FARM and DAIRY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 July 1924, Page 15

FARM and DAIRY

NOTES BY THE WAY,

At a large conference of dairy delegates held at Ottawa, Canada, a decision was reached making cream grading compulsory. This question was discussed at length at the N.D.A. annual conference. No definite decision was made, but a resolution urging its necessity w r as unanimously passed. In the reports of the great sheep show” at Sydney recently, championship honours in the ram class again fell to Mr A. K. Butler, the ; Trangie breeder, who won both grand championships at last year’s show 7 . It is interesting and valuable to breeders to note, this ram was brought over from New Zealand last year with a consignment purchased at the sale of Mr Do wth waite \s well-known Waimate stud, and, judging by his quality and type, this sire should prove of great value in improving the western type of Border Leicesters. EXPORT OF PORK. NEW ZEALAND ARTICLE, IN DEMAND. By the last mail the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board received a letter from its London manager in respect to the shipment of pork. An exti-act from this letter is as follows: “While in Bristol a few weeks agoj I called on Messrs E. Miles and Company, and had a long talk with their managing director, who is largely interested in the mater of the bacon trade, having several factories in the West of England. The manager of this firm is loud in his praise of the quality of New Zealand frozen pigs, which he has handled for many years past, but he is very disappointed that he cannot obtain regular supplies aIL the year round. 1 explained to him that it was a seasonal trade in New Zealand, but he pointed out that in England pigs were fattened all the year round. He prefers the New Zealand pigs to any other imported pork, and stated that we are very much ahead of the American quality. He states that he could take up 2000 pigs a month all the year round provided the price was satisfactory, and regular shipments could he obtained, etc., etc. I also called on the manager of Messrs Spier Bros, and Clarke, aiso large provision merchants and bacon curers. He also expresses himself as particularly pleased with the quality of New Zealand frozen pork, but complained also of the want of regular shipments. He was anxious to get into direct touch’with the New Zealand suppliers of pork, and I was able to give him the- names of several firms who would lie in a position to quote him.”

THE UDDER’S DELICATE MECHANISM.

It should be understood, says Hoard’s Dairyman, that the quarters of the udder are separate. Milk from one cannot flow into another. 'The milk in each is secreted from the blood supplied by the branches of the arteries that run to each quarter from the trunk arteries. When a quarter loses its powers of milk secretion some of the blood that normally would go to the affected quarters may .be diverted or divided among the remaining three; but the secreting gland tissue of those quarters is practically an absolute quantity and not exceeded after it has attained full development. Little more milk therefore can be manufactured by the three sound quarters than their normal production, determined by heredity, although the circulation of blood may be somewhat increased. A problem often propounded” is: Why does a quarter of the udder sometimes fail to develop like its mates? The answer is that derangement of nerve and blood supply has occurred from some cause or another that cannot, as a rule, be assigned. That is also the case when wasting cr atrophy of a quarter occurs when a cow is “dried off,” -o that it fails to yield it a full quota of milk .it a subsequent calving, or proves entirely milkless at that time. In the latter cases, however, we sometimes find that garget, usually unnoticed, has occurred at weaning or drying off time and has led to the derangement mentioned or to a change of milk secreting tissue into tumour tissue. The sucking of one I another’s-teats-by young calves during j the early period of life when they I are fed milk from a pail may cause subacute' garget, following precocious milk j secretion induced by the sucking, and that may- account for atrophy of one quarter or more, or may result in an. attack of garget at calving time. The bad practice should be stopped at once when noticed.

MIXED STOCK. A visiting farmer recently in Taranaki, who has had long and successful experience, stressed most strongly the value to a dairy farm of a few sheep running in the paddocks. He said it was difficult to make many small farmers realise the good they would do. A writer in an agricultural paper says on the same subject: “Sheep eat more weeds than any other class of live stock except goats. They will eat 90 per cent, of troublesome weeds, and for that reason many consider that a few sheep at least should be run on every farm whatever the class of farming. They will clean tip the weeds after the. grain and maize crops have been harvested, and clear up the headlands and corners of cultivated paddocks. It must be remembered, however, that they will not thrive on weeds alone.”

