DAIRY INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26980, 15 January 1949, Page 4

DAIRY INDUSTRY

IMPROVEMENT OF HERDS ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION Artificial insemination of cows, principally in dairying herds, has been practised in the United States, Great Britan, and Russia for some time. Where centres have been developed in the middle of dairying districts it has proved very successful, and greatly increases the speed with which dairy herds can be improved. According to a Reuter correspondent from London, the British Government is to subsidise artificial insemination of cattle under the provisions of a Bill recently published. It empowers the granting of total subsidies of £30,000.000 for calf rearing as part of the agricultural programme, which aims at a 50 per cent, increase in Britain’s food output. Free, or cheap service, from certain breeds of beef bulls will be subsidised to the extent of £250,000. Milk marketing boards will set up artificial insemination centres, and artificial grass and forage drying centres. The Bill provides for the repayment to local authorities of money lost through the stoppage of sale of infected or suspected milk. A total of £1,600,000 in subsidies, may be repaid for grass and forage crop conservation schemes and £300,000 yearly for adult agricultural training. The calf-rearing subsidies are £4 for a steer and £3 for a heifer born between August, 1948, and October, 1949. With Parliament’s authority the period may be extended to September, 1951. Artificial insemination has been carried out in the Dominion at the Animal Research Station, Ruakura, for the past five years. Here a centre has been developed, and inseminations have been very successful among the herds within a radius of 30 or 40 miles. As a definite project, artificial insemination cannot be conducted without the establishment of a centre, and although distance is not a bar to its successful adoption, certain technical difficulties have to be overcome. The work at Ruakura is being carried out among ordinary grade as well as pedigree herds. As an indication of the rapidity with which dairy herds can be improved by this method, the latest report of the Department of Agriculture records that 623 cows, including 129 pedigree ones, were in calf to one top-ranking milk-production sire. With better stock as the basis of the project, it appears inevitable that within a few short years a very definite improvement in milking herds will be noticeable.