IMPROVING THE HERD

Otago Witness, Issue 3512, 5 July 1921, Page 8

IMPROVING THE HERD

If lower prices tend to stimulate economic production, and we" believe it does, then the sooner dairymen generally in Otago become dissatisfied with the comparatively small returns per cow and invest in a purebred bull the better tor themselves and the community. More than dissatisfaction is required, however. One requires to realise that the day is coming when the price of butter-fat, now falling, will ease still further; but the value of grazing acres is away up in the air. Times change. Farmers' are entitled to costs of production plus a reasonable profit, but they have surely not a distinctive right to it irrespective ol the kind of tools or the methods used in their profession. If dairymen are content to paddle along with cows giving, say, a couple of hundreds or so gallons of milk per year, we cannot expect the consuming public to tamely submit to payment of prices which will cover such costly methods. The public know well enough that even in Otago it would be possible to secure half a hundred cows giving over 1000 gallons of milk per annum. So long as a farmer is content to milk any old cow, fed in any old way, there will be no progress. It should be a rule oil the farm that the dairy herd must be made better as the years roll on. If they are not giving better returns per cow than, say, five years ago “there is something radically wrong with you, not with the cows. After all, it does not cost such a great deal to change. By the use of a purebred bull of one of the well-known dairy breeds the whole character of the herd can be changed in a few years. The greatest difficulty, it seems, is to realise that there is a “need of a change. Having decided, the next step is the se’ection of the breed and the purchase of a. sire from a high-producing dam. There is really no excuse m being content with what you have got. At the metropolitan shows dairymen have every opportunity of securing a, ‘head for the herd” worthy of the name. It is not enough to buy someone’s Friesian, Shorthorn, Ayrshire, or Alderney bull, as the case may be, but one must look’ up the animal’s record. If he can show that his dam gave, say, over 1000 gallons of milk and his grandfather’s mother was a 1000-gallon cow, then close with the owner. A few guineas more or less should not balk anyone out who means business. Get a move on. It is not much use talking or dreaming about improving the yearly production of the dairy herd at a lower cost ffin spite of increased labour charges), but dissatisfaction must be crystallised into action. Action alone counts. One might paraphrase by saying that in the spring the dairyman’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of pasture. What use is it. however, feeding pasture to cows* which possibly are not paying their way? The persistency of the milk flow of any particular cow is not easily determined unless the milk is weighed regularly and noted. In high-producing cows the highest milk yield comes as a rule between the tenth and the thirteenth day, more often about the end of the first‘month. The yield during the first month may be expressed by 100 per cent. The yield during the second month should he practically the same, declining from that point as follows:—Third month, 95 per cent.; fourth month, 90 per cent. : fifth month, 85 per cept. ; sixth month, 80 per cent. ; seventh month, 70 per cent. ; eighth nonth, 60 per cent. ; ninth month, 45 per cent. ; tenth month, 20 per cent. It will be noted that the decline is net regular, becoming mere rapid near the end of the lactation period. The important relation of the manner of feeding should be emphasised. The heavy-milking row only too often is underfed when fresh, because Nature, to make sure the calf will not suffer, has arranged so the fresh cow will continue to give milk freely for some time, even if there are deficiencies in the feed, making up the deficiency from her body. Whi’e on cow topics it is of interest to m » how “Milk Industry,” Loudon, places t; ; number of milch cows per 100 acres of crop and pasture lands m the chief dairying countries! In England and Wales, 7.8; Ireland, 10.2: Scotland, 8.2; Holland. 21.3: Belgium, 20.3: Denmark, 18.3: Switzerland. 15.4; Sweden. 14.9; Germany, 13.3; Austria. 11.1; France, 9.3: Italy, 7.1; Hungarv 4.8: U.S.A.. 4.8; Canada, 3.0; New Zealand, 1.9; Argentine, 0.5.