THE RURAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20190, 30 August 1927, Page 4

THE RURAL WORLD.

FARM AND STATION NEWS.

By Eusticus

Early Maturity Beef. Mr W. G. C. Britten, secretary of the English Herd Book Society, speaking recently. on beef-raising, made some illuminating observations on English beef. Complaint was often made, he said, of the purchase of foreign meat for the army and navy, but although, perhaps, the English breeders did not realise it the trouble was largely that English meat was not properly graded and marketed. Buyers could, without any difficulty, obtain 10,000 carcases of foreign meat, all under two years old, of perfect type as regards meat. The English breeders would have no need for protective legislation if they formed some effective organisation for grading and marketing their meat, and produced the bsot stock. These remarks, emanating from an authority such as Mr Britten, will no doubt carry , due weight, and they should •“ point a moral” so far as New Zealand meat producers are concerned- New Zealand meat is competing with foreign meat on the English markets, and unless it is of equal quality it will have ’to tuke second place. It therefore behoves breeders in "the Dominion to set about improving their stock, and also, their methods of marketing, so that they will not be behind their competitors when our meat is sent overseas. It appears that the remedy lies to a great extent in developing earlier maturing strains of cattle and feeding them in such a manner that they will be fit for slaughter at earlier age. If the consumers demand small, juicy joints, the only thing to do is to give them what they want. It is bad business to continue to foist an unacceptable article on the public. England’s Beef, Cattle. While , giving, predit to the herd societies, Mr Britten said that even to-day the perfect beef animal has not been evolved. The demand was for a small joint, quickly matured, and at the cheapest possible expense. Breeders in Great Britain were endeavouring to be up to date, but they'had to'meet foreign competition. The only way to do this was to breed and produce meat of superior quality to that imported. It was part of the great work of herd societies to find but how things were going abroad, aikl they deserved credit for having provided animals that had produced the great herds of the world and fed the great populations. One way in which herd societies had, benefited mankind was in producing animals that would transmit unerringly their own good qualities. He hoped that chambers of agriculture would support some sort of control in Great Britain for the elimination of what he might call the “scrub” sire. He had never seen wqrse cattle in any country than he had seen in the markets of England. It was an undoubted fact that they had in England the best cattle in the world and the worst cattle. There were in the country bulla, rams, and boars that ought never to be allowed to be kept as sires, and until some, control was placed upon such animals the breeding of a very bad type of stock would continue. Inbreeding—Wise or Foolish? , There are still a great many accredited breeders in New Zealand, and coming nearer home, in Otago, who ..eye askance and with fear any suggestion of concentrated inbreeding to maintain type. Miscellaneous breeding suits too -many. Now blood, even the very best, must be introduced carefully and only under stress of necessity. Amos Cruickshank achieved no great measure of fame until by chance he bred Champion of England, whereon having . succeeded in securing a bull for which ho had searched every herd ho knew, he proceeded to double and twist, the blood of that sire back upon itself until he had established the Cruickshank type, which is the world’s favourite to-day. Just so long as the Sittyton cattle were bred miscellaneously, a bull , being taken here and another there, a cow from this herd and the next from that, success was not gained. Loose -methods of mating would not bring’ success on that Weak Aberdeenshire farm any more than they would on the richest blood of English soils. Blit the moment concentration of the blood of Champion of England had reached a sufficient degree the Sittyton bulls became the most impressive sires in the whole breed. Just how Cruickshank would nave proceeded had he been spared to carry on his work no one knows. He surely had a knotty problem on his hands, because everyone knows that the injection of an at all violent outcross into so closely bred a herd means little short of ruin. _lt should bo remembered that inbreeding is a two-edged sword. It may be called line-breeding, for a rather more euphonious title, though , the two are- the same, but whatever it is termed it is the only method by which uniformly high class can be fixed in any collection of cattle. Heredity is a peculiar force. It can bo harnessed only when the blood relationship of the parents is very close. Consequently when a breeder gathers together a lot of cows 0 f different strains of blood and uses on them first a Victoria bull, then one of the Grange Blossom strain, and finally a Duchess of Gloucester, the only possible result is a very mixed individuality of the offspring. Selecting the Sire. Among too many breeders far too little attention is paid to the selection of the sire. Moreover, few breeders ever give their working bulls a chance to show their real merits. Any bull that is worth trying in the herd is worth giving the right sort of chance. If he succeeds then his blood should be concentrated in the herd. Many a breeder does not use a bull he bred nimself. Instead of picking out the best of his calves and using them he will attend a sale from some fashionable, famous establishment, and pay a long price for a calf whose relationship to his cows may bo the worst that could be selected in the j herd books. Nothing daunted, the purchaser mates this youngster with all his females, and then for- fear he should lose a few pounds, lets him go to the first buyer who comes along and wants him at a fair price. Too few breeders are game to try and build up their herds from within They all seem to think that they must be eternally going outside for their bulls. That would be rulable enough if there existed herds from which, bulls of the same blood ana class could; always bo obtained, .but these herds have gone. They never appear to think that every breeder who has mado a name for himself as a creative genius has scored his successes within his own herd by using the material • thci'cin contained, not by picking and choosing from this and the next whenever occasion seemed to demand the services of a new sire. Success never can be attained in that way, but it is within the reach of every' man who has, a few cows closely related, picks a bull of suitable individuabty bred to nick with them, and then relies On his own resources for several generations going outside only in case he finds in someone elsc’s hands q, hull that is bred and formed just right.

