Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1911. TESTING OF COWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10219, 21 April 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1911. TESTING OF COWS.

In a recent address to dairy farmers up north the Dairy Commissioner, Mr D. Cuddie, again laid great stress upon the value of the individual testing of cows. In the course of his address he explained that In Denmark co-operative cow-testing associations were started in 1895, and so successful were their efforts that now there are over five hundred' associations in. that country dealing with 190,000 cows, and in five years the average production of milk, per head was raised one thousand pounds. Following on these lines an association was started in Dalefield last season and three more this season, viz., in Stratford, Kaupokonui, and Cambridge. The records of these tests are very interesting. The difference between the best and worst herds up to the end of iFebfnary last aib Dalefield was £2 7a 9a per head, Stratford £3 Is 3d per head, Kaupokonui £3 18s per head, Cambridge £3 Is 3d, while the difference between the best and worst animals in one herd was £6 10s. The value of a cow is the profit over and above her keep, and assuming a- cow costs in labour and food £4 a year, it is easy to estimate the

respective profits on different cows when the annual production of but-ter-fat is known. Before starting the testing at Dalciield, all the farmers were asked td pick out what thoy considered their -best eight cows in order of merit, and after the season was over it was found that not in one instance had they been successful in, choosing the best eight. In one •case a cow giving over 3001b of butter fat was not included at all, and in another the best cow was placed eighth, narrowly missing not being listed at all. This proves, said Mr Cuddie, that the judgment of the i farmer is not always reliable, and that where such wonderful improvements have been made through systematic testing it will pay farmers handsomely 'to start an association anywhere where a sufficient number of cows is available. The cost of testing, as has been frequently pointed out, is not great, and the results shown where testing associations have been formed prove beyond a doubt that many dairy farmers are milking cows which do not return a fair profit, and are, therefore, being milked at a loss. The lessons conveyed by the tests are, indeed, very obvious.