The NORTHLAND FARMER

Northern Advocate, 11 July 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

The NORTHLAND FARMER

British Milk Position. With guaranteed prices for milk to British farmers, and the consequent "tremendous expansion in dairying, it certainly looked as if the huge surplus of milk not required for the whole milk trade would be mainly diverted to buttermaking, not a very satisfactory movement as far as this country is concerned. It now appears, however, that the surplus milk is being largely used for the making of dried and condensed milks. In a recent issue of a Scottish paper there were illustrations of a number of dried milk plants recently established in Scotland. These are on a very extensive scale and are apparently equipped with the very latest machinery. They look up to the very minute. But apparently they have not as good a process as that operated by the New Zealand Co-op. Dairy Company in this country. There are two processes in the British factories, the roller and the spray. The Waikato factories have a process that is declared to be an improvement on both the roller and the spray processes.

In addition to entering upon the making of milk powder on an extensive scale the development of milk bars in Britain is proceeding at a veryrapid rate, and these are being splendidly encouraged by the Milk Board. Recently the board issued a pamphlet giving suitable drinks for the ydnter months, soups, etc. And New Zealand is getting a little trade and a good advertisement out of the winter fare of British milk bars. Toheroa soup has become quite popular. Hitheto only the wealthy could afford ,it, but now it is available for everybody. At first it was called New Zealand oyster soup, as the public could not manage the pronounciation, but now it is being sold under its'correct name. The milk bars in New Zealand could take a leaf out of the British book. Herd Management. In a very informative address to the Matangi branch of the Farmers’ Union, Dr. H. E. Annett emphasised the importance of two aspects of dairy herd management. One was the influence of the time between calving and first fertile service on a cow’s production, and the other was the influence on production of the period cows are dry previous to calving. As to the first problem Dr. Annett pointed out that the normal period was 85 days, and that if served in less than this time after calving production suffered. If the service period was 19 days or under there was a percentage decrease in production of 28.2 for heif-' ers and 33.9 for cows; in a service period of 20 to 39 days the decrease was 18.4 and 21.3; in a service period of 40 to 59 days the decrease was 10.6 and 11.9. As to the second problem, it was shown that 40 days was the standard period for cows to be dry. Cows dry less than this period produced less milk and less butterfat than they otherwise would. This was particularly the case with second .calvers. Especially if they calved at two years they need more rest and feed. The percentage decrease in production was shown to be as follows: Dry less than 9 days, 25 per cent, for second calvers and 14 per cent, for older cows; dry for 10 to 19 days, 15 and 8.8; dry for 20 to 29 days, 8 and 4.7 per cent, A long dry period, up to say 80 to 120 days, increased yield by 10 to 12 per cent.,

A page prepared for the purpose of helping the Northland farmer to make the utmost use of the remarkable advantages which Nature has > bestowed on Northland, and thereby to develop the most fertile territory ■ in New Zealand.

Soya BeaJU.

but a longer dry period had no further effect. Many other interesting things Dr. Annett told the meeting, specially in regard to the necessity of complete fertilisation, the great value of temporary winter pasture, the possibilities of grass cake, the increasing need of the animal for minerals, which can best be given through the grass they eat, and he emphasised the possibilities in a proper study of genetics by research workers and breeders.

Edited By C. E. Cumtng

Great things are being predicted for the soya bean in England. It had long been thought that the climate of England was unsuitable for the crop, but the late curator of the Royal Botanical Society, J. L. North, worked for eighteen years, in the face of much expert ridicule, to prove that it could be done. It was in 1914 that the Royal Society. decided that Britain was unfitted to produce the bean. But twenty years later, Mr North, whose agents had scoured Manchuria for suitable seed, had twenty acres of soya under cultivation in Essex. Then that livewire, Mr Henry Ford, came into the picture. He offered the use of* his newly acquired estates in Essex. After , dozens of failures, the right combination of seed, planting time and soil were found. Now nearly 200 farmers are sowing soya. Ford had proved the possibilities in soya bean in America. He set out to link agriculture to industry. He started with surplus maize, which was rotting in millions of bushels. He found that, chemically treated, it made excellent motor spirit, and half a dozen products from paint to paper as well. But this and other products he tried were uneconomic. He looked round for a new crop and found it in the soya bean. The experts on his 50,000acre ranch in Michigan got to work. A few months later Ford announced that he could make nearly everything you care to name, from motor-car bodies to celluloid dolls from soya- He proved it by sowing thousand of acres of the bean, and making pressuremoulding wheels, steering and electrical apparatus and gear knobs from soya meal. “Soon industry shall no longer denude the forests, which require generations to mature,” he said, “or use up the mines which were ages in the making, but shall draw its raw ! materials largely from the annual products of the fields.” It is said that the acreage in soya bean in America is increasing at a remarkable rate. Within a few years, some experts state, it may be the, country’s chief crop and lead to a great agricultural revival.

