DAIRYING PRACTICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19469, 27 October 1926, Page 10

DAIRYING PRACTICE.

Sir,—Your correspondent-, "Pulse" seems to have taken my letter as a condemnation of the Jersey cow. S uc h j s fW% TT't 1 ra C e J ely i " teaded ♦j! Ji mi • P b® derived from the deep-milking breeds far outweigh those of the low yield and high test. Pulse in most of his arguments unwittmglv backs up my contentions, and I will deal with his assertions in rotation, lie says it is obvious that the £22,000 000 for pork is mostly produced from crips, inis is not the case, as, owing to the system of tethering the cattle and having » j fe 7 J fences > most of the pork is styfed. Admittedly some meals are added also water to balance the skim, which contains protein but is deficient in carbohydrates; but a system such as this has already been adopted by the more progressive among our own farmers. Your correspondent also states that the solids in mi lie increase with the fat content, and therefore the Jersey will be still more popular with pig enthusiasts. In actual feeding this is not apparent, as the proportion is infinitisimal, and it would take at least four good Jerseys to equal the amount of skim obtained from one good Friesian cow, numbers of which, are milking from 801b. to over 1001b. of milk daily. The question of carrying four of the smaller breed where only three of the heavier can be grazed is futile as an argument, as it would be possible to carry 10 to 15 goats on the f.atne land, but the cost of labour would be prohibitive; or in other words ; why milk four cows when three of another breed will return greater profit per acre ? "Pulse" also affirms that herd-testing shows Jerseys to be higher average producers. For three successive years the highest average butter-fat in the Waikato was produced by a herd of over 100 black and white cattle, and if "Pulse" will study the animals at the head 01® the respective testing groups he will find that they are nearly all grades, which, while carrying the Jersey colour (which is unusually prepotent)* are a distinct throwback in type to the heavy breeds, possessing sine, capacity, broad muzzles and general characteristics of the deep-milking breeds, on which they are founded. Coming to semi-official testing, we find that all the New Zealand butter-fat records for all ages from junior two-year-olds to mature cows were made by one bleed of catilo of the heavy, deep-milking typu, Pio&eroa,