BUTTERFAT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2767, 26 August 1931, Page 6

BUTTERFAT.

(Contributed.) At ths present time the dairy farmer is considering just* what items of expenditure are essential for the coming sea&h. At no time in the history of dairy farming was it more necessary to be certain that what one proposes to do is the right thing. A study of the methods of the really successful dairy farmers yill definitely convince you on any points on which you are in doubt. It is the successful farmers whose methods are efficient and who waste little money in unprofitable experiments. In nearly all cases it is found that the successful men adopt herd-testing and fertiliser as integral parts of his dairy farm management. They realise fully that the actual cost of' testing is more than made up by the extra butterfat obtained through the herd being under test. They know that testing results in keener management and in more thorough milking. Cows do not milk to, the machines in the same way year after year. Some cows are quite ready to have an “off” season, if they get half a chance. The comparison, cow by cow, of the test sheet for the first month of the new season with that of the same month the previous season will indicate definitely which cows must be given careful stripping. The fact of the milkers knowing just what each individual cow is giving, and what she should give, brings about that keenness in the actual milking which gets the maximum results. The monthly testing figures bring the work in the shed under review month by month. The efficiency of new milkers, or in fact any change in management, is immediately checked up through the testing figures. Farmers employing sharemilkers or wages men are now recognising'the great value the testing figures are to them. Through a study of the figures they know more about the cows than the men milking them. The definite statement that a particular cow is giving only half the butterfat she gave the previous season will result in more attention being given to - that cow. The milkers themselves, even' if they be members of the family, will get better results from the herd if it is under test. Few farmers realise that these better results have only to amount to say slbs of butterfat per cow tc pay for the testing fees. Put in another way, 2 per cent, increase in efficiency will pay the cost of testing. Don’t hesitate, join up with your local Group and thus keep your herd management right up to the mark.