COW TESTING

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 29 April 1922, Page 3

COW TESTING

Only 4 per cent, of New Zealand dairy cows are tested, only 13 per cent, of purebred bulls are 111 use, and our average butterfat yield is below 1701b per season per cow, says a writer in Meat and Wool. At least 90 per cent, of our cows should be tested, 90 per cent, of our purebred bulls fhould be in use,, and our average cow should give nothing less than 3001b of butterfat per season. Our dairy industry is a comparatively large business, consisting of some 500 dairy factories, a million cows, and about two million acres of land. In any large business such as this it is essential to successful working that there.should be no serious leakage of profits, and there is a leakage of profits continuously taking place on the dairy farms solely through the milking of 20 to 40 per cent, scrub cows in the herds. As showing what Australia is doing to encourage herd testing, the South Australian Minister of Agriculture has approved of the payment of prizes to members of the Murray Bridge Herd-testing Association. The first prize of £75 was awarded to Mr. J. A. Halliday, whose average output per cow for twelve months was 939.21 gallons of milk and 364.291b of butterfat. The average number of cows in his herd is 46. The second prize Avent to Mr. B. H. Green, the average] output of whose herd per cow*- was 710.85 gallons of milk and 337.151b butterfat, and the third to Mr. G. H. Hall, the average output of whose herd per cow was 680.17 gallons of milk and 308.751b butterfat.