HERD TESTING

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 3, 22 January 1930, Page 2

HERD TESTING

AND KINDRED SUBJECTS. MR. C M. HUME’S ADDRESS. (Continued). In most districts, the speaker continued, it a man followed the lessons shown definitely by herdtesting, he could increase production over a six-year period by lOOlbs. of bulterfat per cow, and the years passed so quickly that a nun, if he made up his nund to get into it, with the aid of topdressing, ensilage and hay, would succeed in reaching that objective. An Important Factor—CalvesAlter taking up testing in the Waikato the association had decided it would not be wise to content itself with testing. There had been a steady increase in the number of herds under test each year, and just on 93,000 cows were now being tested, it being claimed that th.s was the largest herd-testing association in the world. This had come about through the fact that the management realised it would have to do something more than testing cows, and they hit on the factor of calves. They came across a man whose herd average was between 330 and 340 lbs., and found that each year he reared only aDout eight calves, knocking the rest on the head. “What is the use,” he asked, ‘‘of rearing calves for five and a-half months and getting only 35s for them ?”

That gave the association a lead. S ock of that type was being kill d when another nun wiihin one or two miles, with a scrub herd, was rearing scrub caiv s. Every good calf should come into the industry. Having the idea, they set to work to build upon it, and decided that calves would have to have a buticrf.it backing, and would have to be by pedigree bulls. To insist on the bulls also having a built rfat backing was, it was decided, for ihe present out of the question, and so it was decided to insist only that the bulls should have registered j edigrees; and • with those rules was brought about the recognition of three important factors: —Coiutitution, butti r-fat backing and fjeoigree. Pedigree was easdy obtained, and hutterfat bnckirg came f; >m the testing of the dams. Consti ution, hiwever, was a thing that could not be set down on pr per. Calf Marking. Though the scheme had certain weakn"S*es it was felt that the

basis on which it operated was th? best. ?nrl t ! 'e basis was this : A man might be on poor land, with a herd average of 200 lbs., whereas ihe same cows on brtier land would do 400 lbs ; and t' e only vv iv to get over the diffici 1ty woul I bs to do calf-marking on hriUcifat average. When the calf-marking scheme was fir* 1 introduced, the association practically had to go to 11 e faftm r - on hands and knees to persuade th m to take up the idea. In the first year 641 calves were marked. Then a sidden increase in the selling price of marked calves set the marking scheme on the go, and now it was almost impossible for outsiders 10 get in and buy marked calves or for such calves to be ob'ainrd for sales, for men disposed of them to their neighbours, getting 30s to £3 I Os before the calves wire a fortnight old instead of putting them on the bobby-calf truck and getting 4/6 for the skins. And Ihe buyers were absolutely protected. The brst sale in the Waikato this year was a line of 10 marked calves, which sold at £8 a head —grades, not pedigrees, but bv a really good pedigree bull. One m : ght slir, the speaker stated, but generally speaking one could not go wong with that type of stock. The majority of people did not yet realise the wonderful possi-

bilities of the system. The posilion of the man with a poor herd was not as hopeless as it seemed: he should get rid of his calves and buy, say, 20 marked calves, which could probably be got for £1 los or £2 a head. Some dairy companies in the Waikato were now financing the purchase of stcck of that type, repayments being spread over one or two years. If a man bought 20 marked calves one year, and the same the following two years, he would soon build up a good herd: at the end of the fhree years he would have 20 two-year-olds and 20 three-year-olds coming in, and could sell his slock for killing. Good Calves Being KilledAt a meeting which he had hel lat Ahipara, staled Mr. Hume, a Maori had said, “We can’t bull I up our herds like that — wt’ve got no finance.” The speaker had told him it could be done. Calves by pedigree bulls were being killed every year, and the man who wanted such calves should kill his own, go along with 4s 6d from each skin to the farmer who was going to kill the good calvi s, and offer to save him tiie trouble of killing. Any farmer who had surplus pedigree heifer calves would be doing a service to the district if he gave them to someone whose calves were not so good. In the whole Dominion last year there were just over 12,000 calves marked and registered under the scheme, and this year it was expected the figure would reach 15,000. Not every calf in the Dominion was marked, and marking was therefore a hallmark. Only one ear was now marked, but it was hoped later to mark both ears. Each associat-

ion then would probably start from number I.

