The NORTHLAND FARMER

Northern Advocate, 22 July 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

The NORTHLAND FARMER

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,

Written By W. A. Beattie

Tncr j is a groat deal said from time to time about cows that have done very high production. It is the aim of many farmers to got a fdvv cows at least in the herd that will do phenomenal figures of butterfat. This is aimed at mere particularly by pedigree breeders, as it is in the nature of advertisement for their herd, and they are able to sell calves from all their cows on the reputation of a few. Farmers should, however, be chary of purchasing animals on the reputation of a few. Moreover, it is always wise to enquire, in the case of a very high producing animal, whether she did it in one season only, or whether she produced consistently iwell over a series of seasons. It is possible by individual care and special feeding to induce a fairly ordinary animal to produce excellently once, but udder ' trouble and temporary sterility often supervene,’ and she cannot do it again. The soundest way to buy cows is to ' go to a farmer who is obviously doing well financially on his farm. He may

High Dairy Production

not even lost his stock for some reason of his own. but if he derives his income from his farm, and is well off. Ihcre cannot be much wrong with his herd. There is a very good example of this in the case of a breeder of Ayrshire stock who died not long ago. Starling with very little, he was able after a few years to buy a better farm, to take a trip to Scotland and import a bull, and shortly after, to take a trip lo Canada and make a couple of purchases. He was never hard up. He was in the habit of testing for a while, but being a pig-headed man, he fell out •(with some of the authorities and refused lo test any more. The fact, however, remained, that those who purchased stock from him were never disappointed. Although he could not point to any phenomenal figures, he could point to a sound balance sheet on his farm, and that is, in the end, the only thing that is of any value. It is possible to find out who those J men are, and wise to get stock from I them. It is not a few high producers

that count, but a good herd of strong healthy cows that will, year in and year out, give a reasonable return of butterfat and milk. It is not only butterfat that counts. The pigs are a very profitable sideline, and milk is required for them. Provided. therefore that the cows give a reasonable test, and give a reasonable amount of butterfat, a careful farmer must do all right. It seems foolish lo strive for very high'tests and very high production.

A farm balance shoot is not made up solely cf butterfat returns. On the other side are losses of stock, stock being held because they have had calving or udder trouble, or are temporarily sterile, stock that have slipped [heir calves and are eating the same quantity of feed as a good cow, yet are only giving a proportion of the return that they should, time and labour that, instead of being spent on farm improvement, is being spent in looking after those animals. It is a very good farmer that can build up a good herd that is giving a minimum of trouble, and that is producing 2751 b of butterfat per cow and over. People talk glibly of 3001 b of fat. There are not very many that, on factory returns, are doing it.

Methods of Increasing' Production There arc, apart from testing and culling, many ways of increasing the production of a herd, The most effective way is by the provision of temporary pastumes. Professor Stapleton, the noted grassland authority in Wales, advocates temporary pastures rather than permanent ones. By temporary pastures he means pastures that are down for say about five years and consisting mainly of rye and clovers. A system could be evolved whereby a certain area of land could be put dciwn each year, and at the end of a given period the process would have covered, all available areas on the farm and the areas first laid down would have been started again.

This is all right under certain circumstances. The cost in New Zealand is heavy. The labour and the cost of implements are high, the price of land is very high indeed compared with other countries, and 1 therefore the capita! involved in this operation is considerable.

Another difficulty is that a good deal of our land is so deficient in humus that it could not stand the repeated ploughing until this iwas built up.

It may well be therefore that it would pay us better to use heavy penetrating harrows lo rejuvenate the permanent pasture. Some day. when land is more economical to work — will there ever be such a "some day"— it may pay better to lay down fresh areas every year. When one goes into the matter of harrowing, it is iwise lo call attention tCires do not stand me heavy harrowto the fad, mat rycgrass-clovcr pasing that is so very essential in the case of paspalum-rye-clover pastures. Here is a matter for individual judgment and experience and the method of treatment for any particular paddock is best worked out from general principles by the competent farmer. Nothing that is ever written can super-

sede the experience cf a competent

man. A small area of temporary iced is. however, very valuable for cows that are coming in. The excellent paddock of green feed grown by Mr H. M. Thompson, of Kaitaia, is an outstanding example of the prudence of making available a small area of fresh feed fer the early part of the spring t-.vhen grass growth is still weak. It can take the form of Italian rye and clovers, barley, oats and so on. A. short period each day on tins type of feed will work wonders in increasing production. It can, however, be overdone. With all green feed like this, hay should be fed. As yet there iis no substitute for good hay as the j basic element of winter and early I spring feed. At all times when the I growth is particularly! strong, it is advisable either to feed hay, or to have a rough paddock where the cchvs can mix dried feed with the young green grass.

It is an unexplained fact, so far, but on Dr. Annett’s farm, /hay is always fed when the grass growth is particularly luscious. In the trouble that was experienced with facial eczema in the Waikato, his cows exhibited no trace of the trouble, although it iwas on farms all round him. It would appear that there was either something lacking in the composition of the new grass, or some digestive upset caused by it that would be overcome by the feeding of good hay. If the matter was, directly or indirectly, a digestive upset, then other troubles could easily occur with cows as a result of too much fresh feed. Udder troubles, calving troubles and so on could all just as easily happen. Once there is digestive trouble, the resistance of the animal to any trouble is lefwered, and to that extent, feeding is an important factor in the control of disease. It is not so much a good feed that is needed, but a balanced' feed. There is nothing mysterious about this.

Every farmer has probably noticed that if hfs cows have been on new grass, they will eat fern, oven ti-tree, all sorts of roughage in a word, and this instinct of theirs should not be thwarted, but given rein to by allowing them hay after a short period on new feed.

By prudent management in this way the health and the production of a lin’d can be maintained. It all means work. Unhappily, work and still more work is the lot of every true farmer. Governments that are so very solicitous that their town constituents should have good conditions and short hours, pay very little heed to the position of the farmer, and one therefore hesitates to recommend anything in these notes that will entail more work, realising that the (willing horse is already pulling a full load, and has been pulling it long after a change of horses would have done good.

Some Records That there are cows that can give consistent production is an undoubted fact. It might be interesting to take a list of the records under ordinary group herd tost of several cows whose names have recently appeared in the Herd Book of the Ayrshire Cattle Breeders’ Association of Now Zealand. Records in other breeds will be mentioned at a future date. Springvale Lucy, owned by Mr Riddle, of Thornibury, in successive years, starting at five years of age, did 430 in 263 days, 4G4 in 286. 483 in 272, 43G in 2SI, 440 in 238 days, and 479 in 234 days. Ardgowan Hazel, missing only one year when she hurt herself, did, starting at two years of age, 323 in 241, 530 in 259, 708 in 305. GBl in 299 and 580 in 293 days. Allandale Trixie did, starting at two years, in successive years, 412, 395 and 4101 b fat. Miss Gillies 111. did 442, 520 and 4471 b fat and Sheilah’s Favourite of Allandale did 523, 438 and 697 of fat. There are numbers of cows that can do this, but the fact stiil remains that it is a very good herd that can maintain its health and still do the 3001 b of fat, or even near it. To reach high productive figures means a good property, ;t good farmer and a strong herd. None of those three elements can bo dispensed with. Perhaps a bit of good luck might bo added on occasion.