AYRESHIRES IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3430, 9 December 1919, Page 13

AYRESHIRES IN NEW ZEALAND.

The Scottish Farmer September issue has just arrived from Glasgow, and in the number is published a photo and complimentary reference to Mr F. Mills's (South Taranaki) old champion butter-fat cow, Alexandra of Waipapa. In remarking on the fact that Ayrshires are not making the headway in New Zealand that they should, the writer of the article in question mentions that one of the; causes is the want of some official testing among the breeders, which is taken up very strongly by other breed societies. A South Taranaki writer, referring to this very matter, admits that it is a fact that the Ayrshires are not occupying the prominent position in New Zealand that they do in Canada or Australia, for example, and this he attributes is largely due to the apathy of the breeders in the Dominion. It has often been remarked, points out the' writer, and rightly so, that the Ayrshire breed provides the most perfect type of. a dairy cow that can be produced, and anyone who saw the beautiful cow that won at Stratford Show last week, bred bv Mr Colpman, of Waikanate, or Mr Mills's well-known cow, Lottie of Waipapa, will agree that this is so. Or take them in a really good herd, such as Mr Mills.has, walk through them whilst grazing, 'and notice the predominating even and typical dairy build, their alert and aristocratic bearing, and one can understand a breeder's pride in them. But they are not yet popular in New Zealand, and will not .be until breeders generally wake up and themselves demonstrate their worth.