FARM AND STATION NEWS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21386, 14 July 1931, Page 3

FARM AND STATION NEWS.

By Rxtsttcus

The Cheese Market The cheese market has shown a remarkable propensity for see-sawing this season, and during the present week has shown a brighter strain than for some weeks. Offers for cheese, f.0.b., have been fairly free and it is reported that Brydone, Edendale, and Freshford factories have sold their output afloat and in store for sixpence per lb. Current market quotations are up to 62s per cwt, which is equal (including exchange) to G.OCd per lb, f.o.b. The market is stated to be firm and steady, and the healthy tone is considered to be encouraging. As quite a number of Southland factories have manufactured butter during the course of the season, it is of interest to note that‘this market is remaining firm with a rising tendency and is quoted at from Ills to 115 s.

Empire Marketing Board Whether intended or not, the remarks of Mr A. M. Samuel, M.P., addressed to the Farmers’ Union, seemed to imply a criticism of the Empire Marketing Board in its efforts to increase the sale in Great Britain of Home and Empire produce. Actually New Zealand should be most grateful that the board’s successful campaign is creating consnumers’ goodwill toward British products. It is for New Zealand to exploit that goodwill by seeking to concentrate the consumers’ preference on our butter, cheese, meat, fruit, or honey. According to Mr Samuel, that is what the Australian butter producers are succeeding in doing. It is not for the Empire Marketing Board to particularise; it attempts to inculcate a general preference and, if we fail to follow up the lead_ and direct attention to the excellence of our particular product, that is a fault of our organisation which should be corrected. • Wheat Duties It is not easy to believe that Mr W. W. Mulholland, who seconded the remit carried by the Farmers’ Union, “that this conference is opposed to duties or restrictions for protective purposes being placed upon the necessities of life and production,” is the same Mr W. W. Mulholland who is chairman of the New Zealand Wheatgrowers’ Co-operative Association (says the Dominion). Amazing as it may seem, it appears, however, that they are one and the same. Mr Mulholland and his association have been working through propaganda, and by bringing pressure to bear on the Government to maintain the prohibitive, not protective, duties upon such “ necessities of life and production ” as wheat and flour and their derivatives, the principal being our daily bread. To take current quotations, the result is that wheat is selling on trucks at Canterbury stations at 5s 5d to 5s 7d, the corresponding price in New South Wales being Is BJd, or less than a third the local price. If the views of a great organisation like the Farmers’ Union are to be treated with the respect which should be warranted by the union’s status and widely representative character, its members assembled in a Dominion conference should try to clarify thei r ideas to something approaching consistency. As it is, on this question of protective duties, they seem to be too busy with the mote in others’ eyes to remove the beam in their own. “ A Sensible Rule ” In carrying a motion that “we should refrain from asking for anything which would mean an increased expenditure of public money until the financial outlook improves,” the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union have framed a sensible working rule that could well be adopted by every individual and organisation in the country (says the Dominion). Housewives, particularly those of farmers, in these times, have daily to solve the problem of squaring spending with income. In this case, moreover, they seem to have realised, what is so hard for many to grasp, that the household is the State in miniature. Therefore it is easy for them to understand that it is unreasonable to ask for more, whether from the farm exchequer or the State Treasury, when less is coming in. It is a pity that some of these clear-sighted housekeepers could not have a homely chat with some of the Oliver Twists of the Labour Party, and convince them that New Zealand is really one large family, whose collective income has been drastically reduced.

Southdown Exports During the past two years an increasing export trade in Southdown sheep has been developing with Australia. Several shipments have been made as far away as Perth, in West Australia, 25 in lamb ewes having just been shipped there to the order of Mr Burges! These were selected from the well-known flock of Hugh Burrell and Son, Feilding. At the same time a stud Lincoln ram bred by Mr A. E. Anderson, of Carterton, was also shipped to West Australia. This was a one-shear ram of outstanding quality. The consignments were selected and shipped by Messrs Wright, Stephenson, and Co., Ltd. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, last week shipped 160 stud Southdown ewes by the Ulimaroa for Sydney. These ewes were selected frojp the notable Wairarapa flocks of Messrs A. and J. Gray, P. M’Lachlan, and D. J. Cooper, to the order of Mr E. M. Garsia. of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. The ewes are in lamb to first-class stud rams and are mostly young sheep. The selection was made by the Masterton office of the company, and the ewes are considered by experts who have seen them to be a particularly representative mob.

