THE DAIRY. What is a Dairy Shorthorn.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1516, 23 March 1882, Page 4

THE DAIRY. What is a Dairy Shorthorn.

Mr W. Ashburker, of Chipping, Sodbury, read the following paper before the last meeting of the British Dairy Farmers' Association : , , Tnje subject of which I am about to t speak', to you this evening may appear a 'vivy'simple one, yet it is one worthy of much consideration ; one that cannot be brought to maturity in a moment, but requires time, patience, and perseverance t© get at the root of the meaning of — * What is a shorthorn dairy cow.' It is something beyond mere words we have to think of. Some may say any person who has the money can purchase one. I say no j it requires more thau money to understand thoroughly the meaning of the subject of this evening. It requires experience— practical experience -before any one understands what to buy and what to Bell ; how to buy and how to sell ; what to breed, and how to breed the kind of animal we ore speaking of this evening— an animal pleasing to the eye and pleasing to the pocket, one - that is good for the dairy and good for breeding ; one that is suitable for the landlord and suitable for the tenant. Some may ask, how are we to get all these things combined ? Simply oy experience. I imagine the question being put to me, Where did you get yours ? My answer is, I have purchased all I could lay hold of, and some of it at a high figure. The first lesson I had was in my lather's shippon, nearly forty years ago, when my small hands tried to wrench the milk from a cow called ' Ruby ;' but she needed me not ; so she soon despatched myself and stool I sat upon quickly from her side. This was a shorthorn, but not a dairy shorthorn — one that had been trained in her youth for early exhibition, and very successful in prize winning. I was next sent to her sister for my second lesson. I pulled and pulled in vain ; but she heeded me not, and it was neither pain nor com* fort to her, my sitting there. Give her plenty of good things and she was satisfied ; but she gave little in return. This animal was also a shorthorn, but not one for the dairy. She had been trnincd in her youth, like her sister, for exhibition ; but the two ceased to breed in their early days. I attribute this to nothing but high feeding in their early days, as their dam lived to a good old age, and gave more milk than both of her offspring ; but this was a dairy shorthorn. My third lesson was quite of a different nature to the two former. It took away all my energy and strength to draw the large pailful of milk from the cow's udder ; the longer I drew the more she seemed comforted by my so doing. This animal was equally well bred, and the produce quite as good as the other two, although giving 20 quarts of milk per day, for some time after calving, for several calves. This is what I call a shorthorn dairy cow ; but remember, she had never been trained for show in her youth, but simply trained to milk and breed good cattle. I must now try to explain to you what is my meaning of a shorthorn dairy cow. In the first place, I do not style the animal a shorthorn at all unless sufficient pains have been taken with her breeding to entitle her to be recorded in our English Herd-book. I think that book is to a shorthorn breeder what a railway guide is to a traveller by rail. If a traveller is not expeiienced in long journeys he must apply to his guide for assistance ; in like manner must an experienced shorthorn breeder apply to the best written guide he has to leter to. This book will teach him many things written of. breeders of bygone yeats; it will teach him to think ; it will teach him to act more prudently than if he had never vend it at all, provided lie understands what lie reads; and there is no wayof understanding even that book but through experience, fixpei iencc is a great master, and has taught many a shoithom breeder a le&son to be mnembeicd through life, and is capable of assisting to tench for the future, a& it has done in the past, what a daily shorthorn ought to be. It is argued by some that we cannot have pedigree and milk combined. Experience has taught me differently. I will give you an instance of a shot thorn I now possess, descended from Mr. Colling's 'Daisy,' that gave 16 quarts of milk per day after calving her first calf, in September 1879 ; 22 quarts per day after her second calf, in August 1SS0; and a similar quantity after her third calf, in July 1881. The tluee calves are all iemarkably healthy, and I have had 100 guineas offered for her second calf before a year old. I ask you, gentlemen, is this a bad sort of shot thorn dairy cow? I have also a daughter of a well-bred shorthorn that won the first prize for the dairy three years in succession against cattle of any breed, and took the silver cup at the same time for the best cow and her offspring. It is not enough that animals descended from lecorded ancestors of upwards of half a century are so noted for the dairy as "well as breeding good cattle. If all shorthorns were reared in a natural way and for natural purposes, I am convinced that no other breed of animals will pay a better percentage for the outlay. The high feeding system in their youth is ruinous to the milking propeities of the shorthorn ; it gives them such a tendency to fatten that it destroys their milking propensities. Why cannot animals be shown in their natural state at our leading agricultural shows ? Why can they not be kept for profit rather than for public curiosity? Every experienced breeder knows the ris.li be runs by such unnatural feeding ; he knows it is injurious to the animal and injurious to his pocket. Why cannot some of our leading agriculturists at the great shows set a good example and bring forward their best shorthorns in their natural sta c ? You may ask me what is a natural state and a natural way to rear a shorthorn dairy cow ? My answei is, neither feed to excess to injure the animal as a breeder or milker, on the other hand, do not aim at being too economical in feeding, to injure the growth of the animal when young, as the iniury done then by being too niggardly might do more harm to the constitution than overfeeding. The happy medium is the one needed to make a good shorthorn cow, but even to get at this requires a little experience. Our aim should be an animal well formed, of good quality, of sufficient size, and in fair healthy condition ; one that will do good to any tenantfarmer by breeding similar animals. The landlords complain of the times, the tenants also complain of the times. Why have we such needless waste of the produce of England ? I think it our duty to ourselves, our duty to the nation at large, to breed the best cattle we can, to breed the most in number we can, to produce the most milk and butter we can ; at the same time remembering that we have a thickly populated nation to feed by the , beef we produce. Can we not combine „ these things together? I say. Yes ; by rearing our stock in a natural way, and by selecting male animals of good descent from good parents, from a dam with a good udder, and the sire from a dam with a good udder ; at the same time not forgetting the constitution of the animal, by looking entirely to the dairy properties. We do not live by milk alone, neither by butter, neither by beef, but by a combination of good things that we hav.e in a good shorthorn dairy cow. It' is not ne'eessary that we should go to the height

