DAIRY PRODUCTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23488, 27 October 1939, Page 15

DAIRY PRODUCTION

SLOW PROGRESS MADE DECLINE IN HERD TESTING Various reasons have been advanced for the slow progress being made in improving the average output of the Dominion's dairy cows in comparison with those of our chief competitor, Denmark, whose average yield is 1001b. greater than ours. Mr. E. A. Candy, chairman of directors of the New Zealand Co-operative Herd Testing Association, attributes the slow progress made during the past seven years to: —(1) Disease reducing the percentage of cows possible to replace for low production. (2) Lack of ability on the part of the average sire in use to leave daughters as good as their dams. (3) Lack of any real measuring rod to gauge tho efficiency of sires so that the best may be retained for a maximum period of years and tho poor ones discarded at an early ago. (4) Incomplete utilisation by farmers of tho, knowledge made available to them through herd testing, calf marking,. genetics and hygienics. Mr. Candy pointed out that if disease was attacked vigorously and the working life of a cow could thereby be extended by even one year, tho farming community would be saved an annual replacement cost of half a million pounds. If, again, the average production were increased by 101b. per cow, the industry's return on to-day's prices would be lifted by £1,200,000. In spite of these striking and incontrovertible facts, testing, which is the only sure means by which a cow's worth can be measured, is constantly shrinking. The approximate number of cows tested last year, lie said, was 93.851, compared with 111,240 in tho previous season.