STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2660, 8 March 1905, Page 8

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

BX DSOVBB. Weekly Stock Sales : Fortnightly : Burnside, "Wednesdays Invercargiil, Tuesdays A shburton, Tuesdays ir™n,7«. . Addington, Wednesdays ri . , X™** 1 ?'- „ , Clinton, Pahnerstnr, Forlntglithj : Wiaton, and "WaiBalclutba, Fridays kouaiti. Gore. Tuesdays Periodically Oamaru, Tuesdays - Heriot, Kelso, and Kye burn. About 270 head of cattle were yarded at Burnside last week, very few of which were prime, being Ifor the most part store cattle more or less in forward condition. A few good bullocks brought £9 to £9 15s : medium. £8 to £8 10, ; other cattle, £4 to £6.

Abort 3000 sheep were yarded, mostly stores. A few prime wethers brought 22s to 245 ; medium, 20s to 21s ; the balance. 17; to 19s; ewes brought equal prices. Some northern buyers took a laige portion of the yarding. About 1000 lambs were yarded, mostly a poor Jot ; Lut they brought from 13d 6d to 17s 6d. Canterbury buyers are very active in all part*, and buy stores at almost any price; also fats when they oan get them.

For those wliC want to g-et out of sheep for a time and go into something -else, this is what auctioneeis would call "an excellent

opportunity." As much as 25s is paid for six-tooth breeding ewes. If prices continue to advance, it looks as if we may be getting frozen meat from Avslralia and Argentine soon, and possibly later from Great Britain, for mutton here is rapidly approaching the price, of home fed.

At Addington last week butchers and exporters competed keenly for a moderate yarding, and kept prices at a high figure. Prim© wethers and ewes, 22s to nearly 26s ; medium, 20s to 21s 6d ; old ewes, 17s ; prime merino wethers. 19s to 21s; heavy lambs or tegs brought 18s 6d to 20s ; prime freezers, 16s to 18s ; lighter, about 15s. The competition for a moderate yarding of store sheep was very keen indeed. The following- are some of the prices : Six/footh crossbred ev.es, and' about a fourth of them older, brought 25s 9d ; good young ewes, 23s to 25s ; old ewes fit for breeding 1 , 21s to 22s ; aged ewes, 17s to 18s, and very ancient about lls ; backward wethers, 15s to 17s ; forward wethers, 18s to 20s ; shorn lambs from North Island, ewes and wethers, 13s 6d to 16s 6d.

The shortage of stock and plentifulness of feed is, I suppose, accountable for all this. There is some talk of bringing merino ewes horn. Australia. I fear prices there will shortly be high enough for breeding stock, and, further, a bad winter here would be disastrous to breeding -ewes brought from Atistralia.

Several firms in Liverpool and on the* West Coast of England and Scotland have written regarding our so-called "direct" service to the West of England to the effect that if it is to do any good it will have to be "direct"' in more than name, as at: present. The voyage via Australia is ridiculous, shipments landing about a month lat-er than shipments by our direct steamers to London. The trade with South Africa in dairy produce is much hampered by the subsidised 1 service going via Australian ports. Australia continues to hold nearly all the South African trade, simply on account of their belter shipping facilities, although New Zealand 1 best factories' is preferred in South Africa now. I have often said, and still say, that steam services to open and maintain trade in our products are of infinitely more value to New Zealand than mail services. Mail services in the pa?fc were valuable to merchants, but now with the cable service the telegraph does all the important work, and the mail brings mere detail or office work, and whether it comes at 17 knots an hour or 12 knots matters very little. Developing trade in our increasing produce exports is a matter of the first importance, and farmers should impress this on their members of Parliament, who badly need education on this point I am certain.

The following is from the Pastoralists* Review : —

— Co-operative Dairy Hei'd Testing Associations. —

The Canadian Department of Agriculture have issued a leaflet drawing attention to the success achieved in Denmark by co-operative testing associations, the first .of which was formed in 1895. Each y society is composed of a limited number of farmers — about 12 or 15 — who agree to

have careful tests elf their cows made at

frequent intervals during the whole milking period by a competent man hired for

the. purpose. Fairly accurate . records are thus obtained, not only of the yield of milk and' butter-fat, but of the amount, kind, and cost of the feed consumed.

