NEW ZEALAND DAIRY COWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3342, 3 April 1918, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND DAIRY COWS.

It is satisfactory to know on good authority that our New Zealand dairy cows are improving in their average production. Mr W. M. Singleton, Assistant Director of the Dairy Division, in an illuminating article in the Journal of Agriculture, makes some good points in general advocacy of the worth of herd-testing, etc. According to the 1916-17 enumeration per the Government Statistician, our dairy herds totalled 777,439 dairy cows, an increase of 143,706 in six years. On a conservative basis, it was estimated that during the 1916-17 season over 125,800,0001 b of butterfat was produced as against 90.000,0001 b of butter-fat in 1910-11, the increase of cows during the two periods being per cent., and the butter-fat increase over 39 per cent. Or in other terms, the average cow accounted for a production of 142.11 b butter-fat in the 1910-11 season, as against 161.81 b of butter-fat for the average cow in the 1916-17 season. As Mr Singleton says, inter alia, an increase in the Dominion's exports of food products, due to the keeping of an increased number of cows, is commendable enough, but even more praiseworthy is the increase of production due to the improvement of the average dairy cow. A further increase of production niay naturally be expected as

time goes on. The Dairy Division may rightly claim, as it does in the article before us, that the period during which this improvement in the production of the average iSew Zealand cows has been brought ; about synchronises with that during which the cow-testing movement has been developed. We can but regret that the movement has not grown in the South as in the North Island, and would welcome active propaganda and practical work in our midst. We are told that the dairy farmers are more circumspect in the purchase ' of' their bulls than formerly. The use of purebred bulls of dairy breeds has had a marked influence on the production of our dairy .herds. The certificate of record testing system, C.0.R., carried out by the breeders and the Dairy Division has been a most potent influence at work in increasing the demand for bulls which will assist in building up the quality of our dairy herds. It is an interesting movement, and soon, no doubt, it will be quite a common thing to demand the milk and butter-fat ancestry of dairy cattle offered for sale. We are glad to ' meet such an unequivocal statement as the following : — "in equal environment an increase in the productive capacities of daughters over their, dams can only be attained through having them sired by a bull "who carries transmissible hereditary factors which represent a dairy strain that is superior to that of the cows with which he is mated. Breeders have evidence of the keenness of dairymen to purchase bulls from C. 0.8. cows. Some breeders who have extensively patronised the C.0..R. testing have disposed of all their bull calves before the summer was over. Tms is quite a contrast to earlier conditions, when sales were frequently difficult to make. Such a healthy state of affairs is tangible proof that more dairymen are appreciating the importance of a good bull, and are recognising that his dam's record and the records of his sisters or daughters are the best indices to his ability to transmit the necessary factors of improved butter-fat production. Many herds in our dairying districts average more than 2001 b of butter-fat per cow, a lesser number average over 3001 b, and in a few cases the average cow of the herd produces 4001 b butter-fat or more. Those herds averaging 3001b' fat and more cannot be maintained on a constructive i basis unless by wise selection of sires. If sires of exceptional merit are necessary in these good herds the owner of a herd of average cows producing 1601 b butter-fat may expect to see a greater percentage of improvement by the use of such a sire, provided the daughters. have conditions which will permit of their doing themselves justice as producers. The work which the Dairy Division has i been doing along the line of assisting the owners of dairy herds through C.O.'R. testing and cow-testing association effort is surely more than justified by the betterment which is evidenced. The margin between the production of our average cow and that of the better herds is evidence of the great work yet to be accomplished. Economy in foodstuffs is general and neceesary. Since the beginning of the war the world's live stock statistics show a decrease of over 33,000,000 head in cattle, sheep, and pigs. This decrease has doubtless become greater, and indicates an increasing shortness of all food materials supplied by live stock. It would therefore be a patriotic as well as a profitable effort for our dairymen to do all that is possible in assisting to make'good the deficit." And we would add, there are no better means than on the lines suggested.