Australians Want Bigger Cows

Press, Issue 32333, 26 June 1970, Page 10

Australians Want Bigger Cows

Australian Friesian breeders were trying to breed scale and range into their cows, Mr J. T. Ward, federal president of the Friesian Cattle Club of Australia, said before his departure for home last week-end after attending the sixtieth anniversary celebrations of the New Zealand Friesian Association in Christchurch,

The trend, he said, had followed a series of 11 or 12 Canadian judges at the Sydney Royal Show, who had placed emphasis on scale, range and body capacity, so that now nearly all breeders in New South Wales were aiming at a Canadian type Friesian—one that was big and upstanding without being gross. One of the main reasons for aiming at this type of beast, he said, was on the grounds of hygiene—as the udder was higher off the ground it kept cleaner. A bigger cow would also have a larger body capacity leading to more consumption of feed and a higher level of production. One way of working towards this objective had been to allow their younger cattle to go a year longer before they were mated, except where there was likely to be no shortage of feed, and they could still be grown out. Mr Ward bought the toppriced cow at the anniversary Friesian sale in Christchurch last week, paying a New Zealand record $4lOO for R. G. and K. T. Mclntosh’s Riverbrae B. P. Helen V.H.C. Mr Ward said he felt that she was a beautiful dairy cow and with the bloodlines in her background she should be the foundation of a very fine breeding cow family. Last year Mr Ward also bought a heifer from the Doloraine herd of N. J. Sherriff and Sons at Temuka. She was likely to be close to the top producing two-year-old in New South Wales, he said. She was a very good type of heifer and over-all they were very happy with her. Mr Ward has also bought a bull from the Deloraine stud by imported semen. It has recently been shipped. Mr Ward said that he was buying New Zealand cattle for a change of bloodlines and of course New Zealand was the only country that they could come to for such purchases. English semen could be imported but it had to be held two years in store in England so that semen ordered two years ago was only arriving now. However, when he established his stud in 1959 he acquired cattle with New Zealand blood in them, including Riverbrae. From what he had seen of New Zealand cows, Mr Ward said, they seemed to be a fine type and certainly backed up the high production figures that were re-

corded here. He particularly liked the fineness and dairy quality of the New Zealand cattle. Mr H. Johnson, of Hedley Johnson Pty, Ltd, stock and station agents and stud dairy cattle specialists of Kiama. New South Wales, through whose organisation upwards of 200 dairy cattle, worth an average of $lOOO each have either been shipped or are waiting shipment since the lifting of the ban on the importation of New Zealand cattle into Australia, said that particularly in New South Wales quality control authorities had been placing emphasis on higher standards of fat and total solids and on their performance New Zealand cattle had these characteristics. They had, of course, to be careful that results in Australia were in line with those obtained under feeding and farm management systems in this country and Mr Ward said it was unlikely that they would be worse and could even be better. Mr Johnson said he wished to pay a compliment to the attitude of the New Zealand breeder, who seemed to be very proud of his achievement in breeding cattle and was prepared to back it up if need be. He said that a sale of an in-calf cow had recently been made to Australia. The calf had subsequently died after difficulty at calving and the vendor, although not asked to do so, had invited the representative of a New Zealand stock and station firm to select any; heifer on his property to re-! place the dead calf and this heifer, which was mated, | had recently been shipped to Australia. This sort of gesture, said Mr Johnson, did much to instil confidence in the integrity of the New Zealand breeder and was pretty typical of the position in this country. Recently Mr Johnsons organisation held a sale of New Zealand Friesian cattle at the Sydney show grounds. Some leading Australian breeders were also invited to be represented. Buyers had come from four states; and prices ranged up to $2OOO for heifers and $l7OO for young cows and the average for some 30-odd New Zealand cattle had been $577. From inquiries he had made since being in New Zealand the outcome had!

generally been very satisfactory to New Zealand breeders and it was likely that this would become a regular feature in Australia. He also understood that several New Zealand breeders were interested in consigning a few selected cattle to be offered in conjunction with Australian Friesians at the annual sale of the New South Wales branch of the Friesian Cattle Club, which was held at Campbelltown, just out of Sydney. It was felt that this would still further promote the New Zealand image in Australia. The only real problem in the way of this trade between New Zealand and Australia, Mr Johnson said, was shipping and this was a very real problem. Where, for instance, a bull was required to fit in with a breeding programme, it was upsetting if it did not arrive in time.

Mr Johnson said that he felt so strongly about the question that he had seized the opportunity of taking it up with the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Carter) who had promised to take it up with the appropriate minister to see what could be done. Mr Johnson said that they were also interested in suggestions of reciprocal trade in cattle. If this eventuated it could help the shipping situation if there were cattle to be carried in both directions, as well as being beneficial to New Zealand breeding programmes through having access to Australian cattle. New Zealand was unable to buy Australian cattle on account of pleuro-pneumo-nia, but there were areas in Australia which had been declared free of the disease and which had been free of it for many years.