Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 178, 2 August 1909, Page 4

Farm and Garden

WHERE THE JERSEYS COME FROM. The Island of Jerecy, famous for j pore bred Jersey cattle, is situated in ! the English Channel. Although the island Is only five miles wide by ten in length, it supports a population of 60, 000 people, who make their living by dairying and raising early vegetables, and these products are shipped to France and London, which are not far distant. The land has a south-east slope, which gives a warm moist climate, and as the soil is naturally fertile, it produces good crops and very nutritious natural grass. Here, with all the most favourble conditions, the people and Government have done everything to develop a strain of cattle which are noted for producing a good quantity of milk with a corresponding butter fat content, as well as being as true as possible to a certain type in conformation and colour; the rules of which are laid down by the Jersey Cattle Club of the Island. There are now about 12,000 head of cattle on Jersey Island, and every one of them is a purebied Jersey. There are not other breeds of cattle on the Island, the Government having stopped all importations of cattle over 150 years go. The farms range in size from ten to twenty acres, consequently there are no great number of cattle owned by one person. The cows are staked 1 and are fed principally on grass. The women do the milking and the dairy work. The other factors, besides the prohibiting of importation of stock, which have built up the high standard of island cattle raising, are the rigid rules of registration and the subsidising of the best bulls. Not all cattle of a high type can be registered like they can in this country. When a calf is dropped the owner within twenty-four hours sends in to the secretary of the Cattle Club a description of the calf which is entered in the herd book. At the age of 13 or 14 months the stock are taken to a point where judges meet to inspect cattle for registration. There are always five judges appointed, and if these judges deem the animals of superoir merit as regards conformation to the 1 standard type, they are registered; if not they are rejected. A rejected cow stands another chance, but a rejected b«|ll can never be registered, and he is generally killed for beef. If a rejected heifer produces a couple of calfs that come up to the standard she may again be inspected, and if she i has improved in type she may be reg- | istered and the letters F.S. entered ! after her name, which means "Foundation Stock."

Every year three cattle shows are held, and the bulls taking the prizes at these shows are subsidised by the Government. That is the owner does not get the prize unless he keeps the bull for one year and allows him to serve a certain number of cows outside bis own herd at a small fee. The Government pays the owner enough to make up for th? small fee charged individual breeders. To ultimately breed a cow with the depth of body and capacity for food so desirable in milkers, the digestive organs of the calf or heifer must be fully developed. This can only be done by Hberal and bulky feeding. Silage made from any green foddet makes an ideal roughage for young stock. It is cheap, palatable, easily digested, and readliy eaten. Silage acts as a laxative, and keeps the bowels in a healthy condition. Lucerne, meadow, and Hungarian millet hays are excellent fodders, but arc considerably more expensive than milage. Oaten or wheaten bay, when fed to young stock, is digested and relished better if chaffed and damped down with molasses and water. When feeding hay from racks, should calves appear somewhat costive, two or three ounces of crude molasses given in the milk will correct the trouble. When weaning, put the calf on one meal a day for a week or two and then feed once every other day, gradually reducing the food allowance till the calf is weaned. When to wean depends on the calf and grass available. It never pays to wean a calf and turn it out to starve on bare paddocks. The longer a breed is established the more fixed are its characteristics, and the more prepotent may we expect the males to be in stamping their good qualities on their progeny. Where haphazard breeding has previously* been practised, the introduction to the herd of a purebred bull of milking pedigree will most surely result in increasing the profit from that herd. One of the latest systems of some importance, introduced into Denmark with the improvement i D boater, is the grading of milk on its arrivafc the factory. X Occasionally a crossbred or grade animal islbund that is an extra heavy producer. «Tbat this is not due to the I actual crossing is demonstrated by the variability shown in crossing animals as compared with pure stock.