AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 3080, 14 April 1927, Page 8

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

201bs hay, 141b swedes and 201b wet grains is sufficient for maintenance and 1» gallous of milk.

Deep milkers should have plenty of water to drink at least three times daily, if a supply is not always available.

After weaning the lambs, the ewes are as well on fairly dry pasture, for a few weeks, and then put on good clover before being bred.

Hard Hulking cows arc usually made so by the existence of an unusually strong sphincter muscle, which closes the teat opening tighter than it should.

The real standard of comfort on the farm should mean the best type of home life, in which work is not shirked but performed under the best conditions.

The importance of the dairy cow is probably greater than it has ever been before, and in the production of milk, nothing .should be left to chance.

No soil, however good, can continue to produce maximum crops unless the residual plant food is supplemented with commercial fertilisers or animal.

manures

A cow that has not had a rest before calving will start off at a much lower level of production than if she had been given a chance to recuperate after her last lactation period.

A great many farm premises are of such ?i nature that they give rise to all sorts of ailments among the animals that are kept in them, and the soil is robbed of much valuable manure

through sheer waste

One of the objects of the Dairy Breeds' Federations is the elimination of the scrub bull, which at present does so much to lower the standard and lower the production of our dairy herds.

Well set on and nicely grown horns add greatly to the appearance of a cow, but' otherwise this point is, of course, of no importance, but the horns should certainly not be too thick and too big in a dairy cow.

The variation in the lactation period of dairy cattle is so considerable that only milking tests that are conducted for yearly periods or longer should be given absolute credence. Such a test gives an average yield from the highest to the lowest point of productivity.

Beans and peas are protein-rich food which can be grown in this country— therefore very valuable where no bought-in foods are used. lUb oats and 21b beans or peas per gallon of milk is an excellent dairy production ration. Equal parts beans or peas, oats, maize meal, bran and linseed cake is a good feed for fatting.

In 1925 Guernsey cattle experienced a good sale year in the United States of America, for, according to reports from 41 public sales. 395 A.R. females

over two .years of age made an average of l"i:»o 10s; 34:'. females over two years of age without records, but out of A.R. dams, averaged £75 ss. iSeven A.R. bulls over the age of two averaged £(55.

Wheat production in Japan has steadily decreased during the last few years, and in J})2,-) only 28,500,000 bushels were harvested. imports, on the other hand, have increased out of all proportion, jumping from 4,300,000 bushels in 1920 21 to 79,000,000 in 1923----24.4 A considerable proportion of the latter was from Australia.