Jerseys for South Africa Six successive shipments of stud Jersey cattle have been made to South Africa from New Zealand, the most recent comprising five valuable animals. A rising two-year-old bull in Santa Rosa Masterman, bred by Mr J. A. Mitchell, of Longburn, was for Mr W. B. North, of Durban. This bull was sired by Oxford Beau’s Combination, who sold in Wellington for the record price of 2000 guineas, and his dam was the imported Masterman’e Golden Marie, purchased in the same sale. A bull and a heifer were selected for Mr 0. L. Wade, of Natal. The bull, Springlea Marshal, was bred by Mr W. H. Hall, of Carterton. The heifer was Oxford Lassie, an in-calf rising two-year-old bred by Mr E. G. Toose, of Feilding. The shipment also included two in-calf heifers for Mr Olorensbaw, of Port Elizabeth. Almadale Molly Bawn, bred by Mr W. H. Miers, of Rototuna. and Beochlands Fairy Necklet, bred by A. Moreland and Sons, Te Rapa. The shipment was made by Messrs Wright, Stephenson and Co., Ltd. REARING YOUNG STOCK PROBLEM IN DAIRY INDUSTRY FEEDING OF CALVES Cash sales have a great attraction in these days. This is one of the reasons why so many farmers have concentrated their attention on milk production. A regular cheque, fortnightly or monthly, for milk sold helps to keep the banking account together and provides the wages money without fail. Moreover, the development of farming on this line has been indicated by the growing pressure of oversea competition in markets which do not enjoy any natural protection. There are now, however, unmistakeable signs that such rapid extension of milk production for liquid sale is liable to lead to serious embarrassment. The established dairying districts have increased their reliance on milk gales, while others in the former arable and grazing counties have come in to compete in the liquid milk market. So long as farmers can cash their milk there is little incentive to make cheese or butter to compete with the overwhelming output of the dominions and foreign countries. It is true that the total number of cows in milk showed a slight decline last year, taking the country as a whole, but this is probably accounted for by the changeover from cattle raising to sheep breeding in the non-dairying districts. Cer-

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tainly it does not reflect any decline in production for the liquid milk market, as may be judged from the fact that this month’s price for milk surplus to contract quantities is only 4Jd a gallon. The effects of this increasing reliance on milk sales and the practice of making contracts to cover the whole output of milk throughout the year are evident in the decline in calf rearing. The sole concern of many dairy farmers nowadays is to send away the maximum quantity of milk each clay. The calves born are sold in the local market when only a few days old. Some of the heifer calves are bought by others for rearing, but the net result of the changed economic circumstances is that the dairy industry does not now maintain a sufficient reserve of young stock which can be drawn upon to replenish the milking herds. Although there have been heavy importations from Ireland in the past six weeks, the coming of the grass has found the supply of dairy heifers short of the demand. Milk producers are now paying the price of their neglect of calf rearing. EXPERIMENTS AT READING. These circumstances make particularly opportune the paper on “ Calf Rearing on Milk-selling Farms” which Mr James Mackintosh has contributed to the Journal of the British Dairy Farmers’ Association. He writes from his experience on the farm of the National Institute for Research in Dairying at Reading, where since 1920 much attention has been given to the rearing of a home-bred dairy herd free from disease and gradually improving in type and milk yield. This policy has involved the rearing of many heifer calves each year, and, as there is a keen demand for the milk produced, either for sale or for experimental purposes, Mr Mackintosh found himself faced with the problem of devising a simple and economical method of rearing calves on the minimum amount of whole milk. The initial problem was to find an efficient milk substitute. This was tackled in two ways. First, the composition of milk was studied, and mixtures of cake, meal, and grain were made up to approximate as nearly as porsible to whole milk. Secondly, the palatability of individual foods was studied by giving individual calves a free choice so that those foods might be selected for the ration _ which calves will eat readily at an early age. From these experiments it was evident that linseed cake mutt be one component of the ration and that the proportion of meals could be varied without affecting either feeding value or palatability. A typical ration is;—Linseed cake 30 per cent., crushed oats 40 per cent., maize meal 20 per cent., and fish meal 10 per cent. This at to-day’s prices would cost about 9s per cwt. Fish meal is the most expensive item, but some such supplement rich in protein and mineral salts is necessary to make a complete food for young, growing stock. At Reading the experiment was tried on a few calves of substituting a mixture of extracted soya bean meal and chalk, and the result was quite satisfactory, though there was no great saving in cost. MINIMUM ALLOWANCE OF MILK. The general practice adopted was to leave the calf with its dam for four days after birth; on the fourth day it was transferred to a pen* and for the next three to four weeks it received one gallon of whole milk daily—two quarts in the morning and two quarts in the afternoon —just after the milking of the cows, so that milk warm from the cow was available at each meal. During the third or fourth week' a little good hay was supplied and a handful or so of dried cake and meal mixture given either in the bottom of the milk pail just after each feed of milk, or in a separate trough fixed to the side of the pen. From the fourth or fifth week onwards the daily allowance of whole milk was reduced and the amount of dry mixture increased until by the seventh, eighth, or ninth week, the whole milk was stopped entirely and the feeding thereafter consisted of dry cake and meal mixture, good hay, and water. Clean water, slightly heated during the winter, was given at the hours when milk had been given, ana about three quarts were given twice daily. No difficulty was experienced in getting the calves to eat the dry mixture offered them, and scouring or other digestive disturbances were practically unknown. The dry mixture allowance was increased .as quickly as the calf would eat it up to 31b to 41b a head daily. GROWTH RECORDS.

