DAIRY RESEARCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 307, 29 December 1931, Page 4

DAIRY RESEARCH.

AID TO INDUSTRY.

PROGRESS AND FUTURE PROGRAMMES.

NEW ZEALAND ASPECT,

How is milk made? This is one of the unsolved mysteries of science, according to Sir William Dampier, F.R.S., secretary of the Agricultural Research Council in Britain, who reviews, in the Empire >Inrketing Board's latest report, tlio extent and objects of dairy research. Scientists have still to discover how cows turn the raw material—grass—into the finished product of which we make such good use.

The report is of special interest to New Zealand, for it answers the question,

'"'what is dairy research?" and gives a complete picture of the 'many types of scientific inquiry which are accessary to procure a better packet of butter —or to produce it cheaper. All fields of research are reviewed in the report, and suggestions are made as to the most important problems of the future. Needs of the Future. Sir William states that future research is most urgently needed in the following fields:—lmprovement oi pastures by plant-breeding, and by better management—for example, frequent cutting and intensive grazing; the effect of differences in rationing on the composition of milk; the inheritance of high _ milk-yielding qualities in cattle; the physiology of mill: secretion; the innoculation of cattle against tuberculosis; the survival of! disease germs in dried and condensed milk; the ripening of cheeses, and the effect of storage conditions on butter and cheese; and economics of the industry. One of- the suggestions made.in the report is that the New Zealand system of payment for milk on the basis of butterfat content instead of purely by volume should be adopted in the United Kingdom. It is also suggested that the New Zealand test for. adulteration—which is based on the freezing point of milk —may be fairer than the British test (which is based on fat and total solids percentages), and that an inquiry into the advisability of adopting the New Zealand method should be mad© by British experts. Cheese Ripening. Another recommendation is that cold storage plant should be installed at the National Institute for Research in Dairying at Reading, so that conditions of transport and storage of New Zealand and other Empire butter and cheese could be exactly studied. The Dairy Institute has recently co-operated with the Research Institute at Palmerston North, in a study of the ripening of cheese, and in particular of the changes which occur in cheeses during the voyage to London. Science has already achieved results which are of direct interest to New Zealand. In the field of nutrition, for instance, the most recent advance is the discovery that young, fresh grass has a high protein content which makes it comparable with expensive concentrates such as linseed cakc. "Young grass is specially efficacious in increasing the yield of milk," Sir William Dampier says. "It is now, or soon will be, available in the form of ensilage or dried cake, and more experiments on its influence on the quantity and quality of milk should be made as quickly as possible. It is of great importance to the overseas Dominions as well as to Great Britain." The discovery that natural _ pastures often fail to supply sufficient minerals to keep grazing animals in sound health is already well known in New Zealand. The work now going on at the Cawthron Institute .(assisted by an Empire Marketing Board grant) is part of an Empire-wide investigation of the problem which hasits counterpart in Australia, South Africa, Kenya, the Falkland Islands and Scotland. Two Disease Victories. Science is gradually triumphing over disease, the most deadly enemy of the stock farmer. The report records two big advances. One is- the working out at Cambridge of "8.C.C." vaccine which protects cattle from the scourge of tuberculosis. Very promising results are being obtained, although the vaccine is not yet a commercial possibility. The other is the discovery of a method of diagnosing Johnne's disease, one of the most costly complaints, of .dairy cattle. By using this test, the -disease ■ can be detected in its early stages and the infected animal can be separated from herd and fattened. Many problems, of course, remain to be solved. For instance, Sir William Dampier directs attention to the question whether pasteurising milk destroys any of the vitamins. Prehminary work at Reading indicates that this may be so. Another problem needing research is the allimportant • question of the breeding of high yielding cows—the very basis of successful dairying. In order to get results in a few years instead of having to wait for. generations, Mr. John Hammond, at Cambridge, is studying the inheritance of milk yield in rabbits. He has found that a strain -of • high-yielding- animals can be obtained by crossing a high-yielding female with her son, and continuing this for several generations.