FARM and DAIRY

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 20 February 1926, Page 12

FARM and DAIRY

NOTES BY THE WAY

In the course of a . trip with the judges and the competing farmers in lucerne "trials” many opinions and experiences are swapped, and these actually form one of the most useful sections of the competitions They my© experiences and get the benefit o± the work done at the demonstration farms or seen bv the departmental officials on their tours of the province and other parts of the Dominion. It is hoped that the dissemination of some of these observations through the Star will be of value to farmers in other parts. Discussion on points raised thereby is always very cordially welcomed in the farming columns of the Star. "I shall not plough an acre more than is necessary, for I realise the value of my lucerne, wliich, in my opinion, is iust the fodder required by the dairy farmer, and makes him largely mdeof root crops, and though he would opinion of a successful farmer on the Plains expressed during the tour of the Farmers’ Union party last week. He said he had done with the large areas of root crops and though he would probably grow some it would be a very small quantity. . The value of lucerne has been rigidly tested during the hot, dry spell, and though, of course, it is not equal to the natural pasture, it is a great substitute, and has shown its value m keeping up the flowing milk. A verv useful sideline to farming is carried on at Mr H. George’s farm on the Lower Glenn Road, where Mr George’s son on a very small area, in which he grows boxthorn seedlings, cleared over £3O last year. He grew fifty thousand last year, and had this ■year no less than double that number growing well and strongly. This, besides being very profitable, adds another interest to the young farmer, and is another inducement for him to stay. The value of such links to the farm and to the land in general is probably not nearly sufficiently recognised. If boys are to be kept on and encouraged to stay on the land they must be so treated as to make them realise a sense of independence, aud given a direct personal interest in the place. Many cases are mot with in the course of going round the farms to inspect the crops of lucerne where the first two cuts have been excellent, but the third very indifferent. The system of crossing the drills in sowing the. seed has proved very useful in cases where it lias been tried. One farmer in particular gained a lot in this way. One field or yearling lucerne was seen by the judges where a wonderfully good strike was marred by the presence of a matted mass of coutch and sorrel, and the sorrow of it was that the grower had taken a lot of trouble and worked the ground very thoroughly. He had ploughed deep and disced, with the result that the pest had been cut up and every bit had grown. It would have been better, said Mr Deem, had he ploughed deep and buried the coutch and then sowed lightly. He had doubts as to whether it was possible to overcome the pest.

It was very, cheering to learn, from Mr Deem that he saw nothing better or finer in Australia, even on the famed river flats, than the best of the lucerne fields in South Taranaki. It should give heart of grace to many a worried farmer, ami lead him onwards in the path of cultivation, by which alone ho could keep his paddocks in good heart and order.

The rabbit pest, said Mr Deem to farmer friends on Friday, was very bad in Australia, and in some parts he found the lucerne had been eaten right out by this four-footed pest.

In some small parts of the Plains, a strip of country, there is a pan of sandstone encountered by lucerne roots, and proved by farmers digging for water at anything from about six to eight feet. It has had a deleterious effect on crops in parts, but has proved to be able to get through in time.

Propaganda is necessary, was the general opinion of farmers and judges on Saturday at Otakelio, to encourage very much the growing of lucerne.

A little decay or fungus was noticeable in one of the crops, just at the apex of the root, and this was biting off the plant, but in many cases there was some fresh young shoots.

.Soft turnips are very good for milking c-ows, and are great milk producers, and an ideal ration is turnips in the morning aud lucerne in the evening.

One acre of lucerne to every five or six cows is considered by many farmers a useful proportion on a dairy farm. Quite a number have that acreage in lucerne.

On farms down near the Normanby Road can be seen strips in lucerne paddecks where were years ago Mil or i clearings in the bush. The farmers cicwn there agreed from their observation that where the heavy bush had been and no cultivation of potatoes or maize by the Maoris there they got the best results.

A large number of the holdings at. the south end of the Manaia Road were given to men who served in the war. Some were as small as eight acres, an absolutely useless area, and the first real settlement was done by men who acquired these from the soldier owners.

