DAIRYING METHODS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6810, 14 January 1929, Page 10

DAIRYING METHODS

Dominion Leads World Throughout, tho world there is no single country so advanced in dairying methods as New Zealand; there is no doubt about it," said Mr. O. J. Thedciif, an Auckland veterinarian, interviewed after his world tour. Mr. Tkedens made the trip primarily in the interests of his professional knowledge, paying particular attention to diseases among cattle. Leaving Auckland at the end of last January he toured Australia, Egypt, Algeria, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Czccho-Slovakia an'd Britain. In Australia, as in most countries, lie found much the same diseases prevalent as in the Dominion, but tho Australian Department of Agriculture was an exceedingly active organisation, continually conducting investigations in the direction of the prevention, control and cure of disease and testing out. all new specifics and methods which came under its attention. Vet disease in the Commonwealth was, if anything, more extensive than in. New Zealand, largely oil account of the attitude of the Australian dairy farmer, who was remarkably backward ir. his methods. It might not be too much to say that lie was where the dairyman of New Zealand was in 1913, Hand Milking in Australia, His methods were often crude. Milking machines wore only now- coming into use, establishing themselves against a great prejudice. On tho south coast of New South Wales he visited a farm where 600 cows wero milked by band. The owner of the property said he had tried machines, but found them so unsatisfactory that they were discarded; this in face of tho fact that labour was mord highlypaid across the Tasman and that the wages bill for the hand-milking of such a large herd took heavy toll of the profits

Nowhere had he seen a concretefloored milking yard. The farmers said that in such a dry climate there was little of the mud trouble, but tho quantity of dust appeared to bo equally against tho principles of cleanliness. In places it was quite a foot deep. It was to the credit of tho Australian dairyman, however, that he grew auxiliary fodder crops extensively, even in the season’s maximum pasture growth, to augment the milk yield. In Egypt and Algeria he had seen something of the small scale dairying of the natives—mostly a fresh milk supply industry—and more or less on a casual scale. On tho Continent he had been most impressed with tho wonderful veterinary organisation of Germany, especially as it applied to dairying. There, extremely high qualifications w'ere demanded veterinarians, who were subsidised by the Government and each allocated a certain district. One such expert whom he met was paid £4OO a year as a retainer or subsidy by tho Government, while for all the work he did. he earned private fees in the ordinJ ary way, a minimum scale being fixed by the powerful veterinarians’ association. Disease Control in Germany. The object of State aid was to ensure that all parts of the country had tho best available experts for the control of disease. The veterinarians association owned a large chemical works, where wero made the drugs for tho use of members, for each did his own dispensing. As the works existed for purcly-co-operativc reasons and not to make profits (for there were no dividends), there was no inducement to manufacture anything but tfied and really effective preparations. Tho universities and research centres co-opcr-ated, and so advanced was the study of cattle diseases in Germany that methods had been found for the euro of such a widespread and common trouble as sterility. Mr. Thedens stated that he had arranged to socuro direct from the great German chemical works supplies of the specific which had proved so successful in cases of disease among dairy cattle. Speaking generally, he said that in no country had he found dairying so advanced as it was in New Zealand. Denmark was a possible exception, but the industry was on a smaller scale there. Australia was not alone in regarding the milking machino as a novelty. It was the same in most countries abroad, except that he understood that South America was now using them extensively. Among the upper classes in every land he found New Zealand well-known for its primary produce. If there was one lesson for the Dominion he had learned abroad it was the spirit of cooperation which existed among the Danish farmers. The Dominion lmd cooperation in practice, but still lacked tho ardent spirit of mutual help which was displayed by the Danes.