JERSEY CATTLE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2949, 9 June 1891, Page 4

JERSEY CATTLE.

Sinuk the discussion upon Mr Richard Reynolds' paper on •' Tlio Dairy Cow," recently read before the members of the Cambridge branch of the Waikato Farmers' Club, a good deal of controversy has been entered into through the columns of this journal upon the subject of dairying and the relative merits of the different breeds as dairy cows. The following ex tracts, giving tests of cows of the Jersey breed, will be read with some degree of astonishment by those who hitherto have held this breed in such light esteem: — The claims of the Jersey to the title of the " beat butter cow" were very ably put by Mr W. Adams, of Gloucester, in a paper recently read by him before the Kingscote Agricultural Association. Bogining with the very proper qualification that if the farmer wanted a cow for the production of beef, cheese, or milk, he could not recommend the Jersey, he went on to deal with the merits of the breed as butter producers, and asserted that for a purely butter dairy the Jersey was unquestionably the most profitable cow that could be kept. If their aim in dairy farming, he proceeded, was to produce butter, t hey wanted to get the maximum quantity nf butter, of the best quality and at the minimum of cost. To attain that object no animal could compare with the Jersey cow, He had mentioned minimum of cost, because he v/as in a position to state that two Jerseys could be kept where only one Shorthorn could be maintained. The records of the Ayleslmry Dairy Company, which nearly confirmed his own experience, showed that whereas Shortorns gotiiilbs. of dry food per head per day, Jerseys only required 151b5., which was* but a little more than half, and proved the assertion he had just made.

What, lie asked, could .lerseys do as regarded the production of butter ? The .Jersey Society had been pushing the question of butter tests with a view of determining the iimUit of profitable re turn, and he would give them the reports nl two or three of those tests. At the J loyal ("'jiiiitiesShow at IJouriiemouMi, in ISSS, under all the disadvantages associated with the excitement of a showyard, tho first prize cow yielded 2'b. 70z., of butter in the day ; the second pi iz<cow yielded 2lb. 40z.: and the third prize cow gave 210. of butter iu the day. The next best test was at the Exeter show of the Bath and West of England Society in last year, where the first prize cow made 2lb. 7oz, of butter in the day ; t.lio second prize cow, 21b. lj'iz. ; and the third prize animal (one of his own), 21b. Bid of butter in lh« day. But that return was put iu the .•■hade by the results at, the dairy show in the present year, where a cow of Mr Bnitton's yielded :>7ll>. tj.iz of milk, (.'i|<>.il to gallons, which produced Ulb. iijoz. of butter in the day iu the show yard. This, ho said, showed what, the best Jerseys could do. Ivit. as it might bo said that that was an exceptional cow, ho had taken out the figures as to tho results of Lord Ashburtou's herd, which, though having all the advantages that improved buildings and scientific treatment could supply, wore kept on a gravelly chalk soil not of very first-rate quality. In that herd of 18 cows in the year 1888 they yielded an average of 620 gallons of milk each.

During the year Lord Ashbnrton sold 4SBlb. of butter, the croam and new milk sold, realised £137 13s Bd., aud the total sum produced by tho herd was £106 2s lid, or an average of £'2S 7s 7d,for each of tho eighteen cows, and that without allowing anything for tho skim milk. Those eoivs were fjl upou ,'l.llb. of ca l<o, aud 21b. of bran per head por day, besides grass ; therefore their artitieial food cost XG 13s lid. por head. Ho thought that was a yield that would do credit to any herd. 110 himself had five or six cows which gave from 800 to 90(1 gallons of milk a year, and made nearly oOOlb. of butter per head. Tho cow that took tho first prize in 188S, although she gave no milk for two weoks, owing to a cold caught at tho Royal Show at Nottingham, gave 801 gallons of mitlr, and 4001b of butter in tho year. That cow had now boon in milk nineteen months, not having been in calf iu 1888. She was duo to calve in Dscember and ho was just going to dry her off, and ho had just tested to see what she would do after nineteeu months' milking, and just before drying off, and found she made 21b. soz. of butter in three days, or over olb. a week, whilst in her flush she would give 201b. of butter in the week.

He would guarantee that a well .selected herd of Jerseys would yield over GOO gallons of milk eaoh in the year, and from 71b to Sib. of butter per lie,-id per week the year through, That was 11 ureat yield; for at no time would they jjivo more than four gallon* iu a day, but they wouid keep it, up in long in tliev were asked to do so. If farmer* wanted milk or elieoso they would not jro to the .h'Mojrs, but to tlio ilolsteins, with their ten or twelvo gallons a day ; the Shorthorns, with six, seven, and ei:„'ht irallons, ;i day ; and the with almost as much ; but when they came to butter it wnaavcry different t-tory. Mr Adam! 3 then went on to con.-id' r the merits of Jerseys as the farmers' Were they, he nsked, hardy enough for general farmers' use? He was firmly eonvineed, in spite of all that was said against them, that the Jerseys were one of tho hardiest breeds of cattle of pedigrto merit and dairy reputation. Of course in pedigree animals, they had more or le=i of in-breeding to fnee,

ami dairy cattle nt-cdml more protection th:ui animals t-Hnt were merely putting beef on t.hoir backs; but he hud heard gentlemen who lived in ns elevated and ih cold districts an the Cotswolds state their belief that Jersey cuttlo kept on their lnnd feit the cold less and were hardier tlmn pedigree Shorthorns under similar circumstances. The question was often asked, he said, whether imported animals were hardy enough to be safe to buy. There were some farms in Jersey where the cattle were forcr.d in hot stables and with hot drinks, from which we would nerer buy, but thero were other places whore they were open to the sea-storms, lived out in summer, were housed in winter, and were thoroughly hardy, and lived on land where English e.attle would starve. An to immunity from disease, like all deep milking strain", they were tnueh troubled with inilk fever ; but with proper precautions they were not more liable to it than other breeds. During his fourteen yearn experience, with ten or twelve cows in milk, he never had a ease. His plan was simplo. Ho had never allowed a cow to calve down on grass He got her up six weeks before calvingkept her on dry food, gure her a wet mash, with salts in ; if constipated, administered sulphate of nitre two or three times before calving, and just on labour gave her tioz. of salts, with a little treacle. After calving, ho had the cow milked four or five times a day for the first four days. As to breeding, Jerseys, as a class, wero most regular breeders. He found neither Lord Londesborough, who hid kept sixty or seventy h»ad for ten or twelve years, nor Mr [lull, had ever a barren animal, and his own experieiied was just the same. But there was the question—What were they to do with the old cows 'i His reply was l.bat their cows were neverold; they did not know when they wero old. His own Grepk Maid, which produced 21b. of butter in' the day at the Royal Counties show, was eight or nine years old, anil the cow that beat, her, making 21b, was ten and a half yours ; while the cow that took the Lord Mayor's cup at the dairy'show in 1887 wit" fourteen years old, had given her owner seventeen calves, made 141b. of buttter the week after the show. But, of course, there wero heifers not good to keep, and thero wero steers, and these had to bo sold and his experience showed that when sold though they did not make a great profit, thoy just brought the money home, and that was all they could expect,