HERD TESTING

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 2 July 1925, Page 6

HERD TESTING

The herd testing movement—or should i.t bo the movement in support of the herd testing movement Y —gathers momentum daily. The latest convert is Mr. T. K. Sidey, M.l\ for Dunedin South, a constituency whose first acquaintance with niiik is in a jug at tlie back door when it gets up in the morning. And, while Air. Sidey was .speaking to the Addressdn-RiepJ y in the House of Representatives, delegates to the N.D.A. conference in Hawei’a were placing the stamp of their approval on the scheme placed .before them. in an admirably simple and practical speech, Mr. O. M. Hume set out what is being done in the .Waikato, and stressed the advantages to the industry which may be expected from the establishment of la properly organised herd testing and calf marking system. Then Air. Hume advanced seven reasons in support—so he maintained —of the appeal for a Government subsidy. Four of the seven were .straight-out arguments for the initiation of the scheme ho bad outlined, and would have been just as effective without mention of a Government subsidy, while the three remaining reasons were of doubtful weight. All along The Star has been an enthusiastic advocate of herd testing, and has agreed that possibly the group system i.s the most satisfactory now in operation. But neither Air. Hume’s seven points, nor the suggestion of a gentleman from Opotiki that the subsidy asked from the Government be doubled, can alter our belief that this is a matter in which the dairying industry should stand on its own legs. With Air. Grounds, we would urge upon farmers the importance of the movement, and the direct benefits which they will reap by bringing it to fruition without any Government subsidy at all. There are better ways in which the State could a-vsi-stfc the -dairying industry than by paying out a- .shilling for every oow putunder test.