“Herd testing is testing up on dairy cows : calf-marking is sorting out the best of the progeny for ihe requirements of the industrv,” said Mr. Hume. So far nothing had been done as regards bulls, but it was hoped to bring in a scheme whereby they would be a’de to check up on bulls. It would have to be a scheme which would show the farmer it would put £ s. r l . into his porker, for a farm was a business, and a farmer was in it for all he could get out of it. Unsuspected Value RevealedAnother instance of a cow having unsuspected value was given bv Mr. Hume. Tust before herdtesting started in one district, two brothers who were in partnership decided to split their farm in half and each take half the herd of 80 cows. Unable to decide on a metl od of dividing the herd tq itably, they tossed for first pick, and then each took turn about at picking the cow he fancied. The last cow 1-ft was regarded as a scrub and went to the man who didn’t want it; a neighbour refused to buy it for £5, and the man had to keep it. Later his herd was put under test and right from the first that cow put 1 p an extraordinary test, giving 830 lbs. ol buttertat that year. There was no doubt of the interest children were taking in herd-testing, said Mr. Hume. There were many places where, were it not for their children’s insistence, farmers would give up test ing. “Best Bull is Proved Bull • ” Reverting again to the factor of bulls, Mr. Hume stated that for those bulls leaving stock that proved better than the dams it was proposed to consider the issuing of a certificate. To-day, lie continued, the highest prices were given for two-year-old bulls, hut he contended the best bull was the proved bull. Many a farmer used a pedigree bull only until the daughters came to two-year-olds, and then gave away what might be a gold mine for £2 or £3. “You must hang on to your bulls until their daughters are tested,” urged the speaker. “I also think it is by checking up on the daughters that we will at last discover and be able to lay down definite lines of breeding.” Quite a lot of | different breeders to-day did not j think on quite the same lines, but in future it would be possible to say definitely that mating, say, a

certain line ol Jerseys with another herd should be looking for trouble, and vice versa. The information was there for the seeking but nothing had yet been done. Only selected daughters of bulls were now taken into consideration, but under the scheme in view all daughters would be consideied.

Referring to the fact that Class B cows were left out when taking herd averages, Mr. Hume said this was one difficulty the local association would be up against in trying to make reforms, A lot of trouble had been met in the Waikato in endeavouring to get farmers to agree that all cows should come into the average. ‘ fake the case/ he said, “of a man

who has 50 cows, ten in Class B and 40 in Class A, the average of those 40 cows being 450. On the other side of the road is a man with 40 cows in Class A, with an average of 350. Which is the best herd ? In going after a high average, why depart from the true average ?” The association that had the highest average in New Zealand did not include two-year-olds in iis figures, and Mr. Hume stated he did not give a snap of his fingers for that average. It was quite possible that the central executive might take this question right out of the hands of the associations altogether and lay down definite rules.

“ vVe do want to try to keep the association’s work on a reasonably high standard,” said the speaker, “and it is quite on the cards that the central executive might lav down a rule that whole herds must be tested.” Checking on Factory Figures. Occasionally it was found that a man took up herd-testing solely with the idea of using the testing figures as a check on the factory figures, but this was simply a waste of time. Such a man would take the figures for a 24-hour period and multiply by thirty, but at best this gave only the approximate yied. The exact yield could only be obtained by weighing all the time. Factories Unbiassed. The speaker had noticed that all the dairy companes in the North were co-operative companies, and suppliers should never lose sight of the fact that a factory manager could not help himself out of a factory’s business: what one might lose went to another supplier. But at the end of the season the test figures should be somewhere near to the factory figures. There was no inducement to fa tory officials to

read down or write np the tests at all. Recently the Manawaru group (which Claimed to have established a world’s record), knowing at the beginning of tire season that its figures were going to be pretty high, obtained authority for each ot its 29 members to get the factory figures, and also obtained data as to how much milk each member used for calves, house, etc. At the end of the season the difference between the testing and factory figures was under 2 per cent. Discrepancies Not Factory’s Fault. In another case quoted by the speaker the testing and factory figures showed a difference of 25 per cent. It was apparent there was something wrong, but it was not what the owner thought. On investigation the speaker had found there was a herd of 80 cows, and when the testing officer was on the scene there were three or four hands working in the shed. At other times, however, on Saturdays or Sundays, or on race days, a lad of fifteen was putting the 80 cows through on his own ; the only time the cows were properly milked was when the herd-test-ing officer was there. In a further case of a herd of 80 cows, the owner discovered that only 50 were giving the previous year’s figures, while 25 or 30 were giving only about half. The cows were not being properly milked. Many a man who employed labour, Mr. Hume concluded, carried on with herd testing because he knew it was the only way of being sure he was getting the best out of his cows.