Live Stock and The Farm.

Southland Times, Issue 19294, 12 July 1924, Page 10

Live Stock and The Farm.

j THE SEASON IN SOUTHLAND. Treatment of Pastures.

FIVE RIVERS. Speaking in a general way, the tendency of recent years is to reduce the area under grain. This season, owing partly to its dryness, the quantity threshed is noticeably smaller than usual. On some farms just sufficient is sown to provide ch all for the teams This district is noted for the quality of its seeds. This year less fescue than usual was shiat off. Some, however, was threshed, and also a quantity of ryegrass and dogslail. Turnips felt the effects of the absence of ra.hi in the early part of its season and in most cases are below the average. Rape was Lujtter and probably a larger number than usual of fat iambs were trucked away. Some chou moellier was grown. It is likely that this will be tried another season, but, while it may be useful, there appears to be a difference of opinion if it will replace rape for topping off lambs. Dairying is not strong here, hand separating the cream from two tu half a dozen cows being about the limit on most farms. The comparatively mild whiter has been very favourable to stock. With the feed on hand now there is every prospect of maintaining them in fair condition till the spring grass comes away. The low price ruling for beef has led to less attention being given to fattening bullocks, where sheep can be grazed instead. Looking over the plain, evidence can be seen that the ploughman is busy. PUKEMAORL i. ne past season, although a little dry at times, has been the best from a sheep man’s point of view for several years. Stock have thrived well and lambs are healthier and in very good condition to face the winter. Grass is holding out well and the turnip crop, which is only medium, will be sufficient if the spring is not too late. The season has not been a good one for dairymen, the supply going off during the dry period, and not recovering later owing to lateness and partial failure of the supplementary crops. The sheepman is pleased with future prospects, but the dairyman is not very cheerful. OTAHUTL The area of crops was about the average, but owing to the very dry season the crops did not come to very much bulk. Many farmers have not sufficient chaff for their own requirements. Oats are practically nil, very few farmers having sufficient for their own use and nearly all will have to buy their seed for the coming season. The dairying also, owing to the dry season, has not been so good this year, .£l3 per cow being above the average for the season. Sheep are dear and scarce, and prices for these will probably be more acute owing to dairymen who are financially able luring their attention to the production of meat and wool. A few farmers will turn a complete somersault in this direction, with many others putting in the small end of the wedge. These tactics are inevitably when prices fall in one direction and rise in the other as is the case at present with dairy produce, and meat and wool. These are unwise tactics because prices are like the “Will o’ the Wisp” and one generally gets there in time to see them disappear round the next corner.

TARAMOA This is not a cropping district, principally' dairying, the farmers just growing enough crops for their own requirements. The yields, on the whole, are about the average for Southland. There was one crop of wheat in the district, the yield bringing in a return of £9 per acre. The dry season affected the dairying industry, the cows at the flush not coming up to their full capacity, but this, to a certain extent, was made up in the autumn as the cows have been yielding better than in average autumns. Tests, on the whole, have been slightly higher. Winter feed is lasting well and there is every prospect of it seeing us through till the spring. There were not many potatoes grown in the district this year, but what were marketed were in good condition. WAIKAKA. This district has had quite a change of weather during the last month or so. Right up to the middle of May the ground was so dry on the terraces that few farmers were able to get much ploughing done. Now, however, the land is quite wet enough. Ploughing has been general for some little time and quite a lot of land has been turned over for the frosts to break down. By the look of things there is going to be a large area under cultivation next spring. The turnips are said to be lasting and the stock are keeping up in condition fairly well. There has been no snow of any consequence as yet and this fact, no doubt, is largely responsible for the condition of the animals on most farms. I hear some of the farmers complaining of rot in their swede turnip paddocks this year. The rot seems to be getting worse, too, as the years go on. A few years ago it was a very uncommon thing to find rotting turnips on any farm, now it is the other way about. It seems that the fungus that causes the rot is rapidly spreading. It is a serious menace. ‘(Finger and toe,” too, is another pest that is making its appearanc here and there. This complaint seems to have originated in the cabbage gardens and is spreading out into the fields and is attacking the roots as well. Some advise a plentiful spread of lime, others a change of crop, but the spores remain in the ground and at the next sowing are at their old game again. Once land gets contaminated with certain disease-produc-ing spores it seems difficult to deal with them. FORTROSR The season here, as far as the weather is concerned, has been exceptionally good, and the feed for stock is holding out better than was expected, as there was a fair growth in the grass here well into the shortest day, with the result that the turnips have been saved, and it seems pretty certain now that there will be sufficient feed to carry stock in fair condition through the winter. It is very often when it is over, that the farmers are out in their estimates, as the spring very seldom comes up to their expectations. We often get a period of cold easterly winds which retard the growth, and the turnips finished, and all ‘stock put on pastures. It is then only under the best weather conditions that the grass has a chance of getting away. There is very little ploughing being done in this district yet, and it does not appear, at present, as if there is any quantity going to be turned over. No doubt, the reason of that is that cultivation and regrassing has become very costly, and where there is a fair sole of grass, it does not pay to tear it up. Certainly it would not do if all the farmers adopted that policy, but there is a lot of the lighter agricultural country all over the Province that wants renewing badly, and it is there where the cultivation should be done, for it does not pay to have land without it is producing, and it is to be hoped that in the near future that the cost of getting our land into the best of grasses will be considerably reduced, especially in seed lime and manure.

