WAIKATO The Dairy Farm of the Empire.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20264, 5 August 1937, Page 17 (Supplement)

WAIKATO The Dairy Farm of the Empire.

Dairy Herds the Basis of Dominions Wealth.

ALTHOUGH phenomenal progress has been made during the past few years in the meat and wool industries of New Zealand, the Dominion’s prosperity is still indissolubly linked up with its dairy herds for dairying and its allied pursuits are responsible for the bulk of this country’s income. Through selective breeding and the use of the best imported strains of pedigree cattle and by the application of the knowledge obtained by herd-testing, the dairyfarmers of the Dominion have brought their herds to a high state of perfection until to-day the dairy cattle of New Zealand cannot be excelled for general excellence. Nowhere in the British Empire is there a district better suited to dairying than the fertile Waikato valley, which by reason of the wealth derived from the production of its dairy herds has premier claim to the title, “Dairy Farm of the British Empire.” There is no other district in the world with a greater population of dairy cattle than the Waikato and some idea of their vhlue to the district can be gauged from the fact that last season Waikato dairy companies paid to their suppliers approximately £7,500,000. To further indicate the wonderful dairying potentialities of this district, it may be mentioned that over 90,000 tons of dairy produce were sent from the district’s factories during the past seasons, while many thousands of head of fat cattle, lambs and nigs were killed at the freezing works, over 300,000 pigs alone being exported. Use of Pedigree Herd Sires. Pedigree has played a very important part in the improving of the dairy cattle of the Dominion and the present high production standard of the grade herds of the dairyfarmers is due in the main to the use of pedigree herd sires. Pedigree breeders of New Zealand have spared no expense in importing the best cattle from abroad and the

dairyfarmers of the Dominion have in their turn benefited by the proved blood introduced. It is to the credit of the breeders that they have not been content merely with type and show ring performance, but have gone in for intensive testing under C.0.R., while now many breeders are coming to realise the great importance of group herd testing under which all the cows in their herds are tested. The growing discrimination of the dairyfarmer in regard to his purchases of dairy cattle is shown by his greater appreciation of production records for it has been apparent at sales of both pedigree and grade cattle during the past two years that production records are the chief factor in purchases and that type and show ring records alone are not sufficient enough recommendation to buyers.

The population of dairy cows in the Dominion now stands at 1,952,000. When the first enumeration of dairy stock in New Zealand was made in 1895, the total number of cattle stood at 257,140, the total rising to 381,000 in 1901. It was found possible to increase the Dominion’s dairy herd to such an extent by the breaking in of new land and by more intensive topdressing, and no greater advertisement for the efficacy of topdressing could be found than in the Waikato

where topdressing has played the principal part in bringing the land to its present high pitch of fertility. The Dominion stands pre-eminent for its grassland farming and indisputably there is no other country in the world so lavishly endowed for the practice of farming. New Zealand farmers are spared the heavy expense incurred by the farmers in less favoured countries in the provision of accommodation for cattle during the winter period and further they are saved the substantial expenditure faced by farmers of other countries in providing concentrated feeds to their dairy herds. The farming community has taken the fullest advantage of the natural amenities of their country and the grasslands of the Dominion provide practically the only means of sustenance for the dairy herds. Hay and ensilage and, to a lesser degree, roots carry the stock through the winter, but now with the adoption of more scientific fertilising programmes the winter period has actually been shortened for applications of nitrogenous fertilisers have prolonged the autumn growing period and made spring pastures earlier. This has meant that the dairy stock enter the winter period in the best condition and that the young stock and the recently calved cows are able to have the advantage of earlier spring grass. All this has been no small factor in swelling the Dominion’s dairying production. An Enviable Reputation. The pedigree herds of the Waikato include some of the best to be found in the Dominion and breeders of other districts are quick to take advantage of district sales which are invariably attended by benches of buyers representative of all the major dairying districts. This district has built up for itself an enviable reputation for its pedigree cattle and innumerable production records are at present held by Waikato cows. Waikato breeders have not been behind their fellow breeders in other parts of the Dominion in the importation of outstanding cattle from Britain, America and the Island of Jersey with the result that pedigree herds in this district incorporate the leading blood lines of the world. In becoming known as the dairy farm of the British Empire, the Waikato has owed much to its natural advantages and to artificial fertilisers, but to a very large extent it has owed its phenomenal progress to the enterprise of its pedigree cattle breeders.