THE COW THAT DOESN'T "COME IN."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 606, 8 September 1909, Page 10

THE COW THAT DOESN'T "COME IN."

DANWIRKE LOSES £870.. At tbo annual meeting of shareholders of the Dannovirko Dairy Company the chairman, Mr. M. Walsh said that it was particularly pleasing to him to bo tho first chairman of directors whoso duty it was to move the adoption of a. balance-sheet which showed that the settlers had received more than U. per lb. for their butter-fat. But, well as. they had done during the past year, he was confident that with' care they could easily do bottor. d'liere were 29 suppliers to.tho factory, and he supposed that their average, holdings would be about 100 acres. That mado a total area supplying the factory of 2900 acres, from which something like £8000 were derived during the year. Large as this sum seemed to be, ho was confident there were considerable leakages, for he had calculated that on the average each farm in the district lost the supply of at least.three cows—a loss that was due-not to ignorance, but to carelessness. These were days J- in which they heard a great deal about the "Robber Cow," but there was another class of robber cow, and that was the animal that did not come:in and gave no milk at all. Hewas old-fashioned'enough to know that ■ the cow which gave 2001b. of; milk was a better cow than-the.one that only gave, 1601b., but he was also old-fashioned enough to know that the cow that.gave no milk at all iwas the worst of all. ' Last'year their factory had lost tho' milk of .87 cows,-'which represented a loss in/cash to the settlors, "of ~£B7O. That,: was a big thing for them both collectively and individually, and it had been brought about simply through'the failure of the settlers to treat their cows properly.. Mr. Walsh then proceeded to quote, a report made by Mr. Gilruth, -"the greatest veterinarian south of-tho line," upon the disease of abortion, which he declared to bo : rcsponsiblo -. for the loss above referred to, and which-ho said was still going on. In proof of this ho mentioned the case of a settlor who last year milked 35 cows, who this year would not milk 10 as the result of : neglecting his herd. Ho strongly advocated ■\\\c irrigation of tho cows according to the prescribed formulae, and again rca.d from a report published by the Agricultural Department to 3how what had been done by way of the disease at To Ante. Ho comhnonded this matter as one of great importance to the settlers.