SCRUB BULLS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 72, 24 February 1931, Page 5

SCRUB BULLS.

PROBLEM DISCUSSED. The following article by Mr C. J. B. Macdonald, formerly Agricultural Correspondent of the London Times, appears in an English paper:— The ’intelligent and helpful consideration of the scrub bull problem is a much more comprehensive and complicated question than is commonly supposed. “Look at Ireland” is an ordinary catch-phrase, but like most sayings of the typo, it completely misrepresents or minimises the intensity and difficulty of the situation. If tho elimination of the badly bred, defectively developed bull Is to bo effected to useful purpose the work will have to be gone about in a manner appropriate to the momentous character of the task undertaken. It may be sound advice to look to Ireland, but if searching eyes are to be cast across the St. George’s Channel, the range of vision and power of suitable penetration should not be restricted by preconceived or prejudiced ideas or wishes., There is in the Irish experiences and achievements abundant material for profitable inquiry and the extraction of fruitful deduction, but the investigation must be made upon independent grounds and with a correct perspective of relative issues and requirements. IRISH STORE CATTLE.

Important improvement has been accomplished in the store, cattle of Ireland in recent decades. To attribute the whole of the major share of the credit for this change to the licensing system is to forget tho many years of very valuable and expensive work that preceded the adoption of compulsory licensing. The real spade work in Ireland was done in tho 30 years precedent to the system now so widely' acclaimed as the unfailing road to successful achievement. It is not sought, in raising this point, to minimise the influences of the method that has been in force in both sections in Ireland in the last 'seven or eight years; the object is to examine the position and records of attainment in a fair and instructive manner in order that whatever is attempted in this country should be devised with understanding and with reasonable prospects of effecting what is intended.

STATE SCHEME IN IRELAND.

It was in 1887 that the improvement of cattle in Ireland was first taken in hand in a serious sense at Government instigation or with State help. The intervention of the Government may have been inspired by a few earlier projects on private initiative which yielded remarkable results. I believe the late Major H. L. Barton, of Straffan House, Co. Kildare, was one of the first to break into fresh ground for sires of tho type that was to lead to the developments of which so much has recently been heard. In the early ’eighties Major Barton was induced to try sires of the Cruicksliank strains in his very fine herd of Booth Shorthorns. Tho blending of old and new in Shorthorn form, rather than in blood, was so successful that the Straffan example was soon followed in private herds and later in national efforts to raise the general standard of commercial cattle in Ireland. The State scheme began on modest proportions, but it expanded steadily until about 1000 premium bulls were in service in Ireland before licensing was begun. The three decades of preparatory work should not be overlooked in computing the benefits of the licensing system. In that time, although only a thousand hulls or fewer had been distributed on the premium principle, it will not be contended, specially by any ane who had been in the habit of attending the shows of the Royal Dublin and Belfast societies, that progress was slow or wanting in encouraging features. The classes of Shorthorns improved steadily, and equally remarkable changes w.ere noticeable in Herefords, Aberdeen-Angus, and other breeds when the premium system extended in corresponding proportions to them. As a result of this wise and generous procedure improved classes of cows and heifers of all breeds displaced the older grades, and thus a way was prepared for the introduction of the licensing method that has had no counterpart in Gi’eat Britain. There has been no preliminary work here, and, without recourse to something of the kind on a suitable scale and with suitable material, it would be oversanguine to anticipate considerable success from procedure on what can be little better than haphazard lines.

THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE

It is advisable also to study the conditions in the two countries in order to avoid the imposition of regulations that may prove both unprofitable and harassing to stockowners. The production of store and beeving cattle is much more a speciality in Ireland than in England and Wales. The figures for the Irish Free State in comparison with those for England and Wales signify variations of fundamental difference. The records of production are £8,000,000 a year of dairy produce and £20,000,000 of stores and beef. The corresponding statistics for England and Wales are £57,600,000 and £34,660,000, making it clear that dairy cattle are of greater importance here than in Ireland. These facts complicate the position, since it will not be disputed that concentration upon milk is detrimental to the production of the best classes of grazing cattle. It may be regrettable, as many think, that deep milking should be cultivated to the injury of meat production, but things have to be accepted as they are, and to attempt to change them by legislation would be to create a dangerous precedent in interfering with the freedom of the individual, who, presumably, is most competent to manage his own affairs.

GOOD WORK DONE,

The British Ministry of Agriculture has done good work by means of its premium scheme. Would it not bo wise to develop operations on this voluntary principle rather than to proceed on lines for which the country is not ready? The Irish Departments still continue to encourage the breeding of b9tter-class cattle in other ways than by licensing bulls. They do not hesitate to buy selected bulls in Scotland at high prices, sometimes paying for one bull as much as the Ministry of Agriculture is willing to give for 10 bulls. It will be seen that the subject is both large and involved, and before setting out upon a system that may be more irritating than useful it would be prudent to examine and* balance the governing factors involved.

Apart from a heavy total loss to farmers as a result of the destruction of chimneys and damages to homes, the earthquake has had no serious effect upon the dairying industry <jf Hawke’s Bay. There are few dairy factories in the area which has suffered most severely and, with the exception of a small cheese factory at Taradale, the factories have escaped practically unscathed.