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Check on Yields and Overruns By carrying out fat and moisture analyses on all butter and cheese submitted for grading the Division maintains a check on yields and overruns and records the balancesheet payout of all dairy companies. The analyses of these products furnish a fairly accurate guide to an assessment of the total butterfat received by dairy companies compared with that for which payment was made to the suppliers, and serves to curb any practice involving a degree of under-crediting which results in the production of yields, overruns, and payouts that are not supported by the analyses. There is of course a close relationship between either over- or under-credits and the sampling factor referred to in another section, and any work in connection with checking undertaken by officers includes investigation in this field. Crediting by companies manufacturing butter is not entirely unsatisfactory. The tendency to slight under-credits is fairly consistent, and it appears that corrective measures are largely in the hands of the managers concerned. In view of this, some form of publication of the amount of under-credits on the annual balance-sheet could have beneficial results. With cheese, the position is more complex owing to a greater number of variables, in losses during manufacture and, more particularly, variations in sampling methods. These factors are evidenced by the analyses showing under-credits as well as overcredits. It is pleasing to note, however, that the action of local officers has resulted in some reduction in the number showing under-credits, and with strict attention to sampling a similar improvement in respect of companies showing over-credits should be possible. Much has been achieved by the close attention given by divisional officers to yields and overruns, mainly in collaboration with dairy-factory managers, and appropriate supervision will be continued in an endeavour to affect greater uniformity in future. Government Herd Recording The maximum number of cows on test for any one month during the past year reached the record figure of 17,867, and the number of testing breeders, 741, was also a record. This was for January, 1950. The previous year's peak was 697 breeders, with 13,709 cows on test. These figures cover both Certificate-of-Record and Government Official Herd test. The noticeable features of recent years are the steady falling off in support of the C.O.R. system, the increase in O.H.T. entries, and, more particularly, the increasing number of breeders who are testing whole pedigree herds under O.H.T. C.O.R. testing reached a peak in 1946-47, when 1,484 cows were on test. This year the number is down to 1,080. The testing of registered purebred dairy cows for milk and butterfat yield, conducted by the Dairy Division, is obviously meeting with the approval of breeders of pedigree dairy cattle generally. The C.O.R. system, introduced in 1912, and the O.H.T. system, introduced in 1927, have enabled authentic production statistics of many thousands of animals to be available, thus providing reliable data as a basis for breeding, selection, herd management, and herd building. The full twenty-four hour check on production each month and the strictly surprise visit contribute greatly to authenticity. The Certificate-of-Record test is no doubt declining in favour because it is an individual cow test and was more popular in earlier years when interest was concentrated on the making of high records by chosen animals which were handled and fed during the period of test in a manner likely to permit them to produce to their maximum capacity. On the other hand, the Government Official Herd test is more in line with the modern and more practical outlook of the development of herds, principally through proven sires, of a high and uniform average standard of production.

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