Cowvard manure is acknowledged to be one of the most valuable on the farm, and it is to be regretted that this output from the shed is not more genera ilv used.

Talking of Ihe produce of the farm, a soldier settler said the other day lie took 22-i!bs of fat per acre, the method of comparison ho considered best, not the amount yielded per cow, and. he added, any comparison should be wlii'ii i ows were wintered on the farm, not taken away on to other country.

In one lucerne paddock on the lower Sutherland Road a most excellent take and growth was nearly covered by a luxuriant growlti of fat hen or willow weed. These, however, were no deterrent to growth, and,would, it was confidently felt, disappear with the first cutting. The cattle would dispose of some at least of the weeds.

From an onslmge pit on a farm near Manaia, a lot of the juice of the silage soaked out, anil rliis was caught and fed to the pigs, with excellent-results.

After a tour of the Wairarapa, the Waikato and Auckland districts, Mr TV Lloyd has returned convinced that South Taranaki is looking better than

any of those districts. He found the Wairarapa very parched, suffering more than the Manawatu from the dry spell. The Waikato, on the whole, he said, was looking well, especially round Te Awamutu, Hamilton and Matamata, but out towards Rotorua the country is poor and patchy, and shows the effect of the dry weather. Hamilton and Auckland were both very busy and prosperous looking, and both have grown very much since they were previously there. He enjoyed the trip very much,' but came back more convinced than ever of the quality of the country round Hawera. YOU NEED A VACATION. SO DOES YOUR COW. (.Jersey Bulletin.) Perhaps the hardest-working animal on the farm is the high-producing, profitable dairy cow. Her w r ork is constant. It is nervous work, for motherhood and the production of food for voung, the natural function of a dairy cow, it must not be overlooked, is a drain upon the system, especially when improper feeding is practised.. The producing cow is a hard-w r orking animal, and where production is maintained throughout a year, or ten months, or perhaps even longer than a year, it is a severe drain upon the cow’s vital energy. Of course, if the cows are only of the scrub variety, those mongrels which survive with their skin and bones on withered grass in winter and burned-up pasture in summer, and whatever they can jlnd to eat along the roadside or manage to reach through dilapidated wire fences, this contribution docs not apply. Those kinds of cows, with the kind of care and feed outlined, would be better off dead than with a vacation. What w-ould they do?

But we are speaking of the high-pro-ducing, profitable dairy cattle. And we beseech for her a vacation. A month, or six weeks or two months’ complete rest from her milk-producing work. And on full feed until near calving time. During the cow’s resting period, when she is on vacation, merely loafing in the shade of the biggest tree in the pasture or perchance browsing down by the creek, let her have the same abundance of nourishing feeds that you give to her herd sisters who are producing milk.

A vacation for a cow- wouldn’t be a vacation; in fact, unless she were well

fed. AVI) at docs a cow enjoy? Ask yourself the question. And then answer it. Well, we imagine that she enjoys her work. That while she goes through most of the year giving us her wonderful food in abundance, that it may give sustenance to someone’s baby, or strength to some invalid lying in a hospital, or helping some strong man to recover from a serious illness, or keeping some elderly person in strong and rugged body and active mind, she is happy. One thing is in her favour: her work comes naturally to her, and if she is kept in good health her appetite seems always keen. And then she must enjoy the spring pastures, and the cool of the pastures on summer nights when she may be allowed to graze after the heat of the sun has been abated by the shadows of evening. And we think she must enjoy philosophising, for she lies so still, so contented looking, chewing her cud. The cow is a noble creature. She gives birth to her baby and almost immediately it is taken from her. She must work for an adopted family, humans, instead of bovines. She must hear, perhaps, the lusty cries of her new-born, yet stand quite still in her stanchion of steel; and she is expected under this treatment —and, wonder of wonders, she does —to give a milk yield which increases as the days go by. Don’t you think that she earns a vacation?