The cultivation of the soya hean has been recommended for this country, and that it can be grown here is undoubted, but the object in mind was to use it as a stock food. The true position is that it is the residue after the oil extraction process (much the same as with linseed meal) that is suitable as a stock food. The high oil content of the bean makes it quite unsuitable for pig-feeding, that is, if fed as it is grown. Possibilities in New Zealand. Undoubtedly if the production of soya beans were undertaken on a large enough scale in New Zealand it would mean the establishment of an important industry. With factories for oiL extraction a secondary industry would be created which would be well justified. There would be no reason why the producers could not establish such an enterprise on a cooperative basis, and thus ensure supplies of meal for stock-feeding purposes at a reasonable rate. The meal of the soya is a valuable protein food, though it cannot entirely take the place of the animal protein. Still,

European experiments have shown that where the necessary minerals are fed at the same time good results have been secured, results quite comparable with the results from the feeding of animal proteins. In Britain, for instance, where little or no milk is fed to pigs the need of the animal protein is more important than it is in this country where milk and milk residues form the bulk of the pig diet. The same applies to calves. While every district in New Zealand may not be suitable for the growing of the soya bean, the greater part of the North Island should be suitable. The day may come, and that in the near future, when the supply of meat meal will not equal the demand. Then it Would be valuable to have the next best substitute.

Greatly Needed Knowledge.

In a country mainly dependent on its livestock, as is the case in New Zealand, it would naturally be thought that the scientific subject to which most importance would be attached would be that of animal breeding, or animal genetics. Fortunately, increasing importance is being attached in Britain to this great subject. Valuable work is being done at the Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh University, and by the agricultural departments of Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Reference was made last week to the fact that one of the most brilliant students to graduate from Lincoln College, H. P. Donald, has just-finished a two years’ course of study at the great Rowett Institute, and now another scientific worker, a Massey College lecturer, Mr C. P. McMeekin, B.Ag.Sc., is leaving for an eighteen months’ course of study at Rowett. Mr McMeekin has taken a great interest in the pig industry and has for some time acted as honorary secretary of the Manawatu-Oroua Pig Recording and .Development Club. It would be to the great advantage of the country if both these men were brought back to the Dominion to continue the study of animal genetics under New Zealand conditions.

The Vitamin Problem.

Recent research work emphasises the fact that separated milk and whey do not contain any vitamins, and that the vitamins are only carried by the fat. This emphasises the value of cod liver oil in the winter months, especially where no live grass is available nor red carrots, the only root carrying vitamins in any appreciable amount. The case has been cited before where a farmer who was losing many young pigs quite corrected the trouble when he added a little whole milk to the separated milk before he fed this to his pigs. And one progressive farmer who rears particularly good dairy stock always adds a little whole milk to the separated milk before feeding it to his calves. In the summer months in this country we can afford to neglect vitamin provision, perhaps, with our abundant sunshine and, good grass, but in the winter months it is a problem that must be studied.

Iron ahd Bush Sickness.

At one time it was being preached that a deficiency of iron in the soil was the cause of bush sickness, and the general use of a limonite lick was recommended even in country where bush sickness was unknown. Then it was found that drenches of soil from good country had more effect in correcting bush sickness than iron licks. Subsequently, cases were reported where one type of limonite was effective, whereas another type of limonite was useless for bush sick prevention. Finally samples of good soil and samples of bush sick soils were sent to London for examination by a spectroscope, as there was not a sufficiently good instrument in the Dominion. The report showed that the main difference between the two types of soil was the content of cobalt. Further invstigation showed that while some limonites contains a high percentage of cobalt other limonites possessed very little. The same with soils analysed for cobalt. Good New Zealand soils contained cobalt, in varying degree, but the bush sick soils none at all, except in the case of the Taupo shower, which contained just a little. These facts were given by Dr Marsden at Hastings. He also gave the results of some field trials, which proved the case for the analytical work. At Morton Mains the control lambs increased in weight by only 191 b, while those which were given weekly doses of cobalt, a mere trace, gained 371 b and all went away fat. At Glenhope the controls lost an average of 191 b and fifty per cent, died, while those fed a cobalt supplement gained 201 b in the same time. Similarly, those lambs drenched with the extracts of soils containing no iron or organic matter but elements of which cobalt was one showed spectacular increases in weight. Thus- whatever the function of cobalt in the animal system, it is apparent that the absence of cobalt, and not the absence of iron, that is responsible for bush sickness.

It is well to know that the Cawthron Institute has now been supplied with an up-to-date spectroscope, so that it will not be necessary in future to send soils all the way to London to have them examined for trace of minerals.

