Herd Testing Directors’ Visit

Northland Age, Volume XVII, Issue 63, 11 May 1948, Page 3

Herd Testing Directors’ Visit

A representative gathering of dairy farmers met directors of the Northland Herd Improvement Association at the A. and P. Hall on Friday to discuss herd testing and the Association’s activities in this district. Introducing the subjects for discussion, the local representative on the Board, Mr. H. M. Thompson, said that the shortage of labour had been one of the Association’s major difficulties. He was aware that members in seme cases were dissatisfied with past testing and attributed this to the inefficiency of certain of the testing officers. The Chairman of the Board, Mr. A. C. Kingston, described some of the staff as indifferent, though the female testers, labouring as they were under a handicap, had done good work. Accompanying Mr. Hingston were his fellow Directors, Messrs. H. £. Hewlett and H. H. Hawkin, and the Association’s Manager, Mr. G. If. Dumey. Reviewing activities since the Board had last paid a visit to the district, Mr. Dumey said that tne Association had taken over more Southern territories near Kaiwaka at the beginning of last year. This had been done, he said, in pursuance of an agreement made with the Auckland Association some ten years ago and . had not been the will of the Board at the time as it was realised that the service to farmers would suffer. Considering that the new dis-

trict covered some seven or eight groups plus other individual members, the achievement of the Association in arresting a further decline in the service had been satisfactory, the speaker added. To do this it had been necessary to refuse admittance to membership to many applicants and, in this respect, no discrimination had been shown. It was the wish of the Association to take all applicants, said Mr. Durney, but staff shortages had prohibited increasing the membership. He was confident, however, that testing next season would prove more successful. Touching on the subject of record registers, Mr. Durney said that the fourth edition of the Lifetime Merit Register will be available within the next few days. He also advised members that entries for the Intermediate or Lifetime Merit Registers would be required shortly, and that averages according to age would not be given this year unless specifically asked for. When registering pedigrees’ records, he requested members to supply both names and herd-book numbers. R.S.A. discounts, said Mr. Durney, were available to returned servicemen for two years. In the first year the discount amounted to 50 percent and in the second year to 40 percent. After testing for these two years, returned servicemen are entitled to the 10 percent Successive Testing discount for which other members qualify after testing for three successive years. Finally the speaker requested members to assist the Association in compiling wastage and culling returns and effective average production records by making all pertinent information available to testing officers.