But now to get to the practical side of the question, the hard-headed, business side. If you will give each of your cows a vacation, and feed them well while they are loafing, it will repay you in dollars and cents. Vacations are rests, and rests build up the cow’s strength that she may come into her next lactating period with vigour and stamina, so that she is able to give a milk yield larger than if she were to be worked constantly without a rest. And her calf, a most valuable asset in the breeder’s business, will be born with greater strength, it will have a greater opportunity to live through to mature age that it may also assume the role of milk-producing cow and so keep the ever-changing chain toward increased herd averages in growing motion.

If you do not give your cows vacations,'do so. And if you have the habit of giving vacations to them, and while they are dry not feeding them abundantly, try the other way. During the dry period is the time when the unborn calf is most heavily drawing upon its mother, and if she lacks food and nourishment she will draw upon her own reserves, so long as they last, that the calf may have every opportunity to live and thrive. But if she does not secure enough nourishment from "her feed to keep her own body in sufficient supply, and dees not have a surplus on which to draw for the calf, the calf suffers, is born weak, small and. untliriftv.

We believe in vacations, both for man aud for beast. We hope every

cow t of every breed will now and for ever after have a vacation, an enjoyable one, filled with lots of shade, if it comes in summer, and with a plentiful supply of good, wholesome feed.

CANADA’S CHEESE MARKET

Canadian dairymen are still striving to assert themselves with their cheese products in the world’s markets in competition with the splendid position enjoyed by New Zealand and Australia, particularly on the London market, and the subject came up for discussion at the annual convention of the Dairymen’s Association of Eastern Ontario, ■when Dr. J. A. Ruddick, Doihinion Dairy Commissioner, formerly of New Zealand, said there was a possibility if present tendencies prevailed that Canada might regain her old position as the largest exporter of cheese. "For 12 months ended October, 1925,’’ said Dr. Ruddick, ‘'Canada’s cheese exports were 23 per cent, larger than they were in the preceding 12 months, while exports of cheese from New Zealand for the year -which ended July, 1925, show a decrease of 5.2 percent. If we ‘take the total exports of all products from both countries and reduce them to a butter-fat basis for the same period, w r e find that while Canada’s total exports show an increase of 27 per cent., those from New Zealand were increased by only 6.8 per cent. ’ ’ The Commissioner said that the ills of the industry, to use a medical term, were functional rather than organic. If Canadians did not succeed in holding their own in the world’s markets, it would be their own fault, and the result of apathy or indifference rather than on account of any serious disadvantage or handicap in the struggle for a reasonable share of the international trade.

Dr. Ruddick said that Canadian butter was undoubtedly improving in quality, and nowhere was this more noticeable than in Ontario. The improvement in marketing conditions under the grading system was an important factor in raising the status of both cheese and butter. Under the old conditions before grading was established, exporters were not always too careful of the quality of the different lots with which they filled orders for "finest” cheese or butter. ' CHEESE LOSSES REPORTED. The 300 delegates gladly received optimistic predictions for the success of the industry in Eastern Ontario during the coming year and satisfactory reports of the work done during 1925. Mr. W. H. Olmstead, of Leonard, in his presidential address, said that conditions last year were favourable to the production of a very large flow of milk, and this had been realised. The prices secured for the manufactured products were very much higher than the previous year, he said, and the output had measured up fairly well in quality. Thoughtlessness of a few operatives in

turning out low grades, the president warned, reacted upon the industry aa\a whole. J Mr. George H. Barr, director of dairying, announced in his address to the convention that he intended bringing in regulations that would cause cheesejnakers to lose their licenses if they accepted milk that was not in good condition when delivered. He pointed out that because of the insanitary conditions of many factories and also because of the bad condition of some of the milk delivered at the factories, 10 per cent. of. cheese production was labelled second grade. This meant a big loss to the dairymen, the figures for Eastern Canada alone being 100,000 dollars a year.- In order to improve cheese production, he was preparing, he announced, a new system of licensing the cheesemakers.