DENMARK

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 66285, 2 October 1925, Page 5

DENMARK

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY SOME INTERESTING FACTS Mr W. Madsen, a native of Denmark, who has recently returned to his own country after spending some years in New Zealand, during which he was dairy farming in Taranaki, has written to the editor of the Te Aroha News a letter which will probably be of great interest to dairy farmers in this district. Mr Madsen was one of those who purchased land in Taranaki when produce prices were at their height. When prices fell he was unable to carry on and had to sacrifice farm, stock and all that he possessed. In his letter to the editor of the News he says:— The Danish farmers have had good prices for their produce for many years, and if I had only stayed here, and got a farm, instead of going abroad, I feel sure I would have been a well-to-do man to-day, but now land is too dear. I have had many pleasant surprises. It pleases me to see that the old country is doing well. They have electric light and power all over, also on the farms, and telephones as well, besides many cars, but the best of all is that they have increased production, in spite of the foot and mouth disease, which they have had three times in Denmark since I went abroad. It was very bad last winter, worse than it has ever been, and 35,000 herds, over 20 per cent, of the herds in Denmark, had this dreadful disease last year. As young stock and pigs always get the disease it means a very big loss to the country. However, Denmark exported in 1924 over 120,000 tons of butter, besides some cheese, cream and other milk products, the value of all milk products being over 700 million kroner, or nearly £30,000,000. The export from the pig industry for the same year was 196,000 tons of bacon, 25,000 tons of other pig products, and 206,000 live pigs, in all about 235,000 tons of pig. products. I can’t give you the exact value of it, but I think it will be about £20,000,000. The value of the egg production for 1924 was over £8,000,000. The export of horses was about 12,500 animals, valued at about £500,000, and of cattle about 170,000 live animals, besides the meat; also grain, seed, etc. The value of the whole of the exports from Denmark in 1924 was about 1800 million kroner, or close on 80 million pounds sterling. Seventy per cent, of the butter went to England, 25 per cent, to Germany, and the other 5 per cent, to different countries. Most of the bacon goes to England, while most of the other pig products, meat and live animals go to Germany and Central Europe. New Zealand is six times as big as Denmark, and has a short and mild winter as compared with. Denmark (the mild winter we had here this vear is an exception and does not account for the returns of 1924), and I should think that only half of this little country can be called good land, while thousands of acres are useless for farming purposes. It is heath, where hardly anything but heather and some kinds of pine trees will grow. According to one of my school books about 20 per cent, of Denmark was covered with heather some 50 years ago; now most of it has been cultivated and either planted with trees, or the best of. it made into fax-ms, but some of it is such poor land that I hardly understand how it pays to farm it. However, some oi it is fairly good. When you consider all the poor land me have here, the fairly cool climate and short growing season, and see the big export, you cannot help thinking of the possibilities of New Zealand. It should not be forgotten either that Denmark has a fairly big town population for its size. The capital (Copenhagen) alone has over 700,000 people, and the whole country has a population of nearly 3a millions. It is true that it Denmark did not import oil cakes, etc. for the stock, their export would not be so big, but according to statistics 85 per cent, of the feeding units are produced in the country and only 15 p.c. are imported. But perhaps those 15 per cent, could not make up for the loss through the foot and mouth disease. I don’t thing Denmark has reached its limit of production yet. The farmers use more and more manure every year, and they say it pays. They also go more in for testing thencows, though far too few are tested yet. I haven’t got the records for the whole country, but I have those of the island of Funen. There are. about 150,000 cows in Funen, of which 47 per cent., or over 70,000 are tested. The returns in Denmark are given in butter and not in butter-fat as in N.Z. and on the following basis: 861 b of fat gives 1001 b butter. The returns are as follows: The average of all cows of the Danish Red are 159 kg. butter (100 kg. equals 2271 b) or 3561 b butter; Danish Red mature cows average 171 kg, butter (3831 b buttei)> <ill Jersey cows average 177 kg. butter (3961 b butter); Jersey mature cows average 186 kg. butter (4161 b butter). It looks as if the Jersey is the best coWy but it should be remembered that only about 1 per cent, of the cows tested are Jerseys (1 Jersey to 99 Danish Red), and the Jerseys are either imported from the Jersey Isles or are the offspring in the first few generations of those impoi’ted, and therefore not many poor ones are amongst them, while the Danish Red is the native race and there are still many poor ones amongst them. Then the Danish Red gives much more milk than the Jersey, 4123 kg. (9255 lb) against 2999 kg. (67221 b), which means more skim milk for the pigs. The following figures show the averages of the 11 highest testing associations for all cows: 199 kg. (4461 b butter), 198 kg. (4441 b butter), 193 kg. (4321 b butter), 188 kg. (4211 b), 187 kg. (4191 b), 185 kg. (4141 b), 183 kg. (416 lb), 181 kg-. (4051 b), 181 kg. (4051 b), 180 kg. (4001 b), 180 kg. (4001 b), and 33 associations have between 380-400 I lb of butter per cow.