MAKAREWA. Although the past summer has been very dry the crops have been good and those areas threshed have turned out above expectations. The dairy-farmers’ cheques were good considering the dryness of the season, and the parched feed. The long summer enabled the farmers to carry on without encroaching heavily on winter feed, thus leaving them well provided for during the winter months. Generally speaking all stock looks well and the sound prices of fering betoken another prosperous season. THE POLLED HEREFORDS ORIGIN OF THE BREED. Early in the present century Warren Gammon, an lowa farmer, being greatly impressed with the almost ideal beef type of certain cattle produced by crossing Hereford cows with Aberdeen Angus and Polled Durham (now called Polled Shorthorn) bulls, conceived the idea of a naturally hornless strain of purebred Hereford. He thought that if the horns could be removed from the white faces, without impairing the purity of their breeding and without sacrificing any of their many superior beef qualities, such an accomplishment would be a most desirable improvement. In reading Darwin’s “Plants and Animals under Domestication,” he noted that there are always occurring so-called “freaks of Nature,” “variations” or “mutations,” wherein an animal or plant greatly differs from its ancestors. These may take almost any conceivable form, and, if the individual plants or animals which “vary” so greatly are mated with normal specimens of the breed, or variety, many of the resulting progeny will carry the new characteristic. Thus a web-toe, or webfinger, or a peculiar lock of white hair or other “variation” frequently is handed down for generations in the human family. Gammon, therefore, says a writer in the Chicago Breeders’ Gazette, began a search for one or more purebred, registered Herefords that by such “freak” or “variation” had failed to develop horns. He sent a circular inquiry to every member of the American Hereford Cattle Breeders' Association, then numbering about 2500 members, asking if such a naturally hornless purebred Hereford had ever been dropped in any herd to their knowledge. From among the nearly 1500 replies he located 14 hornless “freaks,” ten females and four bulls. The bulls and seven females were purchased as an experimental breeding herd. When the polled bulls were mated with horned cows, about half the resulting calves were free from horns; when the polled bulls and polled females were mated, nearly all the resulting calves were polled. By adding horned cows to the herd, and putting the polled bulls at the head of horned cows, it was thus a simple matter, rapidly to multiply the new hornless strain of purebred whitefaces, and at the same time to get cattle of practically any desired bloodlines.