. BEEF PRODUCTION. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMY. IMPROVING THE INDUSTRY. YOUNGER. BETTER BRED STOCK. It is rather remarkable that, despite the comparatively long period that has now eldpsed since the starting of our various herd books and breed societies, so very little real progress should as yet have been made in netting pedigree stock adopted amongst the general run of farmers throughout the country. Only slowly does there die out—or, rather, is there killed out by means of practical demonstration and show and sale achievement—the idea begot of prejudice and want of knowledge, that the of pedigree cattle is a rich man’s game And this despite the clear and unmistakable teaching of the history of cattle breeding, that a great many of its most successful

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figures were farmers, tilling in not a few cases only comparatively limited areas, and possessed, as things of this world go, of but very limited means, till the success of their efforts brought the due reward. , In contemplating the agencies that have been at work in trying to forward the cause of improvement, show organisations must be awarded the first place. Because a great deal of ignorance still prevails m regard to pedigree cattle, and because a great deal of prejudice exists against their use is not to be attributed to any shortcomings or failure, of .the primary object of all live stock shows. Our agricultural shows have played a very important and a very successful part in providing stepping stones for breed improvement, and for drawing attention to our great wealth in this respect. But it would appear that something yet requires to be done before the rank ahd file of farmers can be made to recognise, to its due and proper extent, the value of using pedigree, even where the object in view is only the production of commercial cattle for the ordinary fat market. It has to be recognised that the number of pedigree .cattle in this country is but a very small percentage of the total cattle production of the country, and figures which were recently published showing the insignificant number of pedigree bulls that are being used throughout the country as compared with unpedigree, would scarcely have been believable, but being taken from the only official source available they have to be taken as being as near the exact figures as it is possible to arrive, xt is generally recognised that the worst offenders in this respect are to be found amongst the small dairy men, who attach value to the importance of the continuance of milk alone, and to whom the calf is of little or no account. Herein, 1 think, there is lost to this country a valuable source of supply of store cattle. Were a little care taken by way of selecting the stock to be used, and especially the sire there might be produced calves highly suitable tor sale as stores for feeding purposes, and at the same time the milking properties of the female offspring need not be impaired. Or it may be done in another way. ... A very larg'd owner of dairy Shorthorns in the Midlands of England, finding that he can purchase sufficient heifers to replace what he may cull from Ins herd each year at prices which he finds to work out sufficiently low to make a success of Jus arrangement, has for some time been using a good-class Aberdeen-Angus bull on l Ins dairy Shorthorn cows. As produce he is getting thick, blocky, black-polled calves of a superior beef type, with all the properties of early hiatunty, thickness of flesh and constitutions to stand and to respond to the demands that have to be met in placing baby beef on the market. There is room for such a combination or interests, and the advantages of such a system are obvious, both from a financial and an economic point of view, buck a system might go a good way towards increasing the available supplies of store cattle for feeding purposes, and at the same time creating a better market tor dairy heifers bred by smaller owners. In the case in point the crossbred calves are finished off ready for the market directly off the grass, and that, too, at a very early age, just as they reach the weight most' in demand for fat cattle in these days, so that the system, from an economic point of view", is both practical and financially sound. , , j Pedigree is only breeding reduced—or rather elevated —to a system, and i make bold to say that whatever excellence we have attained to as a cattleraising country, it has been by making use of pedigree, just as, on the other hand, the existing inferiority in so much of our commercial stocks is to be traced to the neglect of the use of pedigree and a want of appreciation of the value it represents in cattle-breeding matters. In days gone by breeds of cattle were built up through the exercise of the power of men of outstanding ability to seize upon and to perpetuate desirable properties in the cattle of their different localities. Distinct breeds were thus formed with certain inherent characteristics. Some of these breeds >ave disappeared as a consequence of changing conditions in rural economies, but we still have breeds combining properties to suit all requirements. It is a distinct reflection on New Zealand commercial farmers that these are not more fully taken advantage of, just as it is to the credit of our breeders of pedigree cattle that they continue operations very often when market conditions are the reverse of favourable, and in spite of the great amount of indifference that exists in many quarters to the results of their labours, and in spite, too, of a want of appreciation of these labours. Breeders of pedigree cattle deserve well of the farming community generally, and it would not be against the best interests of this country if some more official encouragement were given to the ordinary farmers to prove for themselves the benefits that would accrue from the more generous use of pedi : gree in, for instance, the production of cattle that will best suit the requirements of the meat trade. Members of the meat trade have stated in terms that cannot be mistaken the kind of cattle which they would like for their business. They are seeking to educate the farm ,r to the fact that the day of the big old cattle has gone. And it may bo taken that it has gone for ever, never to return, giving place to the demand for that type of cattle which yields the small, juicy joint, and which fulfils the requirements of early maturity. And here it may be noted that early maturity is of the utmost importance from the point of view of the commercial cattle breeder, meaning not only quicker returns, but also bigger returns, since he is producing the kind of cattle that makes a premium on all our meat markets. Last autumn, according to an English paper, a South of England breeder got down a trial lot of black and blue-grey weaned calves from the North of Scotland. There were many “Doubting Thomases’’ ns to the wisdom of this step, but its economic soundness was proved when these cattle were marketed. They were finished right off the grass at around 15 months old, weighed around Bcwt, and sold at prices up to 80s per live cwt, which was almost 20s per cwt more than was being made on the same market by the best- of the other cattle. Xo doubt something of the same experii ence could be related of other breeds 1 and in other cases, but the point is that ' where the proper class of animal is produced and fed, butchers and dealers in fat cattle are not slow to show their apj prcciation in a monetary sense.

