HERD-TESTING.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3843, 7 December 1936, Page 4

HERD-TESTING.

THE periodic publication of the results obtained by the New Zealand Co-operative Herd-testing Association serves as a fitting reminder of the valuable work being performed by these associations in the best interests not only of the individual farmer but of the dairying industry as a whole. It may be said, perhaps, that herdtesting as a factor making for higher levels of efficiency has been so often emphasised that its virtues should need little lauding; still, at a period when the demand is undoubtedly for the best-quality butter and cheese that can be produced, it is advisable to stress the self-apparent fact. It is the checking system by which the farmer can see further than the profit returned to him by his herd as a whole. It provides him with an accurate knowledge of what the individual cow yields for the fodder she consumes. The application of this knowledge in culling unprofitable or “ dud ” cows and rearing only good calves should produce in the dairying industry a progressively higher level of output and consequently profit. In the circumstances the monthly reports of the Association not only provide a good index of the production during the preceding four-weekly period, but, taken as a whole, unerringly indicate the progress that herd-testing is making among dairy farmers. This is gratifying, as it must stimulate the dairyman to take a keener interest in his herd. The testing system yields the information: the farmer himself must make it effective by taking action. It is hardly conceivable, however, that anyone who has arranged to have cows tested would be so apathetic as to neglect doing what is plainly indicated by results. Therefore the work of the Association should be an assurance that keener and more efficient work will be done on the farms concerned. Farmers who have not yet come within the scope of the Association’s activities would be well advised to make a start and thereby enhance further the good work that is being achieved.