DAIRY ITEMS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9814, 25 August 1897, Page 2

DAIRY ITEMS.

A Dairy Cow Should be Wedge Shaped

lii a paper on " The Dairy Cow " published jin The Dairy, Mr C. F. Curtis, professor ot ! Agriculture at the lowa Agricultural College, gave some very practical advice concerning j the method of selectingdairy cattle. The only way, he said, to be ab&olutely certain of the j capacity of a dairy cow waa to make careful ! use of the feed measure, the milk scales and tho Babcock test. There were, however, certain varying but reasonably infallible indications of dairy merit. In other words there was a well-defined, broad, general dairy type, which should be cultivated to the highest degree and perpetuated in the herd. The wedge shape was almost an unvarying accompaniment of dairy excellence, regardless of breeds, by reason oi the fact that the demands on tbe highest type of dairy cow were such that development of udder, depth and capacity of barrel, width of pelvis and loin, and spring of hind ribs were a necessity. The operation of that principle was plainly apparent in the representatives of breeds that were of entirely distinct type, such as tbe Jersey, Holstein and Shorthorn. The depth, expansion and capacity of the vital dairy organs, together with a good udder and milk veins and a maximum digestive capacity, indicated that the cow was capable of converting her. feed into milk and of making good use of a large quantity of feed. He regarded a thin, spare thigh as of vital importance, as a necessary accompaniment of a good udder, for it was impossible to have a good development of the latter with a full, round, meaty thigh. Fbedinq Dairy Cows. At the recent opening of the Taranaki Farmers' Club, Mr J. B. McEwan, late chief dairy expert for the colony, said he was strongly of opinion that it would pay farmers well to lake measures for the proper feeding and protection of their dairy stock during the winter. It was essential *o obtain comfort and cheap succulent food, and this was a matter which he believed the Department of Agriculture was going to investigate, and it was a live question for farmers' clubs to take up. In Canada the conditions were not so favourable as in New Zealand, and the farmers there did not think it would pay them to feed the cows sufficiently well to produce milk in the winter time, but the scheme had been started, and proved a decided success. He believed the New Zealand, Government intended starting experimental farms witb the idea of growing different kinds of crops to see which would pay the best as winter feed. The colony was a great dairying country, and the industry should be worked on the latest principles.