Herd Testing and Hard Times

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 10, 11 December 1931, Page 2

Herd Testing and Hard Times

Testing of dairy herds has become so general in New Zealand and so much part and parcel of modern dairy farming that it is hardly necessary to touch on the immediate advantages and benefits which are quite obvious to any observant person. Suffice to say that since the inauguration of the Group Herd-Testing movement the average production per cow tested has been raised from 1751 b. per cow to 2181bs. per cow in 8 years. This in itself should —and generally speaking- has —convinced farmers of the soundness of the movement. From being an advantage to the farmer, herd-testing has with the advent of low prices, become an absolute necessity. Unfortunately there is a certain—all too large—percentage of farmers who blind themselves to this fact in their endeavour to reduce overhead expenses. How often does one not hear that senseless phrase, “I know I should test, but I cannot afford it.” The fact of the matter is that with prices at their present low level no farmer can afford not to test. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” and surely there is no one who will deny that the man who has tested, culled and improved his herd until he has reached a standard of, say, 3001bs. per cow, is feeling the pinch of hard times far less than anyone else in the farming industry. Let us view for a moment herdtesting in the light of low prices for primary produce. With butterfat at 1/6 per lb, a cow producing 1501bs of fat per annum would show a . profit of £3 5/, assuming that maintenance, interest, labour, etc., amounts to £8 per annum. With the prices ruling- at present the same animal shows a loss of at least 10/ a year, whereas the 3001 b. cow still shows the farmer a good margin of profit. In other words, herd-testing and low prices have at last put the lowproducing cow where she should be : in the slaughter-house. How Pennies Mount Up The most striking feature of the supplementary manifesto issued by the Coalition Government from the point of view of the farmer was the statement that an increase of one penny in the pound realised for our experts to Great Britain would give the New Zealand farmers an additional £600,000 a year for butter, £BOO,OOO for cheese, £1,400,000 for meat and £65,000 for wool. The figures are decidedly illuminating- and afford a striking indication of the effect which so-called minor increases or decreases on our markets may have.