Borax In Agriculture. Reference has been made in these columns to the value of a small application of borax to the soil as a preventive of the disease in turnips known as brown heart. The latest Home mail contains the information that there has been established in London a Boron Agricultural Bureau as a central organisation for the provision of information relating to the uses of borax in agriculture. The free services of the bureau are to be at the disposal of scientific institutions, farmers, and those engaged in the fertiliser industry. The office of the bureau is at Abford House, Wilton Road, London, 5.W.1., and is under the direction of Dr. A. W. Greenhill, late of the 1.C.1. Agricultural Research Station at Jealott’s Hill, We take it that the services of the bureau will also be free to New Zealand inquirers. A Genetics Bureau. A movement is on foot to establish a Bureau of Genetics for this country, much on the same lines of the Boron Bureau, a central clearing house for information in regard to genetics, the fundamental science of animal breeding. At such an institution all the available literature of the world would be collected, and this would include reports of research workers in every land, translators being employed sc that all possible sources of information will be at the command of the staff, which in turn will be able to pass on the latest knowledge, not only to research workers in New Zealand, but to every breeder of livestock. At the same time breeders would be encouraged to write to the bureau giving their experiences, so that there may be a general pooling of knowledge on the very important subject to this country of breeding livestock. At the present time much important knowledge arising out of actual experience is being lost to breeders in general and to the livestock industry. With a central bureau, and the creation thereby of national interest in the work, there will be some hope of such practical knowledge being collected and properly recorded. Breeders in general would hail with satisfaction the establish-, ment of such a bureau, for then at last they would have authorities to consult and with whom they could discuss their many problems. Referring to the important matter of genetics at the Hastings Dairy Conference, Dr. Marsden, Secretary of- the Research Department, said that he wished he could record more advance in the study of animal genetics, particularly regarding the mode of inheritance of resistance to disease, milk and fat yield, etc., because it would appear that, in spite of greater knowledge of grassland management, the average yield of New Zealand cows was not increasing, and this was the limiting factor in economic production. During the last twenty years the science of genetics in its applications had revolutionised the methods of plant improvement, but the methods of livestock breeding had been left almost untouched. The method of inheritance of milk and butterfat yield was badly needed. This is very true. A proper study of genetics in this country would probably give the key to many breeding problems and take much of the guess-work out of breeding. In the great majority of cases at the present time systematic work is out of the question, and breeding is a lottery, and a very expensive lottery at that.

Dairy Farmer’s Commandments. The dairy farmer’s commandments may be summed up in three phrases: Strict cleanliness, low temperatures and judicious feeding. Massey College research workers have shown that the very serious defect of New Zealand cheese, openness, is due to an organism that comes from dirt. But dirt has always been the bugbear of the dairy industry. In the days before bacteria were talked about it was the man who attached main importance to cleanliness who succeeded in turning out the highclass product, whether it was milk, butter or cheese. Unconsciously he fought undesirable bacteria and allowed the desirable bacteria to have their valuable influence. Low temperatures are necessary in order that any undesirable germs that may find their way into milk, the best of all mediums for the development of bacteria. may be prevented from developing, and the milk be thereby held in a fairly sound condition till it reaches the buttermaker or the cheesemaker. Judicious feeding not only controls flavour of the milk but the quantity and the quality of it, while

it is also the best preventive of animal disease and the maintenance thereby of the cows in a healthy and profitable condition.

Bobby Calves. One of the best things done in recent months has been the new regulations brought in in regard to the bobby calf trade. Undoubtedly there was room for improvement, considerable room. There is now the probability that the trade will be made the valuable one it can be to the dairy farmers of the country. Of course, there must be co-operation on the part of all concerned if the trade is to be developed on sound lines. Speaking on this matter, Mr W. A. Phillips, managing director of the New Zealand Co-operative Pig Marketing Association, an association which has played a very important part in bringing about the reform, said that as it was in their mutual interests it was the responsibility of buyers and producers alike to co-oper-ate in bringing about the needed reform. All those interested should be guided by the paramount consideration, viz., the importance of conducting the industry in a manner which would ensure its preservation on humane and economic lines.

Milk Fever, Etc. Prevention is always better than cure, and this in more ways than one. Therefore before calving time it is well to give the cows a lime drench, for lime deficiency is at the root of many troubles associated with calving time, not only milk fever but grass staggers. To make up a suitable and inexpensive drench take 21b of slaked lime and ilb of molasses. Mix up with an equal volume of water. Shake well and leave over night. Then strain through a cloth. This would be enough for four drenches for a cow and twelve drenches for a sheet). In the latter case the drench would be given in the case of sheep showing symptoms of ante-partum paralysis. Glucose has

been given successfully for this sheep trouble, but the molasses should be just as effective. Another advantage in using molasses is that it contains a high percentage of lime and mag-

nesia, and this in a most assimilable form, and at calving time trouble has been variously associated with lime, magnesia and sugar deficiencies.