IMPROVING THE HERDS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6634, 13 June 1928, Page 10

IMPROVING THE HERDS

GREAT VALUE OF TESTING. WORK IN SOUTH AUCKLAND. A further step toward the unification of herd testing in the South Auckland district was taken at a meeting of representatives of co-operative dairy companies, w’hen a resolution iu favour of one testing organisation for the whole district was carried unanimously. Mr Dyucs Fulton, chairman of ,directors of the Now Zealand Co-operative Herd Testing Association, by w’hich the meeting was convened, presided. Mr Fulton-recalled earlier conferences which had been held in an endeavour to unify herd testing in South Auckland.' He mentioned that the association, of which he was chairman and which was formed in tho 1923-24 season, was now testing about 70,000 cows, or two-thirds of the total number under test in the Dominion. In the district there still existed two other herd-testing organisations, but since the interests of all dairy farmers were identical in herd testing, and because of obvious economic and other reasons, including the prevention of ovcr-lap-ing in work, it was patent that one organisation of the whole of South Auckland was desirable.

Subsidy From Government. The New Zealand Association, ho said had been iustiumcutal in securing from the Government a subsidy ox £BOOO this season toward herd testing all over the Dominion, and was now making efforts to have it increased. _ Replying to a question, the chairman said the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd., which had guaranteed the finance of the New Zealand Testing Association to the extent of about £7OOO, had no desire to dominate tho organisation, and would willingly reduce its representation on the Board provided factories generally linked up in the one testing organisation and shared the financial responsibility pro rata.

Mr C. M. Hume, general manager of the New Zealand Testing Association, said: "As I sco the position, herd testing has become a vital adjunct to the dairy industry.” Ho quoted the records of tho association to show tho great improvement in yield per cow effected iu the short time it had been in operation: Ho cited, too, the case of an individual farmer who in five years by testing, had increased the yield of his cows from 1301 b. to 2481 b. of butter-fat per cow. Tho Calf-Marking Scheme. Mr Hume strongly emphasised tho value of tho calf-marking scheme inaugurated by the New Zealand Testing Association, saying it preserved for ihc industry the calves of high yielding cows, and that tho most potent factor in the profitable expansion of the industry, and guarded against a man buying dairy stock in the dark. Regarding bulls, ho said it was nonsense for any fanner to say he could not afford a pedigree animal, for pedigree bulls up to a week old could be bought for £5 to £lO. Admittedly, they should be sold with a butter-fat backing, and factories should finance suppliers purchasing high grade bulls, as some factories did now. But if all herds were headed by a pedigree bull the average butter-fat yield iu the Waikato would in three years or so be increased by 501 b to 601 b. In tho course of discussion, speakers complimented the New Zealand Co-op-erative Dairy Company upon the manner in which it had fostered and financed the New Zealand Co-operative Herd Testing Association for the great good of the industry.