“WAYS THAT ARE DARK.” LIVESTOCK DECEPTIONS. SOME UNDESIRABLE PRACTICES. THE FAKING OF EXHIBITS. “Ways that arc dark and tricks that are vain” arc suggested, and condemned in a tone of gentle raillery rather than righteous indignation in an article from a Melbourne paper given below. The writer has remarked the manifold artifices and puerile deceptions attempted or adopted by breeders in the show ring and sale yard, and writes against such undesirable tactics as follows: No one can find fault with stud stock breeders for advertising their sale animals ns much as they can, or for making the advertisement look as attractive as possible. They arc short-sighted if they fail to do so. At the same time, there arc certain practices, both in connection with showing and advertising by means of photographs mat are unnecessary and undesirable. They may not do a great deal of barm, as most of them arc so obvious as to at onco catch the cyo. But whde they may be very largely innocuous, they appear to be of such a clia racier as to call for condemnation. Of what use is it to oil the fleeces of Lincolns, and to spend hours of work in parting the wool in precisely the right place ? The showing of longwool sheep is rapidly

becoming sucli a work of art that few can boast proficiency, and every year fresh ideas are put into practice to add to tho appearance of the exhibits. Faces of English Leicesters and Border Loicesters have to bo washed, stray ends are clipped from the fleeces, and even tho feet come in for attention in isolated cases. Southdowns are wigged and trimmed until they have the appearance of just having visited a barber, and Shropshires and pthor black-faoe breeds come in for plenty of artificial adornment. Even merino owners are not all exempt from the charge of committing acts contrary to the .spirit of the show reguations, which are intended to prevent any tampering with the fleece. A clause to prevent taking wool off the faces except in cases where the operation is necessary to prevent blindness, was certainly not given effect to at the recent sheep breeders’ show. Tlie English custom of raddling tho tip of the wool has not yet reached Australia, and it is hoped that it never will. Every additional show fad that is put into practice tends to discourage new breeders from exhibiting, and it is felt that the time is due in which to put in a plea for more natural conditions. This does not apply only to sheep, but to all classes of animals. Why should dairy cattle need to have their coats clipped and their horns polished ? Pigs need not bo oiled to the extent that they sometimes are, although oil may bo perhaps necessary for their welfare. Feeding with substances to give lustre to the coats of beef cattle and horses, and polishing their hides with chemicals is also undesirable, but is a difficulty that will bo hard to guard against. It is said that the camera cannot he, but nowadays the tendency of photographers —with tho full support of stock-owners it must be admitted—are to so alter the outline of a sheep or beast as to take _it practically unrecognisable. Hollow backs are straightened out, thighs are filled in to such an extent that there is almost- a straight line from . the setting of tho tail to the toes, anything up to one-eighth of the' proper depth is added to the underline, and neck deficiencies are filled in with much artistic skill. Tho sheep and cattle are made to stand in straw so that any legginess or deficiencies on the points is not disclosed. It is quite safe to say that many of tho sheep photographed would be hopelessly unfit for our pastoral conditions if they were actually as they appear to be. Their bellies would be so close to the ground that it would be useless to try and grow wool on them, and their ridiculously short legs would be so detrimental that they would not be of any practical use. Very much the same may be said of beef cattle. The horse breeder of the present day has a fad of training his equines to stand in a most unnatural posture when in the show ring or when posing for a photograph. , Why it should bo thought that a Clydesdale looks more attractive with his legs spread to the angle at which a n American critic aptly describes as the nearest possible approach to the correct set of tho portals of a Howe-truss bridge, it is hard to understand. Tho same critic points out that attempts to double the wheel base of poses are not made in tho case of group photographs, with tho result that the pictures are far more graceful and satisfactory to the eye. ‘ , iv ■ It is felt that in the matter of photography of live stock a plea may also bo made for more natural pictures. The fact that an accomplished operator is necessary to get satisfactory results is not disputed, and an owner is foolish to allow any kind of picture to be printed for advertising purposes. But skill is. desired in the actual taking of the photograph rather than in tho touching up of tho plate or print in the studio. The practice has been so overdone that animals illustrated lose most of their individuality, and appear like so many statuesque figures.