NEXT SEASON'S TESTING

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 196, 20 August 1930, Page 23

NEXT SEASON'S TESTING

MORE COWS OR LESS?

SOUND BUSINESS PROPOSITION

(Specially Written by "SUPER.")

Lower prices for dairy produce ruling during the past season have mad'e it imperative for dairymen to produce their butterfat at a lower cost. In the endeavour to do this many will take the most obvious method of cutting out certain expenditure, and unfortunately, in come instances, will cut down in the wrong directions. To stop spending money is not necessafily to effect savings in production cost, for it has already been proved that the farmers who spend most per acre on fertilisers spend least per pound of butterfat produced.

The -writer returned recently from a visit to a dairying district—certainly one in which testing has not yet assumed the proportions it has in the Waikato— and he found that there was a general tendency to talk of cutting out testing during the coming year, on the ground of economy. Whether or not many farmers will do this remains to be Been, but it seems advisable at the moment to point to the fallacy of trying to save money by eliminating something which, equally with topdressing, must share the honour of bringing about in the Waikato, a production that is unrivalled in any dairying district in the world. The achievement of the Ngarua group of the New Zealand Herd Testing Association in securing an average of 318,421b butterfat per cow in the whole of the 1113 cows under test, has been widely broadcast in the Press, but possibly one spectacular achievement is insufficient to induce some of the die-hards that testing will really pay them. Remarkable Increases. Scattered throughout the country are herds producing well over 3001b butterfat per cow per year, while alongside are other farmers working the same country, under exactly the game conditions,, and producing little more than half that quantity of butterfat per head. Topdressing will help those farmers produce more, but only testing will show them which cows are really worth extra feed.

About, seven years ago the average production of dairy cows in New Zealand was round about 1701b. To-day it stands at 2251b, and each season is seeing it mount slowly, thanks to the increased interest taken in testing. The objective set by the Herd' Testing Federation is an average production of 3001b butterfat for the whole of the Dominion, and this is by no means impossible as shown by the rapidly mounting returns during recent seasons. - This may mean increased millions flowing into the coffers of New Zealand farmers, or, if prices remain on a lower level it may simply mean that farming will still remain profitable. Whichever happens it is essential for the welfare of the farming community generally that testing be increased. Farmers often complain— with a good deal of reason sometimes— that people in the towns are unsympathetic and provide little help towards solving their problems, but those who refuse to take up testing are putting aside a business proposition that would at once be seized upon by those same townspeople were it connected with their businesses.

Better Bulls Too.

The general trend of prices has been reflected in pedigree bull sales this yeai-, too, and prices have been easier than for some year 3. Testing and the use of better bulls go hand in hand, and it is worthy of note that ever since testing became firmly established the percentage of pedigree bulls used in grade herds has been on tile upgrade. Mr. C. M. Hume, who has been intimately connected with.the testing movement ever since its inception, stated recently that when testing started about 15 per cent of grade "herds utilised pedigree bulls. To-day there were some districts where 70 per cent of the grade herds were headed by a pedigree bull. Added to that was the fact that farmers who formerly used grade bulls on their young stock now knew that this practice did not pay them.

A case came under the writer's notice recently where a young and very successful farmer had bought a fairly expensive bull at a time when he had little spare cash. Since then, largely because Ithat bull- carried plenty of •butterfat backing, he had been able to build up a herd of very high producers, while his neighbours, who started at the same time as he did, are still struggling along with poor cows. That was one case where the obvious method of saving money by not spending it, would have been expensive in the long run.

Calf marking, which is really a sideline of the herd testing movement, is alone worth the money spent on testing, and the difference between the prices received for marked-arid unmarked calves will more than pay for the cost of testing in most cases where farmers want to sell their 'heifer calves. Moreover, the fact that in future all marked calves must be sired by a pedigree bull of proved butterfat 'backing, will make them more valuable to buyers in future than they have hitherto been.

Herfi testing and topdressing, more than any other practices will help farmers over what is admittedly a very difficult period. They alone can assist in lowering production costs per lb of fat, and if prices remain at their present low level it would be the farmers who are utilising t'hem to the full who would be able to carry on at a profit at the lower prices, while those whose methods were less scientific would go to the wall. There were ..under test last season over 300,000 cows. Under normal circiun-' stances there would be an increased number under test during the comin.q season. Times are not normal, and with present difficulties to face farmers should take up testing without delay.