THE SUPPLY OF STORE CATTLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3040, 19 June 1912, Page 14

THE SUPPLY OF STORE CATTLE.

Since so many of our social pests have been, wiped oui. stock and barrel, the number of beef and cattle -which are, bred have been brought within a verv email compaes. and drafts of 100 to 266 head of line-bred cattle are no longer obtainable. This is much to be regretted, and amounts to a national losa. The desire to subdivide property wherever there are a few acres of winter country which can be cut away from it has ruined the cattle-breeding grounds', andl set up a large number of small irmholdera, who,

■until the price of wool rose to a high level, were mortgaged up to their last fraction of value. One result of treating the cattle-breeding stations in this way is that passable store cattle are gelling at extreme rates, which leave no legitimate margin for the grazier who attempts to fatten them. The quality of the beef we live on has suffered depreciation, and the lines of 20 or 30 prime, well-bred cattle which at one time gave the market a • tone, are now lacking on almost any week one visits Burneide. And graziers have arrived at the position that they have either to breed cattle for themselves, or look to the mongrel-bred dairy steer to stock/ their pastures with. Such a s>rospeet' will reduce their profits to a very ow limit, and increase the discrimination nececsaa-y in buying stores. Another reason which has brought about such a wretched state of things from the graziers' point of view is the enormous increase in the dairy produce trade. Various Teasons have brought that about, such as the volume of imigration to Canada, drought in Europe, and the production in the Dominion of a product with which no fault can be found. From the byre most of the store cattle for the grazier are now obtained.' In the production of cattle suitable for fattening, there are several characteristics indispensable to successful grazing. The carcase must cut up without waste and the butcher's little handy weights. Size As desirable, land early maturity necessary, and whether heavy or light, the steer must have that all-em-bracing term, quality. In order to produce such characteristics, pure-bred cattle of beef type must be used as siree, and from the date of birth the calf should get no set-back. A healthy and vigorous growth is necessary throughout the animal's career, so as to provide the requisite constitution to lay on fat. There is not much wrong with the methods adopted in raising any run cattle that remain, for they always get abundance of fresh air and exercise, and if along with that they get plenty of food, they grow into excellent store stock, for, as a rule, they are well bred. But the same cannot be said of the dairy productions which constitute the bulk of the supply now available. In the first place, any kind of a bull is used, and the calves are I denied the five or six weeks' new milk necessary to give them a good send off, with the result that dairy calves have ac- ! quired a feeble constitution and a bad character. Jf once any young animal is allowed for want of adequate nourish- [ ment to have its development suspended | even for a time, no subesquent amount [ of pasture will bring it back to the same I thrifty state, and it will never come out so well as it might have doj». If dairy- ! men would only use pure-bred bulls, and : feed the calves decently, their cast-off I stock would be serviceable for beef, but I many of them cannot afford to buy pure- ■ bred animals, and those who can Breed I privately for milk,- and if they used purebred cattle for that purpose no one could j blame them. But anything which shows I by its colour that it has had some reJTfnote "ancestor of dairy type is used in i preference to a well set-up animal of j good constitution, and the progeny is ueej less to the grazier. The Dairy Commissioners are preaching that it is impossible to secure suitable bulls for a dairy herd j which would also beget calves suitable for j beef purposes, but that is all nonsense. • Those who remember the grade shorthorn herds common enough in Otago before such a demand arose that scrub bulls had to be used, and know also how they milked, cannot help recognising the fact particularly for our rigorous climate, that no better* dairy cattle can be cot. It ca<nr.ot be necessary to disregard in dairy bulls such points as £Ood conformation, wealth of flesh, constitution, and other desirable points which also contribute to produce good feeding cattle.