DAIRYING IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1665, 27 January 1904, Page 66

DAIRYING IN ENGLAND.

The milking records of the Jersey, Red Polled and Shorthorn dairy herds, owned by Lord Rothschild, of rring Park (England), for the year ended] September 30th last, are published in the Fieild of November 28th, and afford an excellent example of careful and resourceful management.' Obviously the keeping of these records must involve a considerable amount of trouble, and unwearying exactitude but such trouble has its reward, always, in enabling die dairy farmer to weed out at once, the unprofitable members of his head. Taking the animals thalt were in the herd the whole year, the average yields per head work out as follows:—Twentysix Jerseys, 6659.)1b of milk; 37 Red Polls, 7007^-lh; and 26 Shorthorns, 7241 lb. The butter yielding records of Dr Watneys Jersey her,d at Buckbold (England) for last year are also given in the same issue of the “Field.” The 23 cows that were in 'the herd the whole year gave an average of 457.861 m, and the 26 that were only part of the year in the herd an average of 367.161 b. The Jersey is commonly regarded as a poor milker, and while it is admitted that her milk is rich, her value to the diary farmer is discounted owing to the paucity of the quantity. But what do we find in the Tring herd?—26 Jerseys averager! 660ga1, a figure which is higher than the great majority of averages of dairy farmers who keep Shorthorns and other large cattle of a deep milking type. Amongst the animals referred to was one who gave 1280 gal, and l two others which nearly reached lOOOgoI. each. A third cow which gave 850 gal. averaged 870 gal. per annum for five years, while the biggest milker of all averaged 950 gal yearly for tour years. Lord Rothschild’s Hed Poll cattle—of which he owns a numerous herdI—included 1 —included 37 cows which were in the herd for the entire year, an ( ! which averaged 700 gal per head-—one exceeding and three others approaching lOOOgal. One cow had averaged 950ga1. a year tor ten veara: four others had averaged}, ovef 800 gal per head for periods.of four, we and six years. Coming to Shorthorns, we find that 26 animals averaged 724ga1. : Four of the cows exceeded lOOOgal, while tw®

■5 others exceeded 900 gal. One cow averaged 1001 gal per jam nil m for three yeaa-s another 930 gal for five years, and still another 930*gal for six years. Selection, sound feeding, and gocdi management produced these surprising results. " The details regarding Dr Watney’s herd show equally wonderful results. In both-cases (the “Field”, states) the system of da'vy book-keeping is per fact, the mV.k produced, and the milk accounted for being almost balanced, m spte e* ds quantity. l)r Watneys herd is kept entirely for butter-making. Twenty-three Jersey cows averaged 457 Jib of butter fat per head, no jess than seven exceeded 5071 b, the best produced being a cow yielding 5551 b. With one exception every animal yielded moro than 3601 b butter. Apart from the 23 cows mentioned, there were 26 cows which were in the herds for parts cf the year. The average yield of these was placed at, 367’.b per head, so that taking the whole herd, the average yield was 4241 b of butter. At Is per* lb 4241 bof butter is equal to £2l 4s, but it is stated that all of Dr Watney’s butter is sold tor is Gd per lb—and the demand for it is greater than he supply. Even. at the comparatively modest price oi is 34 per lb, and 2d per gal for the slum milk, the return per cow from tins dairy would exceed £3O per annum.