PRODUCTION PER ACRE.

Matamata Record, Volume XVI, Issue 1442, 17 July 1933, Page 6

PRODUCTION PER ACRE.

234 POUNDS OF BUTTERFAT Farm in Morrinsville District.

Another example of the high productivity of dairy farms in the Tatuanui district is provided by Mr. J. Crawford’s farm of 77 acres, from which. 18,000 pounds of butterfat was taken during the past season, according to dairy factory figures (says the Morrinsville Star). This is an average of 234 pounds of butterfat per acre, or about double the average for New Zealand.

Mr. Crawford’s herd of 51 cows averaged 353 pounds of butterfat according to factory figures, and 892.64 pounds of butterfat according to herd-testing figures. The difference of nearly 40 pounds, or 10 per ' cent., between the averages is not out of the way, in view of the fact that daily tests were taken at the factory, but only one test a month is made by the herd-tester, and these often early in the months when production is declining.

Most of Mr. Crawford’s cows are entering on their fifth milking season, so that last season they would be producing at their maximum. The cattle were bought as springing heifers in Taranaki by Mr. Crawford, who was at one time farming in Taranaki. Results have shown that he selected an exceptionally uniform herd of consistent producers.

In the past four years the production of this farm has been doubled. The season before Mr. Crawford took over the farm it produced 9000 pounds of butterfat, or under 120 pounds per acre, which is something nearer the average for the whole of New Zealand. The herd of heifers milked by Mr. Crawford in his first season on the farm produced 11,000 pounds of butterfat, and since then the production has gone up season after season to 13,000, 15,000 and 18,000 pounds.

This farm of 77 acres has carried 51 milking cows, eight springing heifers, two bulls, three horses and half-a-dozen calves all the season. A

paddock of three acres of turnips was of assistane in maintaining the milk supply, for when drier weather began turnips were fed out, and £he paddock lasted for three months.

Last season Mr. Crawford’s herd was under test for the first time in the Tatuanui group. The test taken in May, the last month of the herdtesting season, credited the 51 cows with an average production of 30i pounds of butterfat, or one pound a day.

The herd included eight two-year- : old heifers and four “ strippers,” the rest being mature cows in full production. One of the heifers, a pedigree Jersey, named Violet, was credited with 371 pounds of butterfat for the season, which is a \ high average for a heifer running j with the herd. Other heifers pro- j duced 342, 319, 313, 281, 280 and 257 pounds of butterfat, which is above the average. ;

Five cows in the herd of 51 were credited by the herd-testing figures with over 500 pounds of butterfat for the season, the totals being 546, 534, 425, 506, 506 pounds. The cow credited with 534 pounds has been milking two months since the last test was taken, so that her actual total would be much higher.

No cow in the herd averaged less than one pound of butterfat a day. However, several cows at the bottom of the list have since been culled out. One, a cow that had produced 3001 b of butterfat, was sold privately for less than £5.

Three factors in the high production on a dairy farm are good cows, good pastures and good management. There is no doubt about it that Mr. Crawford’s herd, selected from the offspring of some of the best-producing herds in Taranaki, is above the average. The pastures are probably no better than on most farms in the district, but Mr. Crawford has subdivided what were once large paddocks, and there are 15 paddocks in the farm of 77 acres, so that rotational grazing can be practised in a thorough manner. Good management of the herd has undoubtedly been a big factor, for Mr. and Mrs. Crawford have done all the milking themselves with a three-cow plant, a boy assisting with the changing of the cups.