among the Ayrshires there are many better milking animals than even the most ardent advocates of the merits of the breed ever anticipated. What, however, much reduced the value of the breed for dairy purposes was the great irregularity in milk yield of many families. It had long been proved that the ability of a cow to yield a large quantity of milk was an inherited qualification, just as much as any of the other items of the naturejof each individual animal. Food, provided it as in moderate quantity, had little to do with it, as was shown by the records at Cumnock, where the farms were all very much of one class. There, out of 372 cows under test,, the ten heaviest milking cows were all in one herd. At one time it was supposed that a rich quality of milk must necessarily follow the use of rich food. Repeated experiments during the past fifteen years had demonstrated'that quality in milk could be little altered by feeding. ' These tests clearly indicated the same, as cows of the same age, going on the same .pasture, and in other respects treated alike, yielded milk from 50 per cent, to 60 per cent, richer in fat ' than others of a different family. The same applied to the animals when in the house, where the food was more under control than in the field. In these circumstances, many of the heaviest-fed stock gave not i only the poorest milk, but least of it. ; In Fenwick, where the records were carried on during the whole year, out of 443 cows there was 9, or 2 per cent., which yielded over j £3O in milK; 37, or 8 per cent., ! which yielded over £25 in milk; and j 137, or 31 per cent., which yielded over £2O in milk. Against that there was a considerable number which yielded only from £8 to £ll of milk in the year, the milk being valued at 5d per gallon for milk of 3 p;r cent, of fat. In Cumnock, the supervision of the herds was conIk tinued for 34 weeks only, and while .p the milk yield for the period was jast as good a? in Fenwick it did not total up to such a large figure. In that period one cow yielded, on the grass, milk of a total value of £26 7s lid, and another 10 milk value upwards of £2O. Among the heifers tested at. Cumnock were some particularly good ones, about a dozen having yielded milk of the value-of ' from £lO to £l6 10s in 34 weeks, with, in many cases, a very large quantity not only before testing began, but after it had ceased. When these results were compared with the milk yield of others, which only had a value of from £6 10s to £9 10s during the season, the value of the method suggested for the selection of cows for breeding purposes could be at once seen. By means of a wall diagram exhibited was shown the yield value of 10 per cent, of the best and worst of the cows of_eaeh herd. Out of 372 cows there "were 35 which vielded milk of an average value of £l7 4s 2d, while there was an equal number the milk of which was only of the value of £lO 19s 2d. The difference was £6 5s between these two lots of cow« -in 34 weeks, and for the whole milking period it might probably be £8 or £IC, as when the testing stopped many of the best milking cows were giving a considerable quantity of milk, or had already done so, while the poor ones were mostly dry. It was also worthy of note that the best and heaviest milking cows usually gave the richest milk. In an odd instance or two this did not occur, but as a rule it did so. As showing the popularity of this work, on which the Highland Agricultural Society is spending . about £2OO each year, it was stated that there are a great many inquiries from buyers of bulls who wish them out of cows which can be certified to have given a certain quantity and quality of milk.