THE BREEDS

Southland Times, Issue 22131, 27 September 1933, Page 15

THE BREEDS

FRIESIANS AND JERSEYS. (By R. A. Wilson, Bulls, Rangitikei.) In the April 1932 nunlber of the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Mr Fawcett published an article purporting to show from the statistics he gave that a rise in test was synonymous with a rise in yield and recommended that New Zealand dairy farmers should endeavour to raise the test of their milk. I replied in the papers to this article pointing out the unscientific procedure of endeavouring to prove the effect of one factor from results which depended on so many different factors. Mr Fawcett’s article was a recommendation of the high testing breeds and was therefore in effect an advocary of the Jersey breed as against the Friesian breed of which I was the breed society president.

I had at that time a herd near Himatangi milked by Mr W. L. Johnson on a share basis which, although mainly Friesian grade cattle, contained a few Jerseys. Two of these grade Jerseys were bought as ordinary grades but four of them were purchased as calves from Mr W. L. Shailer of Oroua Downs (who had a high class Jersey herd) and reared on my property. Mr Shailer had at the time I bought had the herd tested for the two previous years and it had averaged 4061 b. fat for 25 cows in 1927 and 3931 b. fat for 30 cows in 1928, the first result being reported to be the highest yield in New Zealand for that particular year. The calves were by a purebred Jersey bull of high butterfat backing and were eligible to be registered as marked calves as none of the cows were below 3001 b fat.

Last year these calves were coming to their second and third calves so they were approaching their full yields. I therefore considered it would be a good trial to put the herd under test and if the Jersey breed were as superior as Mr Fawcett believed the result would be decisive.

The Friesian grades in the herd were not particularly high class as I had bought them from various breeders and bred some myself without having tested and culled the herd to any extent as I was expanding the herd each year. The Jerseys had better credentials in the way of breeding than the Friesians.

The property is of a light sandy nature and until top-dressed it was not dairying country. The herd was running on about 300 acres, which before I started top-dressing was not carrying more than about 40 ewes. Unfortunately last year was a very dry year and the property (like all sandy property in the vicinity) suffered very much from the dry weather and the herd yields were poor in consequence. This class of country is supposed to favour the Jersey breed as the Friesan is only supposed to be suitable for heavy wet land. I give below the yield of all the cows in the herd that completed the test with a lactation period of 199 days or over. A few cows came in very late and these I have not included.

The adult Jerseys, Polly and Brindle, were purchased as heifers with no record of breeding but the four year olds, Midge and Lottie, and the three year olds, Judy and Milly, were bred by Mr W. J. Shailer and should have shown up better if the breed is as superior as Mr Fawcett apparently believes. The adult Jerseys were below the average adult Friesian yield; the four year old Jerseys were below the average four year old Friesian yield; and the three year old Jerseys were slightly below the average three year old Friesian, and all well below the highest yield in their respective classes. Their test, however, will be noted as well above the average Friesian’s test though individual Friesians are slightly above the lowest testing Jerseys. The average tests are only approximate and were obtained by averaging the monthly tests (which method is not quite accurate), as the average tests were not given in the sheet. This shows that, quite apart from the question of whether we should have high or low testing milk (and scientific opinion is rapidly coming round to preferring low testing milk for cheese) that for production the Friesian breed is just as suitable as the Jersey. These figures indeed show them to be superior. The above facts and figures are open to inspection and confirmation by anyone interested. The herd testing was done by Mr Bell of the Manawatu CoOperative Hqrd Testing Association, and the other facts can be verified by anyone in the district.

d 05 OTj 1 C O pq Betty (F) H 3.7 293 w rt A 266 2 Cissie (F) 4.0 273 258 3 Rita (F) 3.2 267 257 4 Dolly (F) 4.0 256 244 5 Jennie (F) 3.7 255 259 6 Fatty (F) 3.8 255 237 7 Nigger (F) 4.1 253 248 8 Spot (F) 3.8 248 252 9 Annie (F) 3.5 247 250 10 Rose (F) 3.7 245 259 11 Trixie (F) 3.8 244 222 12 Baby (F) 4.3 243 255 13 Bessie (F) 3.8 240 265 14 Polly (J) 4.5 239 227 15 Darkie (F) 4.0 238 199 16 Mae (F) 4.0 237 268 17 Bluey (F) 3.8 236 261 18 Rusty (F) 4.1 235 248 19 Bobbie (F) 3.4 235 257 20 Maggie (F) 3.7 235 249 21 Stumpy (F) 3.5 234 227 22 Queenie (F) 3.3 232 250 23 Tiny (F) 3.4 228 257 24 Brindle (J) 4.1 227 263 25 Dot (F) 4.0 221 210 26 Bluebell (F) 3.6 220 229 27 Dinah (F) 3.9 219 220 28 Tui (F) 4.2 210 213 29 Lady (F) 4.0 206 260 30 Midge (J) 5.0 206 260 31 Nellie (F) 3.2 201 256 32 Peggy (F) 4.2 200 226 33 Meg (F) 3.3 197 256 34 Ruby (F) 3.9 197 248 35 Lulu (F) 3.6 195 256 36 Sally (F) 3.3 194 253 37 Ada (F) 3.7 194 224 38 Daisy (F) . 3.9 193 245 39 Mabel (F) 3.3 192 261 40 Molly (F) 3.3 192 242 41 Jean (F) 3.9 191 244 42 Judy (J) 4.7 187 243 43 Ginger (F) 3.9 186 251 44 Millie (J) 4.7 182 252 45 Polly (F) 3.9 181 235 46 Lassie (F) 3.9 179 242 47 Pat (F) 3.7 174 235 48 Maud (F) 3.7 172 253 49 Lottie (J) 4.1 171 259 50 Nancy (F) 3.9 162 221 51 Pansy (F) 3.6 164 225 52 Lass (F) 3.4 134 218