BUTTER-FAT PRODUCTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19413, 23 August 1926, Page 14

BUTTER-FAT PRODUCTION.

DAIRY CATTLE AT WAITOA. SOME EXCELLENT RETURNS. [BY telegraph.—own correspondent. J HAMILTON, Saturday. Excellent returns from their eight herds' of dairy cows have been received during the past season by Messrs. F. W. and llr' E. Walters, of Waitoa! The share-milkers employed by them milked 726 cows this season, . and the production totalled 206,806,51b. of butter-fat, or an average of 284.851b. of butter-fat per cow. These figures are for quantities of butter r fat de livered at the factories and do not include the butter-fat content of milk used for rearing calves and for household purposes. Messrs. Walters have six farms at Waitoa, one at Tahuna, near Morrinsville, and one, at Kangataiki Plains, near Whakatane, on which milking was started last September. All the grazing paddocks were topdressed, superphosphate on some, slag on others, while on others again slag and superphosphate mixed. The same fertilisers'are being used this year, and in addition some Maiden" Island guano, mixed with superphosphate is being tried. As there is a great deal of paspalum. grass on the farm, 15 two-year old Holstein heifers were bought to see if the heavier cattle would do better than Jerseys. The Holsteins did very well, but the owners have bought another herd of 60 two-year-old Jerseys for they are now of the opinion that the district suits Jerseys better than other classes of milkers.'" V'

Liberal top-dressings of superphosphate are applied every autumn to the owners' Waikato farms, and the cows are ■supplied with an abundant quantity of pasture and hay, which are largely depended on for feeding, purposes'. Most of the herds milked consist of mixed grades, with a sprinkling of Jerseys and milking Shorthorns. •

Details of the yields given by the herds are as follow, the herds being distinguished'by the names Of the 'share-milk* ers P. G. Denton, 87 cows, total production 12; months, 28,905,.251b.. butter-fat; average per cow, 332.251b; :H. Robinson, 118 cows, 32j8211b., butter-fat, average'' per cow, 278.251b; C. A. Short, 85 cows, 25,092.51b. butter-fat, average per cow, 295.251b; H. Hayward, 82 cows, 25,693.51b. butter-fat, average per cow, 313.251b.;' F. Earle, 80 cows, 22,5831b. butter-fat,'\ average per cow, 282.251b.; Brandt brothers, 92 cows; 24,484.251b. butter-fat, average per cow, 2661b. p G. Keller, -64 three-year-old heifers, 16,830.251b.: butter-fat, average per cow, 262.751b.; 0. Johanson, 118 cows and two-year-old heifers, production for ten months, 30,3991b. butter-fat, average per cow, 257£1b. -