Through the agency of these associations in weeding'"out the poor cows, it is generally agreed that not only was the average

production of the milking cows largely increased, but so much additional skill in feeding, vras acnuircd that the cost of feed necessary tp^produoe lib of butter is now estimated to be less than two-thirds of what it was when the first eo-opsrative association started operations in 1895. The reports of the testing societies showed that the cc?t of keeping these yearly records was from 40c to 60c per cow, while the increased returns per cow, as a result of fh-e years' te&ting, were 'from 6dol to 15dol per annum.

Farmers in New"l Zealand might, I think, with —advantage imitate these Danes. True, the testing of milk can be, and is, done at factories ; but a -Babooek tester is inexpensive and easily worked, and the tests ffould be valuable and instructive. Various lines of feeding might be tried, but the. main thing would be the weeding out of unprofitable cows, thousands of which are to-day being fed and milked in New Zealand. Our Acting Dairy Commissioner, in a paper read at Palmerston North last June, showed what a wretched average the New Zenland cow had- as a milk-producer, and said then that a ver* large percentage of the cows should be killed as unprofitable. That matters hare not impi - oved since then T am certain . Both in the North and South Island more cows are being milked than ever before, and yet the ajnount of production is far short of what it should be in proportion to the extra number of cows milked, and this after making a very liberal allowance for late spring-, dry weather, and all the otiher excuses. ~sTes, on© of the- main things New Zealand 1 dairy farmers must now do is to use only profitable cows, and weed out all unprofitable ones at once. I/abour will be lessened largely, and the resvlts be as good or better.

Mr Kinsel^a. our Dairy Commissioner, says clearly thafc the main lines now on which improvement in the dairy industry is tO/be made arc from the milk-producing end of the business. He tells us thafc he has seen little or nothing- in other countries he visited that would help us muoh in the manufacturing of butter, although he considers that a few of our cheese -makers at some factories want waking up a bit. Our sv.-tem of manufacture is on right lim=«. and our produce is well liked in the British market. Our biitter boxes and cheese cases land looVinec nice and clean, and in every way creditable to New Zealand. He says that our milking and th* ca..c of the milk veed imnrovino- and Mr BarneH. of the Central Dahv Factovv. al?o said befoie Mr Tvitisella spoke at I/v<t.flton that this was the_ main and srreat line of improvement which we must follow up. At Carterfcon A',- pfin,co!'si was entTmsir-sfic about llie Da.ni*b rnilkincr methods, and tiion* eire nricf cleanliness. He did not expect New Zeatandes milkmsr Tarjrp to do oxa-otly the same, liowpvor. Ho that in Xew Zealind ti-pv had the dirtiest evitom ho had seen in any part of the world but it vsas, li-e adm'Hcd. haul in so.no nlaoo-^_ to act over. When the Danes went milking

they put on white suits — cheap, but easily kept clean by washing. In New Zealand, on the other band, people generally put on the. worst clothes they had as overalls fo. milking, and he had seen pants used that nyould stand alone. The vital points he advocated were cleanliness, more care of the milk, and adequate dairy inspection. Yes. and this same matter of adequate dairy inspection has been again anc 1 again brought to the notice of Government by the National Dairy Association and others. They have appointed absolutely useless inspectors and men they know are useless. This branch of the Department of Agriculture should be controlled by Mr Gilruth and Mr Kinsella in their respective departments. At present there is no such thing as proper inspection among- milk suppliers to dairy factories. Competent men sire needed both to instruct and to inspect, especially the former. Th lonic sailed on March 2 with a total shipment of dairy produce as follows : — 6,743 cases cheese 44,064 boxes butter (561b) 455 kegs butter, lewt each. Towards this total Otago and Southland contributed :

2,524 crates cheese. 3.273 boxes butter.

The Rimutaka took direct from the Bluff on "Saturday .gome 2000 orates oh-eese, and sails from Wellington on 16th inst.