This was the method used from that day until now in the production of Polled Herefords. Because there were originally located four unrelated polled bulls, and be-' cause in the intervening years other “freak” polled bulls to the number of 40 or 50 have shown up within the Hereford breed, it has never been necessary to practice close in-breeding in order to fix the polled character. t Descending direct from' the good “families” of the Hereford breed, and being nothing more nor less purebred Herefords, Polled Herefords possess all the qualities and characteristics which have made the Hereford popular; and, at the same time, the hornless head has been a feature which has appealed strongly to practical cattle men. Thus from the beginning there has been a demand for breeding stock which has outstripped the supply, and, as a result, prices have ruled strong. From the little experimental herd founded in 1902, the strain has expanded until now, more than 10,000 herds are headed by polled bulls, and more than 2000 men have joined the American Polled Hereford Breeders’ Association, which is the organisation promoting the interests of the breed and maintaining its Herd Book. To-day Polled Herefords are bred in every State in the Union, save Delaware and New Jersey, and have been exported to South America, Hawaii, the Philippines, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. TREATING GRASS LANDS INCREASE OF FERTILITY. Mr E. Bruce Levy, of the biological laboratory, Wellington, in the course of an address on the grass lands of New Zealand to the farmers at the farm school at Masterton, said that each grass had a definite station; some of them could not five on country which was becoming below their standard. There were some, however, which had a wide range of adaptability, though not usually suited to wide climatic conditions. The principal of these latter species were Yorkshire fog and paspalum. The farmer would obviously select the pasture of highest yield and palatability, and these were usually selected in the following order: —Meadow dogstail, ryegrass, cocksfoot, brown-top, danthonia pilosa and chewings fescue. If the standard of pasture was kept up to that of ryegrass there was little chance of the lower grasses ever getting a hold. If the fertility was allowed to dwindle, however, the next type down the scale would predominate. If the pastures were lowering in standard it was a sure sign of mismanagement. If the fertility were reduced the lower grades would invade the pastures and spread, whereas the opposite effect would be experienced should the fertility be increased. Second grade grasses were most necessary, however, to combat the lowest types of growth, such as bracken. He instanced at Te Kuiti a take of dauthonia eradicating biddybid. Even though the fertility was allowed to drop below the higher standard the better class would not die out, but would exist in a very stunted and dormant state, and there was still hope that the pasture could be revived. Increase of fertility was possible by artificial manures, by in-brought, stock foods, and by spelling the pasture. Every ounce of food grown on one paddock and fed to stock held in another paddock, transferred fertility from one to the other. An instance of this had occurred at the Weraroa experimental farm, where a herd of pigs had raised the standard of a cocksfoot paddock to ryegrass in two years. The holding paddock principle was further evidence of this theory, and though it was impracticable on hill country it was possible to do it by slow stages. The spelling of pastures gave the better grasses a chance. Some grasses, principally danthonia, thrived by continual grazing, whereas this was detrimental to cocksfoot. On the other hand, by spelling cocksfoot, danthonia in the same patch slowly went back and decayed. Spelling could be overdone. One of the biggest problems of pasture land was the utilisation of the different species of grasses. The burning of grass areas was only justifiable when a weed such as manuka took control: otherwise it was al waste of valuable plant life.