SCIENTIFIC DAIRYING. NEW ZEALAND’S METHODS. COMMENDED BY AN AUSTRALIAN That the uniform adoption of one pasteurising system has made possible that standardisation, of quality which Now Zealand butter factories are now achieving is the opinion of Mr E. F. Voysev, sales manager of the Coastal Farmers’ Society’s dairy produce department. Mr Vovsev, who has had a life-long training in New Zealand and Australian butter factories, has just returned from the Dominion (says the Sydney Morning Herald), where a month’s holiday gave him the opportunity of touring the principal dairying districts and observing the methods of factories and farms there. New Zealand butter factory managers, says Mr Vovsey, are unanimously of the opinion that for efficient pasteurisation the highest possible temperatures and the quickest possible cooling methods are essential. Accordingly, the “Flash” system is in universal operation. The cream is heated to a temperature of 20S degrees, and immediate!} 1, after cooled to 40 degrees. All harmful bacteria are killed by the

heat, and the aeration caused by the sudden pooling drives off noxious gases that might otherwise affect the flavouring. The faith held in this system is justified by the fact that not less than 95 per cent, of the total -butter output is graded as first-class, on a system of classification no less stringent than our own.

Unlike Australia, New Zealand exports the bulk of her first-grade butter, and first-grade only. All lower- qualities are absorbed locally. Since the industry depends for its healthy existence on the securing of suitable oversea markets (local consumption being comparatively small), it has to look very carefully to its methods of export and of marketing. Mr Vovsey lays emphasis on the serious consideration which such problems are now receiving. An Export Control Board has lately been setup by Parliament. It is quietly pursuing a policy which aims at the'securing of cheaper transport- charges, and at securing the larger proportion of profits for the producer by the elimination of speculative buying and selling. Three of its members are now on the way to London, where they will investigate market problems, paying especial attention to- the possibility of distribution of London shipments regularlv throughout the year, as urged by those English merchants who claim that New' Zealand butter will never gain equality of quotation with Danish while continuing to arrive in the few very heavy consignments of the past. It is urged that the Australian industry has much to learn from liis activitv.

The dairy farnis have made rapid strides over the past few years, agriculturally. The liberal use of artificial manures on seemingly unprofitable land has brought about, astounding results in richness and dependability of pasture. Sufficient forage thus assured, herd testing is proceeding along most modern lines, and the output of herds is gaining considerably thereby. The use of the milking machine, now eniplovcd on more than 75 per cent, of New Zealand farms, is also assisting in the campaign for greater output. Hygienicallv, perhaps, some New- Zealand districts have still something to learn. Methods of separation and cleaning in New .South Wales compare more than favourably with those of the Dominion, whore, perhaps, the colder climate encourages the taking of greater risks. Strict dairy supervision is the more necessary since, in recent years, home separation has universally been adopted by reason of the expense involved in the transport of huge quantities of milk for treatment at old “creameries.”

The dairy farmer, who formerly was a little ■ indifferent to questions of breed, has recently swung over into decided favour of the Jersey. In the dairying- provinces there is no demand for the dual purpose cow, since the smaller areas of the New' Zealand farm and the higher costs of land values make any attempts at the combination of pastoral and dairy pursuits unprofitable. Jersey blood is consequently beginning to pervade the herds. Small, hardy, and not a particularly dainty feeder, the Jersey is infinitely preferable for New Zealand purposes to any of our more favoured breeds.

Particular testimony is due, says Mr Voysey in conclusion, to the attention given the winter feeding of cows, Turnips are mainly and liberally'employed, with the result that after the off months of June and July, when many of the factories close down, cattle are able to come back and show' immediate full production. Here, also, is a lesson for the New' South "Wales dairy farmer.

PRACTICAL DAIRYING. LOWER COSTS WANTED. Mr Carnegie said one day: “I will give a million dollars to the man who will teach me how to lower the cost of steel 10 cents a ton.” When Carnegie, with all his experience, was willing to pay this, sum to lower his production costs 10 cents a ton, is it not worth while for us to see whether we can lower the costs of production of our basic industry? In the production of milk our figures show a range in costs varying over 400 per cent. What would happen to the steel industry if it were run on such a wide variation in costs? —H. L. Russell, Dean of the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture, in the Banker-Farmer. CHOU MOELLIER. ' High Feeding Value. Although palatahility is not always a sure guide to the feed properties of any crop, the fact that the stock relish Chou Moellier and prefer it to root crops is important. Cows, sheep, or pigs will always eat a large quantity of a food they are fond of, and consequently produce more and thrive better on it than on food that is less appetising. Stock eat this fodder with avidity, and practical tests reveal that it is of exceptionally high feeding value. In one instance a run of lambs gained half a pound per day in. 18 days on Chou Moellier, against a gain of a quarter of a pound for the same period on lambs from the same draft, but fed on rape. In one test for palatahility the lambs showed a preference for rape, but the opposite result was secured in another test. All practical feed trials of the fodder undoubtedly show that the palatahility and the feed values are of the highest order. For Dairv Cows.

