THE DUAL- PURPOSE COW.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7728, 23 February 1909, Page 1

THE DUAL- PURPOSE COW.

The English paper The Dairy, thu;. defends the dual-purpose cow: " Thost who keep themselves posted up on the ideas on farming current m the Unitec States are aware that on some point., we on this side hold diametrically op posite views. The dual-purpose coy, is one that is held up to anathema ii the American dairy papers, and everyone is advised to avoid her and try t< breed something of a specific dairy nature. 'Dual-purpose' is the Ameri; can phrase for aiming first at milk ant then at fattening off a cow for beei after her milking career is closed. We m this country have long aimed ai making cows of this sort, and if we have not yet succeeded m develop- j ing a whole breed of any kind m this line, we have certainly had many individual successes. Two of our breedt lend themselves particularly well t< this dual purpose, the shorthorn anc 1 tho red poll, and some facts about the former will bo enough for the present. The pedigree shorthorn was m the beginning bred for beef alone, and ha; the beef build, while the unpedigreed animals were kept up for milk first, and fattened afterwards m the dualpurpose way. Within the last few years the Shorthorn Society has offered prizes for pedigreed animals will good milking powers, so as directlj to encourage the double type, and as c result year by year the milking powers of the competitors have been increasing and creeping up on the records oi othert breeds, until this year they have topped tho list. The champion mill cow at the London Dairy Show was r pedigreed shorthorn, 'Dorothy,' be longing to Lord Rothschild. The point the writer wants to emphasise however, is the fact that this cow— which, m effect is the champion of the British Isles—is a !ual-purpose cou with, perhaps, a ce.;:'.u-y of beef-breed-ing behind her, and yat she yields millbetter than dairy breeds like the Jer sey or the Ayrshire. Now, what'hap been done with one animal can be done m time with a hundred ,and it only needs the principle to ■ be followed long enough, and by a sufficient number ,to make the dual-breed a permanency, notwithstanding all that oui American fellow-cowmen think to the contrary."