SELECTING A DAIRY COW

USEFUL HINTS. POlN'ra TO REMEMBER. At the American Dairy Congress Mr G. C. Humphrey, head of the Animal Husbandry Department, University of Wisconsin, discussed the question of selecting cows for the dairy herd. The following excerpts from his address will prove of interest to dairymen. Profitable dairy cows are highly artificial in contrast with the natural and the average cow of the bovine race. Their production under present-day conditions, when milk must be produced in large and economical quantities, demands a rigorous selection at all times based on intelligent and painstaking methods. Conformation is only one of the indexes of merit on the part of the dairy cow. The peculiarity of the parte of the body of the dairy cow bear a close relationship to one_another and to her functional activities in a manner to correlate conformation with milk production capacity. Dairy conformation and the inherent milk production tendencies in improved dairy breeds of cattle have become pronounced and definite to the extent that they may be quite readily recognised. The high regard for beauty and the desirability of suitable size, age, health, vigour and disposition, as well as the undesirability of blemishes and abnormal characters in cattle, attach a high degree of importance to a careful study of conformation in choosing cows for dairy purposes. The value of the milk scale and butterfat tester cannot be overestimated as a means of- selection in building the most profitable herds. A milk record, even for only seven days, has been found to be two and a half times as good an indication of a cow’s ability to produce milk as any of the physical parts, or combination of parts, of her conformation. It is nevertheless, that there are a vast number of instances in which dairymen depend upon conformation in the selection of cows, and in no instance can one afford to select and build up a herd without regard for it. Keen powers of observation and judgment, combined with knowledge of the parts and characteristics of an ideal cow, render one proficient in the selection of cows by conformation. The contrast between well-developed and efficient types of beef and dairy cattle respectively forms a good basis for the study of selection of dairy cows by conformation. In the case of underfed, poorly developed cattle conformation is of comparatively little value in the determination of merit. Under such conditions chance judgment, pedigree, or record of production, will have to serve. Dairy cattle tend to be triangular or wedge-shape in outline, while beef cattle tend to be rectangular. The outline is significant in that the base end of the wedge-like body indicates roomy beef or body capacity, and large udder capacity, while the sharp end in the region of the withers and neck reveals an absence of flesh development indicative of dairy temperament or the disposition to convert feed into milk rather than beef. Feed capacity and temperament are two of the most im- ' portant characteristics of a dairy cow. Well-developed milk organs, including the udder and mammary glands, are a highly essential characteristic of good dairy cows. Good size and quality are most important considerations to judging the udded. Such udders with uniformly well-developed quarters and with teats of convenient size are most ideal. The mammary or “milkveins” should be prominent and tortuous, and carry well forward to wells or openings through the wall of the udder side of the body. The appearance of veins over the udder and on the face of the cow are further evidences of a strong circulatory system of blood, important to milk secretion. Evidence of impaired health and low vitality by a narrow condition of the head and body, small nostrils, contracted, listless eyes, a harsh, dry, stiff or papery hide, and a staring coat, detract materially from the milk productive capacity of a cow. There should be evidences of perfect health and vigour. Style and beauty of outline in the dairy cow please the eye of the owner and the buyer, and have a monetary value. Such qualities may not affect the milk production, but are worth while considering. Men who own the most successful dairy herds are keen observers and good judges of cows by conformation. They appreciate records of production to know most accurately the milk production of their cows, but would not divorce judgment by conformation in building up their herds. HERD-TESTING CUT OUT THE SCRUB COW. TEST, WEIGH, CULL. The National Dairy Association has issued a seasonable circular emphasising the importance of herd-testing, in which it says:—lt is doubtful if prices will ever again soar as high as they did during the latter end of the war period. Now that market values and production costs are so narrowly divided, the only way to increase income is to reduce the cost of production. Dairymen simply cannot afford to keep low producing cows. All cows require pretty much the same amount of food for maintenance, and they all need about the same attention. Thus, obviously the secret of success in dairying lies in selecting and keeping the highest producers, and breeding still higher yielders by mating specially selected cows with a purebred sire of proven ancestry. The only way to select the best producer is to test the whole herd. Dairymen are fast realising . this, with the result that over 120,000 cows have been under test during the season just ending. The figures look big, but—they are only about 10 per cent, of our dairy cows. There is little to prevent every dairy farmer from testing his herd regularly. The system is easy. An outfit costs only approximately 50/- for a thirty-cow herd, and this is purely an initial cost and does not recur. The usual testing fee is around 3/- per cow per season—an almost nominal charge—and the highest fee of which we know is only 7/-, which cannot be considered exorbitant. There are still a few dairy farmers who think they know their cows without testing. We heard of a case a day or two ago. A farmer culled a cow which he considered an unprofitable producer. Another farmer purchased the cow for £4 10/- and put her on lest with the remainder of his fairly large herd. She was his best cow and . produced over 4001 b fat Reckoning but-ter-fat as worth only 1/6 per lb that amounts to £3O. Deduct the £4 10/- which the cow cost, and it leaves £25 10/-. Had the first owner kq)t that cow and tested her, she would have paid a season’s testing expenses for a big herd. There are many cases very similar to this, and they go to prove an old saying— Test, don’t guess. The successful dairy farmer of the future is going to be the one who tests his herd regularly and carefully,

and acts on the results. There »re three main factors for sueeeas. They He in (1) the man; (2) the teeter; (3) the bull A good prepotent bull always ensures high production in the young herd. And this comes back to the faet that testing is the basis, because testing tells you what might be considered a prepotent bull. If you are not already a member of a tcstinp association, arrange at once to have your herd tested next season and for every season in future. Your cows will be calving soon, and to be comprehensive the testing should commence as soon as possible after calvinjs SOUTH AFRICA'S BEST COW REMARKABLE RECORD. A record has been established in South Africa, as the first official record exceeding 3000 gallons of milk and 12501 b butter-fat in 365 days has been completed. The performer is the Friesian. Lady Dorothy’s Parthenia Butterfly, and her figures are: Milk, 30,0041 b; butter-fat, 12541 b. This cow also makes a world’s record for age (all breeds) for four consecutive lactation periods, with 104,1001 b milk and 40161 b butter-fat—an average fat percentage of 3.859. She lias produced five calves (twins once). She is eight years old, and sensational figures are anticipated for her next two lactation periods. Five years ago the first 2000 gallon South African official milk record was completed by the Friesian cow Clintonia Fan. who made in 300 days 20.8111 b milk, with 7001 b butter-fat, with an average test of 3.366 per cent. Then came Kalma 11 th, two months later, who completed a 300 days’ record of 20,9121 b milk and with 7181 b butter-fat—average 3.434 per cent. Since Vol. 3 of the S.A. Herd Book was published the record of Martha of Kopjeskrall, the first South African cow to produce over 10001 b of butter in a year, has been completed, iter figures were: Milk, 24,4701 b; butter-fat, 10541 b—an average of 4.30 per cent. AVERAGE YIELDS Average butter-fat yields of the various breeds under test for 1923, according to the New Zeal^r- 1 Journal of Agriculture were But ter-

