FARMS AND FARMERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1938, Page 9

FARMS AND FARMERS

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(By

“Rouseabout”)

PROGENY TESTING.

INTERESTING FACTS.

Much attention has already been paid to the progeny testing of dany bulls, but little attention has been given to the amount of variability to be found among the yields of the daughters of different bulls (writes Mr. A. D. Buchanan Smith, , Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh University, in the “Ayrshire Journal. Undoubtedly, the variation that occurs in the progeny tests of the daughters have put up records in several different herds, whereas the daughters of another bull have all made their records in the one herd, and consequently have not shown anything like the same amount of variation. But, quite apart from that, different bulls may behave very differently, even though their daughters are all roared under the same environmental and management conditions. Recently I have been examining the records of some Dairy Shorthorns, and have been confining these records to animals milked in the same herd, and confining the comparisons to animals that were in milk within a year or two of each other.

From these figures it is quite clear that you can have two bulls who leave their daughters of the same average production, as measured in gallons, but the daughters of one bull may range from 491 to 1420 gallons, whereas the daughters of the other bull may range from 619 to 949 gallons. That is an actual case that occurerd. As to how the daughters of the first bull would turn out was sometihng like a lucky dip in a bazaar, whereas you could be sure of the daughters of the second bull never letting you down badly.

Confirmation of this is to be found in an article in the “Ayrshire Digest” for March, 1938, by that eminent breeder, Mr. Leonard Tufts, of Pinehurst, North Carolina.

Quite rightly, Mr. Tufts condemns those people who estimate the transmitting ability of a sire by using only the records of a select group of his daughters, a policy which, he says, has been responsible for some of the gravest mistakes ever made in the name of proven sire work. He states, quite rightly, that a record should be made available of every daughter of a bull that has freshened and that if such a record is not available of every daughter, then the true picture of a bull’s transmitting ability can only be measured by a random sample of his daughters. He then points out tlie difficulty of getting a random sample. ! IMPORTANCE OF RECORDS. His own method is to start with a list of all the registered daughters of the bull he is studying which are over four years old, and arranges these in the order of their birth. He then gets in touch with the purchaser of females he has sold and obtains their milk records. If they have given no milk records, some estimate is made of their production. These figures are included with the records of the daughters made in his own herds. To prove how important -it is to have the records of all the daughters, Mr. Tuft cites one case of a young bull in which he was interested: —

Taking only the daughters in the herd test, an average production was obtained of 855 gallons and 3571 b. fat. But when the daughters sold out of the herd were included, the production of all the daughters averaged only 755 gallons and 3301 b. fat. Recalculating these according to the Mount Hope Index (a popular progeny testing index in the United States), Mr. Tufts found that if only the herd test daughters were considered, the young bull had an index of 914 gallons and 3731 b. fat, whereas when all his daughters were taken into consideration, the index was 6331 b. milk and 2791 b. fat, a difference of nearly 300 gallons of milk and 100 lb. of fat in the average lactation. Mr. Tufts continues that nearly all the studies which he has made show that all bulls have a few good daughters, and that it occasionally happens that the best daughter of a poor bull may be as good, or better than the best daughter of a really good bull. Moreover, the owner is frequently so impressed with the production record of his one or two good daughters of a bull that he has continued to use him, and has forgotten the other “ninety and nine.”

Under certain circumstances the use of a bull which leaves his daughters with a big scatter may be justified if you concentrate upon breeding only from his high-yielding daughters. But if you follow this policy, you must definitely be prepared to expect far more disappointments than succesess, for the chances are against such highyielding daughters breeding true to form. On the whole, where uniformity of production is of greater importance than maximum production, it is vitally important to use bulls the yields of whose daughters vary little from the average of all the daughters. And never forget all the daughters. The publication of the actual yield figures enables the intelligent breeder to make up his mind for himself as to the value of the bull which he considers using in his own herd. CREAM TAINT. USE OF DISINFECTANTS. To produce superfine cream tho closest attention to minute details and the utmost cleanliness is essential, for nothing will absorb flavours more readily than milk and cream. Disinfectants are in general use about farm buildings in order to check possibilities of disease infection, but unless care is exercised in tlie handling of these there is great risk of “disinfectant flavour.”

The use of dilute solutions of some disinfecants for bathing cows’ teats and udders before milking can also give a taint to the milk. This is n matter which has often been stressed by dairy factory managers in Taranaki when addressing suppliers. The cleansing of milking- machines and utensils with disinfectants possessing strong odours is another cause of this taint, which :s imparted to the cream, either by absorption of the vapours or direct contact. No amount of aeration or stirring will remove the taint from the milk or cream. For this reason. disinfectant-tainted cream

cannot be used with safety, even iu the manufacture of pastry butter; consequently, it is rejected at the butter factory as being unfit for human consumption.