It would be difficult to find a better crop than Chou Moellier, more particularly because of its succulency and nutrients and the fact that it is ready for feeding just as the grass is beginning to go off, and will continue from then on right through the winter. If fed with care it will not taint milk; in fact, many consider that even if fed indiscriminately there is no noxious j flavour whatsoever. At any rate all ■ risk of this is removed by feeding the cows just after milking/ The usual method is to cut the plants near the roots .with a slasher and cart them out on to clean pasture. In this manner there is very little waste in the feed, as the cows relish the whole plant, particularly the stems.

FARMING IN CENTRAL AUSTRALIA. The progress made in farming in Central Australia is emphasised by a traveller who has just been through what is often termed a desert. Inter alia, he says: “When agriculture, fruitgrowing, dairying, etc., were first started in south Western Australia ‘sour soil’ was the then pessimistic slogan, and experts of all kinds prophesied failure; but the British migrant prepared his ground, sowed and planted and bought his nucleus of cattle, horses, and sheep, and to-day all over that ‘sour soil’ region are stud sheep and cattle farms, wheat belts, orchards, and dairy farms that are rapidly making of the south-west an Australian Kent. The great New Norcia Spanish

Mission, now no longer ‘aboriginal,’ because its owners are dead, but an Imperium in imperio, was started by plucky little Bishop Salvado beside a black’s w’aterhole in 1846. “British-Australians in the west, whose fathers pioneered the Kimberleys and elsewhere, are showing the way to their newer kin from overseas by starting new holdings north of the' E.W. line. There seems to he rather a lack of pioneering spirit amongst the South Australians of to-day, but perhaps a ‘Barwell boy’ or two of the old British breed will start adventuring into the unexplored places of his adopted State, when his manhood and his Australian citizenship have come to him. The call of the wild will surely come to these boys and others as it came to their pioneering forbears ‘in days of old.’ ” SHEEPBREEDING INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA. At the forfnal opening welcome ceremony of the great Stud Sheep Show in Sydney, Mr F. B. S. Falkiner, president of the Sheepbreedevs’ Association, had much to say of interest to sheepbreeders. Dealing with the export of stud sheep from Australia, the speaker stated that the breeders claimed liberty °r action in this matter, and resented anything, in the nature of Government intervention. The sheep industrv of Australia had been built rip from nothing to its present excellence without auy assistance from the Government. had to buy their stud sheep in the dearest market, in face of the Australian protective policy, and they had to sell in the cheapest, and they stood on the principle that in the sale of stud sheep there should not be anv Goyermnent interference. Apart from this it was necessary to assist in the growing of the wool necessary to provide the world’s clothing, and to try and stop that would be futile. (Hear hear.) As a matter of fact the sheep industry of South Africa under the present conditions was started bv the hundreds of Australians who went there tor the Boer war, and remained behind and developed the wool industrv of South Africa by the adoption of tlieAustralian metods of classing and culling and so improving their flocks, so that! whether they bought Australian rams or not the sheep industry of that country was bound to develop along Austrahan lines. The South African Union had divided the whole country into sheep districts, each of which was under a classer, who was teaching the small farmers the way to improve their sheep, which were mostly merinos. The South African Government was giving the small farmer special encouragement to improve the breed and increase the number of sheep on their holdings by, means of rebate in taxation and other ways.

As regards the fear that France would .be able to carry 100,000,000 sheep m Morocco, he believed that was allmoQnshine. That country was in the hands of the Moors, and the sheep there were rapidly increasing. But 'France u , n °i require Australian rams, as she had her own national sunplv nt Rambouillet. There was nothing wrong m regard to the Rambouillet sheep in the matter of wool, and if their woolly faces and other qualities, which were not liked in Australia, were objected to in r r a nee, that could easily he got over by selection and rejection. France had from time to time supplied Australia with some of the best rams, and had always been amongst the best buyers of Australian wools, and he considered d un g r ateful if Australia FrlLf 0 °S ect i to now t* ll ra ms to France. He for one would he quite glad to sell rams to France should she require them.