Ji IMUS IN SOILS IMPORTANT CONSTITUENT. VALUE OF VEGETABLE MATTER. The fertility of the soil is dependent upon several distinct factors, some of which it is within the power of man to alter; some cannot be changed. The physical properties and the chemical conditions are the two points which are most easily influenced by gfood husbandry. Manuring, whether by artificial or stable waste, increases the amount of plant food, but unless the mechanical condition of the soil is suitable, full use cannot be made of this food. In humus we have something which alters the mechanical and chemical conditions of the soil, but not only does it make a stiff clay more porous and a sandy soil more retentive, but it also replaces plant food, and from its spongelike properties prevents undue wastage down the drain. Humus is one of the most important constituents of virgin soil, and humus carries with it a considerable amount of nitrogenous matter, which, in unavailable form, is easily released for the benefit of crops when conditions for the changes needed are improved as they are by the putting of the land into cultivation. On virgin soil in wooded lands the leaves fall year by year, branches droop, the trees die, their roots, which have penetrated deeply into the soil, decay too, and with such life and death over a period of years there is made a soil which is rich in vegetable matter. On the plains grass grows year after year, and dies down in the late summer and autumn, and after a number of years we find an accummulation of the vegetable matter. In the swamps we find moisture-loving plants, that as they grow and decay, gradually fill up the low places and make rich soil. So we find that practically all such soils are the result of plant growth and death and the accumulation of the vegetable matter which is not entirely decayed. DEFINITION OF HUMUS. Precisely what humus is no one can exactly say, though some of its compound parts have been identified and named by chemists. The definition generally given is that it is decaying vegetable matter in the soil—decaying and not decayed, as then its transformation would be complete and its work done. It is made up of a number of different combinations, in all of which the nitrogen is in an insoluble form and is the result of decay under conditions inimical to thorough decomposition. When the land is put into cultivation better conditions for decay are provided and the humus is used up in a few years, faster in some regions than in others. Conditions favouring the breaking up of humus or of any organic compound in the soil are plenty of air, heat, moisture and alkalinity, which favour the action of the organisms assisting in decay. Air may be excluded by water, or in a measure by the compactness of the soil; heat is not sufficient in cold, wintry weather; moisture may be excessive or it may be lacking because of exposure to wind and sun; acidity, though sometimes high in swamp soils usually is not high enough to interfere with some of the organisms that are associated with decay. BETTERMENT OF THE SOIL. Cold weather tends to check the loss of humus and favour humus formation. On land that is in perennial meadow and undisturbed for several years there is like effect. Probably more of the roots and stubble is used in true humus formation, but the vegetable matter, whether forming humus cr not, gives off something of the benefits of humus in the betterment of the physical nature of our soils, the increase in water-holding capacity and in the supply of nitrogen. We might say that humus in virgin soil is a bank account of long standing against which we draw, soon, depleting the account or reducing our ‘balance” while the vegetable matter we supply to soils under continuous cultivation is more like a merchant’s capital that is turned over and over in business transactions. We keep adding vegetable matter to the soil and we are continually drawing it out and we may get back to virgin soil conditions. All of us, therefore, are interested in the returning of vegetable matter to our soils. The world has learned better than to burn old crop residues, unless necessary for the control of some pest. Humus must be recognised as one of the most important constituents of a soil. It must be recognised that it is continually passing into a valuable form of nitrogenic matter, which is utilised and withdrawn from the soil, and that it must be replaced if fertility and good soil condition are to be maintained.

Milk lbs fat lbs Days Friesian? . . . 14,752.3 515.62 350 Ay shires . 11.865.5 498.76 359 Shorthorns . 11,731.1 463.25 343 Jerseys . . . 8.177.4 455.13 348