STATE HERDS.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 9, 16 May 1911, Page 4

STATE HERDS.

THE GOVERNMENT’S AYRSHIRES,

A while ago something was heard of the purchase of Ayrshire cattle for the Moumahaki State Farm. The current number of the Agricultural “ Journal ” gives the following particulars : “The Moumahaki Experiment Farm has just received the ten pedigree Ayrshire cows, the remainder of the Sunnyside herd (Christchurch), the members of which were bred and selected by Dr. Levinge, late superintendent of the Sunnyside Mental Hospital. These cows are of a fine utility standard, and were declared by the Scottish Agricultural Commissioner, Mr. James Dunlop, to be the best types of the utility Ayrshire he had seen in this country. They should be able to prove their productive capacity at the Taranaki station, where, probably, the Ayrshire stock of the Department —there is a good nucleus of a herd at Ruakura Experiment Farm —will be centralised, following on the specialisation of dairy herds at the other farms. At Weraroa a fine Holstein herd is being established, and Jerseys are being made a feature of the Ruakura farm. The inducement for this policy is that the soil and environment at the several farms lend themselves to the best development of the breeds in question under suitable conditions. As well as these herds, the Shorthorn is being maintained both at Weraroa and at Ruakura. As the herds of the other breeds increase the Shorthorns will be reduced to smaller numbers, the objective to be aimed at all the time being the developmenr of this popular breed, along with milk-producing lines.”