DAIRY HERD WASTE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 304, 8 December 1931, Page 10

DAIRY HERD WASTE

ALLOWANCE FOR DEPRECIATION How many farmers have kept a record of their cullings and worked out. on their losses of cows the butterfat on a per pound butterfat basis? To many it will be a surprise, as it would work out in the vicinity of 2d-a pound butterfat and would make all the difference between profit and loss on the year’s working, states an exchange. The losses in cows every year vary from 10 per cent, to 25 per cent., and this is amply borne out by the number of cows to be seen in the saleyards and on their way to the freezing works at certain times of the year. Judging from appearances, most of them have been culled for udder troubles. , This means a loss of many thousands of pounds per annum to New Zealand. The milking life of the average dairy cow is somewhere about four years, which on present-day values means a herd depreciation of £2 a cow a year. For successful dairying, productive capacity, quantity and quality are matters of concern, and the question of “endurance in production’’ is an avonue for interesting and profitable inquiry. If the milking life could be lengthened it would affect not only the cost of milk production, but would help the improvement of herds by selective breeding and make farmers less dependent on, and in many cases altogether independent of, purchased animals, which in many cases introduces fresh trouble into the herd. Farmers are beginning to take as much interest in the diseases of dairy cows as was taken with diseases in human beings 100 years ago. Preventive veterinary medicine will play a most important part in the future treatment of cleaning up and controlling diseases of dairy cows, as inoculation has done for human beings in the cases of cholera, plague, diph theria, smallpox and typhoid. The greatest need for science to-day is on the farm particularly in relation to dairy cow diseases such as contagious mammitis and abortion. Both of these are due to bacterial infection. Most farmers call all udder diseases mammitis; but that is wrong. True contagious mammitis is caused by a specific bacteria, which can be identified. From this bacteria science has proved that vaccines can be developed and are now being extensively used in the United States, Canada, ' Holland, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. It is far greater as a protective agency than as a cure, and if taken in the early stages will effect a cure but it could not, in advanced stages,’ restore tissue to its original condition. A cow, once started, should be always finished without interruption; the milker’s mind must be centred on his work to gain the sympathy of the animal, dilatory oi slow milking, talking, and noise-making should be avoided—such actions cause a decreased flow. HEAVY DRIN lER REFORMED. “Drink now repulsive. ‘DRINKO’ Powders completely cured mo ” Get free ’ let, plain wrapper. Homo Welfare Ptd„ P.O. Box 655 C. Waling ton.