I of fashion in selecting either male or female to produce a good dairy shorthorn. The fashion of pedigree of late years has been rather like the present fashion of ladies' dresses — too tight to be comfortable at all times for the outlay. I would recommend every new beginner to purchase good sound blood from reliable breeders, who have produced good animals for years past. Forty years' experience in purchasing and breeding shorthorns has taught me that they will graze well, milk well, and breed good stock also. All these points should be combined in well-bred shorthorns, and then we get in them what no other breed supplied. I have found that my steers and heifers, at three-years old, realise something like £i or £5 each more to the butcher than the ordinary bred ones do. If any tenant-farmer rears a little over twenty calves a year, the additional £100 realized for the twenty calves from shorthorn cattle might spare him the anxiety of asking his landlord for a percentage fioin his rental these so-called hard times. Ido not argue that there are no shorthorn cattle dairy cattle not registered m the Herd-Book. Far from it ; such cows as Messrs Welford and Mr Stratton exhibited at the last dairy show are good specimens of what a shorthorn dairy cow ought to be ; and if they are not registered in the Herd-Book they are full of registered blood. I would say, Go on with well- bred sires to such animals, and there is no fear of the result. Daiiy shorthorns ought to have at least eight or ten weeks' rest each year before calving 5 not only that they should milk better the following calf, but to spare the constitution of the animal. I observed in one of the reports of the last dairy show that the judges awarded premiums to animals ' nearly dry, and took them on faith to be milkers,' especially the two first prize cows in the shorthorn classes. I must beg to contradict this reporter ; very mildly, as he is a gentleman with grey hairs. Although he has been writing upon shot thorns for years, it is evident he does not know what "a shorthorn dairy cew ia like, unless in full milk. Any experienced and practical breeder could have told him that Messrs Tisdall and Welford's first prize animals were superior dairy cows, if they had only felt at them in the dark, and even though they were not giving one drop of milk on the day of exhibition. Such a pair ot cows as these prize-winners are rarely found. Mr Welford's cows had milked ten months, and heavy in calf, and giving a reasonable quantity of milk at the time. About Mr Tisdall's cow, we have had a guarantee since that she would give her twenty quarts per clay after calving. What more do we need for a shorthorn dairy cow ? Any practical breeder of shorthorn dairy cattle can tell at a glance whether a cow is a milker or not, even if she is dry.