TESTING DOES PAY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 213, 22 August 1934, Page 11

TESTING DOES PAY

Dairying at 8d For Fat ENCOURAGING INTEREST In a North Auckland lecture Mr. G. Hume, Dominion supervisor of herdtesting, made the statement that with the assistance of the lessons of herdtesting properly applied it would be possible to produce butter fat profitably in New Zealand at 8d a pound. Herd-testing showed, he said, that in practically every ease some cows were producing at least three times as much butter fat as other cows, even though they were under the same feed and management conditions. In marvelling at the number of dairv farmers who still refuse to have their hercs tested, men who are content to milk in the dark, the editor of the Live Stock Bulletin, of Sydney, suggests how universal herd-testing may he brought about at some future time. He writes: —‘‘When we travel about and see the extraordinary progress that some men have made since they began the regular testing of their herds, wo marvel afresh that comparatively so few dairy farmers are interested in testing. The great majority seem to have as rooted objection to it as the schoolboy generally has to cleaning his teeth. "No mother can persuade a boy to use his toothbrush regularly by holding up some other lad as an example. She has to wait until her lad begins to take an interest in some girl; and then she finds him, not only cleaning his teeth but brushing his hair as well. It is quite likely that the only way to bring about universal herd-testing is to begin with the young woman; to persuade them that the young men interested in herd-testing are the only ones likely to make husbands able to provide the requisite new hats and silk stockings essential to feminine wellbeing. The idea is worth the thought of country school teachers.”