MERITS OF DAIRY BREEDS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1675, 6 April 1904, Page 66

MERITS OF DAIRY BREEDS

Ilaviiig had considerable experience with most of all. of our different breeds of cattle a few remarks as to the ro frults oif such experience may be useful to some new beginners, and I give them, says Mr T. H. Wenfman, of Atherstone, England, entirely in an unbiassed and purely conscientious manner. Though these remarks will probably be for publication in Australasia, they will be epual]y applicable to any diher country. Were I intending to form a herd of cattle for dairy purposes before making choice of one (assuming that, profitable dairying is the object in view), I should first of all consider the quality of the soil and climate obtaining generally in the district, together with some other minor matters such as shelter and the kind of produce likely to find the best market near. With soil of a light and thin character, wanting in substance and staple, and! tor butter making purposes, I should select tho Jersey first. With land of a good staple and depth of soil and in a district where 1 a rich and succulent bite of grass is obtainable, and not tod dry a climate, I should certainly give preference to the Shorthorn, whether for butter, cheese or milk, and more especially where steep, for fattening would be a consideration. In a very exposed situation, with average soil and climate, I should be much inclined to take tire Longhorn as_ being excessively liardy, a famous cheese and butter producer, .and either in ilts pure or cross-

bred state a very profitable beef producer. Crossbreds with the Shorthorn have frequently been kffowm to produce 171 b butter per week on ordinary feed, and are almost invariably good milkers. For these conditions also the black Welsh cattle are very similar in their capabilities to the Longhorn. With light to medium land of rather a dry character the Red Polled cattle are an extremely good kind, producing alike milk and beef on such a class of land and the absence of horns is a recommendation in winter. The Ayrshire' also' is an excellent beast for 1 dairying under fdmnlar conditions to the Red' Poll. The Guernsey I might add with the Jersey, but she requires rather better pasture, being a larger consumer. These are; the principal breeds for dairying. Now a; few words as to commencing a. herd, and these notes have especial reference to Jersey®. I believe I was one' of the hist, members of the English Jersey Cattle Society to advocate the butter test prizes, and for many years continued to believe in this system- of judging Jerseys. Latterly, however, (and more particularly during the past four or five years, I have become thoroughly convinced that this is the wrong course to pursue. If success is desired in breeding, I am perfectly certain, that the breeder’s endeavour must :be to develop the whole points and characteristics of the breed in unison. By breeding for butter only, the other most essential points in the Jersey arei entirely lost slight of, and gradually an animal is developed that is void of the great points of this beautiful breed, udders become unshapely, as do the animals themselves, and worst of all, we gelt a cow of this naturally small breed so much developed as to be quire as large a ’consumer as the Shorthorn, thus losing entirely one of the strongest points in favour of the Jersey for profit, viz., thie small consumption, of food 1 . I hare been compelled by results to come to the cbncluslion that the breeder who lays the foundation of his herd) by the purchase of prize winning animals by inspection from our leading shows, aind replenishes that herd from time to time by the iinfusioni of blood from prize winners' will in aj very short time have raised a for more valuable herd and better blitter producing herd than the breeder who relies upon and breeds for butter test winners. Where the judging by inspection is carefully carried out by competent and impartial judge®, it is very rare that the best animals fail to come to the top. In inspection .judging etfery characteristic of the breed ia comaidiered; by the butter tests, only oine. I know many may argue against this statement that the phiz© inspection seldom win when the totter test. In a very instinctive

article in the “Live Stock Journal Almanac'” for 1903, upon cattle for butter production, by Dr Wa-tney, this .is ably accounted for. The writer ‘there says:— “lt is not. sufficiently recognised that the cows which give the •best results in the butter tests at the. public shows are n°t necessarily those which take the highest place in the annual butter record.” The reason of which, my experience tells me, is that as a rule most of the butter test winners are excessive -feeders and make their phenomenal show yard butter production on this account., and that when fed upon ordinary rations give a much smaller return. The smaller and more typical Jersey, such as wins in the inspection classes, generally, on the contrary, is a much smaller consumer, and by her inability to assimilate an excess of butter producing food for the tests, fails to reach the weight of butter produced by her more voracious rival, whilst in ordinary feeding the smaller and what I Call the refined inspection winner, requiring less food, as enabled to do her best for a much longer time, and so in the long run a® the more profitable, being the Larger producer and the smaller consumer. In laying the foundation for a Shortborn herd, where dairying is the object, the dual purpose character of this world famed and magnificent breed of cattle must b'e borne well in mJind. It is the nature of this breed to combine beet and milk, and the stock of this breed may be best, selected at their own homes. The same remarks apply to the Red Poll and the Longhorn and Welsh in this respect.