Some experienced calf-rearers may consider that Mr Mackintosh started these calves on dry meals too early, but it calves will eat, enjoy, and digest hay when about four weeks old it is a justifiable inference that they may at the same time be offered concentrates, which are, as a rule, more digestible than hay. To test the real worth of milk in calfrearing the quantities allowed to the calves were varied from 30 gallons in all to 60 gallons. From Mr Mackintosh s figures it appears that the subsequent growth records and general history of the calves which received less than 40 gallons of whole milk were perfectly satisfactory. Those which were given more milk showed no corresponding advantage after the age of five or six mouths. These experiments at the National Institute for Research in Dairying point the way to greater economy in the use of whole milk in calf-rearing, but bucketfeeding is a laborious and expensive business. It is the firm belief of many men of long experience that young calves do best mien suckling a cow in the natural fashion, even if one foster-mother feeds four of them. After a fortnight or three weeks they can be weaned on to dry food if they are strong calves, and they will do credit to the owner. In every dairy herd there are one or two cows which would pay their way well as nurses. Where this practice is adopted the heifer calves from good cows can always be kept at little expense to take their place eventually in the milking herd. RIVERDALE SHORTHORN SALE BEST DISPERSAL OF SEASON At the dispersal sale of Mr T. W. Wardlaw’s Riverdale milking Shorthorn herd, conducted on the property, Waimana. Bay of Plenty, by Messrs Wright, Stephenson, and Co., Ltd., in conjunction with Messrs Dalgety and Co., Ltd., there was a large attendance of visiting buyers, particularly from North Auckland and from such distant parts as Taranaki, Canterbury, and Gisborne. The sale was held on Wednesday last. Unfortunately for the vendor, heavy and persistent rain fell throughout the day. The sale was held' in the open and, under prevailing conditions, the cattle were shown at a considerable disadvantage. Nevertheless, it was a most successful dispersal sale of dairy cattle held this winter. Twenty lots averaged 44 guineas, and the whole heard, including bulls of all ages, but leaving out empty cows, showed an average of 20J guineas for 71 head. This average incuded the appendix cows. The herd has a fine record for production, and again headed its herd testing group with an average of 3711 b butter-fat. The top cow also lead the

whole of the Bay of Plenty in which last season over 17,000 cows were tested. Competition was very keen for a good proportion of the leading animals, which i showed splendid dairy quality and constitution, and outstanding breed character. The top price of the day was 84 guineas, paid for the eleven-year-old cow, Riverdale Peach 4th, with a record of 752.321 b fat. A great type, she was purchased by Mr B. Hawkin, Whangarei. Her ten months’ old son, Riverdale Gold Dust, by Dominion Campstar of Ruakura (dam's record 727.551 b fat), made the second highest price, 67 guineas, being _ purchased by Mr D. Hardie, Whangarei. The second highest priced cow, Riverdale Florrie 2nd, born in 1917, with a record of 761.171 b fat, was secured by Mr J. M'Gowan, of Waiuku, at 62 guineas. This cow won the £2O prize awarded by the Milking Shorthorn Association for the highest ’producing cow of the breed in season 1928-29. Her yearling son, Riverdale Supremacy, by Pinedale Supremacy, was purchased by Mr R. J. Williamson, Awanui North, at 50 guineas.