To avoid the r/sk of taint, the following suggestions are offered: — 1. Don’t use disinfectant with marked odours. 2. Sore teats should be treated with petroleum jelly or some odourless ointment. '

3. Use a solution of washing soda — from 3 to 5 per cent., say—for cleansing dairy utensils. It removes grease readily and corrects acidity.

FACIAL ECZEMA. ' HOW TO PREVENT IT? The Department of Agriculture has issued a comprehensive bulletin commending certain measures to adopt in farm management to reduce the possibility of facial eczema occurring. As the bulletin says: “Surveys which have been made during past and present outbreaks of facial eczema have yielded sufficient data to enable a practical programme of prevention by farm management to be drawn up.” Principal points stressed in the bulletin are as follow: — Facial eczema is not a new .disease; it has occurred over the past 30 years. Facial eczema has usually appeared in sheep and cattle after special seasonal conditions have prevailed. These conditions are the sheep and cattle grazing a rapid flush of grass induced by rain and warm weather after the pastures have been in a bare-graz-ed, dried-up condition for some time. A flush of grass under these conditions does not always induce the disease, and the general characteristics ,of eczema-inducing pastures are: A dry period in the late Spring and an absence of Summer roughage; very hot, dry Summer and early Autumn weather and closely eaten, burnt up pastures; and warm rains and humid weather inducing a rapid flush of unbalanced grass. The disease appeared on farms which are heavily stocked and lightly stocked. Facial eczema appeared on farms which are heavily topdressed, lightly topdressed, and on farms where manure has never been used. It occurred on farms with good pastures, poor pastures, and a mixture of poor and good pastures. V PREVENTION AND CONTROL. The prevention and control of the disease must follow certain systems of

farm management which an investigar tion of farm conditions during the past season suggests are suitable for the purpose. Throughout the investigation rapid changes of feed—from dry to lush, from scant supply to over-supply, and with no regulation of amount ingested —have been responsible for the most serious cases of facial eczema.

‘VTo prevent sheep and cattle eating immature grass some changes in farm management methods will have to be adopted” (comments the bulletin). Some people have suggested that intensive farming should be abandoned, but this course is not sound, for eczema is likely to occur only in abnormal years, and even on low-producing farms, unless precautions are taken, the disease may occur.

The avoidance of tlio disease should not involve the abandonment of high production, but changes in farm management should be tried to avoid its occurrence.

The obvious control measure is to supply mature grass for grazing when the main pastures of the farm are produring a rapid flush of grass. On most farms this necessitates provision of supplementary feed —hay or silage, special pastures or crops—in the dry Summer to prevent postures being too closely eaten, to entirely spell a portion of the pasture land during drought, and to maintain stock in good condition whilst some of the pasture land is being spelled. Stock must be kept off the rapidly growing grass until it is mature. This season it has taken from three to five weeks for the flush to mature, and at present there is no absolute test to determine when this flush is safe. Possibly a test may be devised, but the immediate problem of the. farmer is to provide for adequate supplies of hay and silage, paspalum pastures, or annual crops and the saving of mature grass so that stock may be adequately fed during the dry vzeather, pastures not allowed to become too bare or closely grazed and feed provided to safely maintain stock until the Autumn flush is safe. POINTS SUMMARISED. \

The bulletin summary is as follows:—

,(1), Facial eczema is apparently caused by a quick flush of grass in warm and humid weather following a drought period of excessively hot weather.

(2) In eczema years sheep and cattle should be kept off the rapidly growing grass until it is mature. (3) To maintaiin stock, mature grass should be saved by shutting up fields in late December.

(4) On most farms the shutting-up of grass necessitates the supplementary feeding of stock. (5) Farmers should build up reserves of hay and ensilage. (6) Ryegrass and white clover pastures growing on land liable to dry out in the Summer are most liable to give a quick flush and cause eczema. Special paspalum fields should be sown on moist lands as an emergency measure; the flush of paspalum is not dangerous.

(7) In districts where paspalum is j not a practical pasture, cocksfoot and' Montgomery red clover should be sown and held as an alternative pasture to I flush young grass. > (2) The general plan of prevention, should be: —

(3 Have a reserve of hay and silage so that controlled grazing can be practised and mature grass saved. (b) Have special paspalum fields which are free from a dangerous flush.

(c) Maintain stock on saved grass, special paspalum pastures, and supplementary feed until the Autumn flush is mature.

(d) Caution is always advisable in changing stock from mature to rapidly growing grass.