The highest yield of any one cow was 393 kg. (8801 b) of butter. Forty cows gave over 320 kg. (7161 b), 56 gave over 310 kg. (6941 b), 99 gave over 300 kg. (6721 b), 147 gave over 290 kg. (6501 b), 229 gave over 280 kg. (6271 b), 375 gave over 270 kg. (605 lb), and 1010 gave over 250 kg. (560 lb) of butter each. The above returns are all of cows of the Danish Red breed, which is said to be the youngest milking x-ace on earth. Besides there were 12 Jerseys giving over 270 kg. (6051 b) butter, and 23 Jerseys giving over 250 kg. (5601 b). The above returns are all from the little island of Funen (or as we call it “Fyn”) and from 59,449 Danish Red (or perhaps it would sound better to say Red Danish) and 648 Jerseys. You will perhaps notice of these about 60,000 cows, 1033 (110 Danish Red and 23 Jerseys) or over 1 l per cent, have yielded over 250 kg. (5601 b) of butter. What breed the others are (about 10,000 of the 70,000 cows tested) I don’t know, neither do I know their returns. Twelve years ago—when I left Denmark —the average for cows tested on Funen was only 2951 b of butter against 3561 b now, an increase of over 601 b of butter per cow, in spite of the war and the three epidemics of foot and mouth disease. The farmers have also suffered heavy losses through sterility amongst their cows for some years. About 20 per cent, of the cows have to be put out for that reason every year, and on an average the cows only have between three and four calves, which, of course, means too many young cows, as experiments have proved that a cow doesn’t get into her best until after her seventh calf. I have just read to-night’s paper and see that the foot and mouth disease is still pretty bad. There were 600 new cases last week (a case is a herd, not an animal), but there wei-e over 800 cases the week before, so it is getting better, though I suppose 25 per cent of the stock will get it before it is done with. I have also just read that the value of the export from Denmark for the first 6 months of 1925 was 965,000,000kr. or (as Danish money now stands) about £45,000,000, 85 per cent, being products from tlie fai-ms. ,

In 1882, which is called the modern Danish daix-y industry birth year, Denmark exported 11,000 tons of butter. Thirty years later the exports were about 90,000 tons. Then the war canxe and productions went down, and it was not until about 1920 that Denmai-k came back to pre-war (or noi-mal) times as far as production is concerned and, as said before, in 1924 the export was oyer 120,000 tons of butter. The yield per cow in this country has more than doubled in the last 50 years. The average yield of all cows in Denmark was for 1923 only 111.5 kg. (2501 b) butter; in 1924 it was 116.7 kg. (2611 b), an increase of 11.61 b butter per cow in one year. When you compare the 2611 b butter per cow for all cows in Denmark, and the 3561 b per cow of the about 60,000 Danish Red on Funen, you will see that there is plenty of room for increase in production in Denmark yet. The reason why other parts of the country are so far behind Funen is, I suppose, due to the fact that in Zuttland, and especially Slesvig, there are a lot of Shorthorns and other breeds which have been, and still are, mostly kept for fattening purposes. The veterinarians are trying hard to find a cure for the sterility of the cows ,and they are going to have a small island on which to carry out some experiments with the foot and mouth disease, to ti-y and find out how it spi-eads, so that they may be able to stop it. If they succeed 1 think the average cow on Funen will soon yield 4001 b of butter, and Denmark will have an export of 150,000 tons of butter a year, if it keeps on being a paying business to make it. I am afraid that not much of this letter will be of any interest to you, and that it is far too long, but if you think that some of it should interest the readers of the News, you may publish what you think fit.