Herd Testing

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 9, 4 December 1931, Page 2

Herd Testing

BAY OF ISLANDS ASSOCIATION The November averages of the Bay of Islands Herd Testing Association were as follows : Kawakawa Group Group Average.—loo7 cows, 8941bs milk, 4.4 test, 39.811bs fat. Highest Herd.—3s cows, 874 milk, 5.0 test, 49.37 fat. Lowest Herd.—66 cows, 492 milk, 4.1 test, 20.37 fat. Highest C0w.—1755 milk, 5.5 test, 97 fat. Lowest Cow. —120 miik, 5.0 test, 6 fat. Ohaeawai-Waimate Group Group Average.—l2s9 cows, 7821bs milk, 4.4 test, 34.821bs fat. Highest Herd. —36 cows, 1101 milk, 4.8 test, 53.22 fat. Lowest Herd.—B9 cows, 644 milk, 4.0 test, 26.21 fat. Highest C0w.—1095 milk, 7.0 test, 77 fat. Lowest Cow. —135 milk, 2.9 test, 4 fat. Kaikohe Group Group Average.—2so cows, 9211bs milk, 4.2 test, 38.861bs fat. Highest Herd. —31 cows, 1022 milk, 4.4 test, 45.19 fat. Lowest Herd.—46 cows, 744 milk, 4.4 test, 32.78 fat. Highest Cow.—2loo milk, 4.4 test, 92 fat. Lowest Cow. —240 miik, 4.0 test, 10 fat. Okaihau Group Group Average.—6o7 cows, 8001bs milk, 4.3 test, 34.721bs fat. Highest Herd.—62 cows, 1149 milk, 4.6 test, 53.58 fat. Lowest Herd.—l 4 cows, 601 milk, 3.7 test, 22.35 fat. Highest C0w.—1260 milk, 7.4 test, 93 fat. Lowest C0w.—165 milk, 4.6 test, 8 fat. Association Average. 8371bs milk, 4.3 test, 36.871bs fat. Association Average for November 1930. test, 36.731bs fat.

As the result of protests by French farmers the Government has prohibited the importation of tinned meats, butter and several other products. Cauliflowers flourish in the Northern Wairoa. A specimen brought to the office of the “North Auckland Times” weighed when stripped 71bs. 3ozs. for seven months’ growth. “Export production must be maintained if worse troubles are to be avoided. In New Zealand it has not contracted and seasonal prospects are good,” says the latest circular of the Bank of New South Wales. Victoria is going largely into the fat lamb trade, and expects to export about four million carcases to England this season. Producers are concentrating on the Down cross breeds, and hope to equal prime Canterbury quality. According to the Minister of Agriculture, the superphosphate manufactured locally during the past three years was : 1928-29, 264,000 tons ; 1929-30, 265,000 tons ; 1930-31, 219,000 tons. The total area topdressed i during the past four years has been 8,627,000 acres. Of this, 5,720,000 acres were topdressed with superphosphate alone. It is estimated that 500,000 acres were topdressed with mixtures containing superphosphate in proportions up to 70 percent. Thus superphosphate, either alone or in mixtures, was used over 6,000,000 acres.

At the great Dairy Show in London the first prize for unsalted butter went to New South Wales. Two Southland dairy factories won second and third prizes for cheese. The live stock in the Dominion at the end of last year were : horses 297,195; cattle (including 1,441,410' dairy cows in milk and dry) 3,770,223; sheep, 30,841,287; pigs, 487,793. Prices in Australia for wheat, which for last season’s was from 1/7 to 1/10 a bushel, are now 3/5, which on the I estimated new season’s crop of 180,- ! 000,000 bushels will n ean a return of j £30,000,000. ! It is stated that British consumers I will use 400,000 tons of butter this | year, as against 372,000 tons last year. Of this huge amount, the Em- , ..pipe will furnish 210,000 tons and foreign countries 190,000 tons. New Zealand will contribute 90,000 tons, Australia 65,000 tons and Great Britain and the Irish Free State 55,000 tons. The U.S. Weather Bureau reports that a new drought is causing unestj imated but apparently considerable damage to winter wheat growth in western Kansas, north-west Oklahoma and large areas of Texas and Colorado. What little grain has spouted in the dry soil in those States has been badly parched. This will be good news to grain growers elsewhere. There is a possibility of a factory being established in Palmerston North for the packing of butter in one-pound tins under the vacuum process. Butter j packed in this manner opened out in London in perfect condition, and as a premium of 20/ per cwt can be obtained for it, while the cost of packing is only 8/6, a greater return could be made to the farmers. Udder trouble in cows can be prevented by thoroughly scalding everything used in the shed, especially the wash rags, and the liberal use of permanganate of potash (generally but wrongly known as Condy’s fluid) in all water used for washing. This is the cheapest and most effective form of disinfectant, and will largely rid a shed of flies. A man who has tried everything on the market as a cure for scours in calves recently tried starving a calf that had the trouble and then reducing its ration of skim-milk. He was entirely successful. He made the calf comfortable on a bed of hay in-the corner of a shed and gave it nothing but an occasional drink of sterilised water—water taken from the electric heater which had been allowed to cool. After two days he gradually re-introduced it to skim-milk, but stopped the increase when the calf was getting a smaller ration than it was getting before it commenced to scour.