FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1925, Page 10

FARM AND DAIRY.

BUTTER COMPETITION. POSITION IN ARGENTINE. AUSTRALIAN ENPHKT’S VIEWS. Mr. M. A. O’Callaglian, Writing io the Daily Telegraph, gives an interesting account of his experiences in Argentina, where he is now engaged in organising the dairy industry of that country. When he first took up his new duties, Mr. O’Callaglian found the butter tallowy, and some of it with the flavour of sour cheese. At the principal factory —one of the finest ’buildings of its kind in the -world —the cream is divided into two sections, namely, cream which is separated at a separating station, to which the farmers bring their milk and cream, which, as in Australia, is separated at the home of the farmer. A good deal of the former comes daily, whereas the home separator cream is despatched but two or three times in a week during the summer. “1 am agreeably surprised to find that the creamery cream is mostly very good, but more than 60 per cent of the home separator cream was interior, being over-ripe and cheesy. Surely, after all these years of experience of creams in many countries, I am not mistaken—good butter can surely be made from this nicely-acid best cream! “What is the skeleton in the cupboard? I inquire. And again I am told that the farmers never wash their hands, and that the milk is dirty—the cream will not make butter that will keep. Yes, but surely it will keep for a day or two. Next day, I inform them," I will classify the cream myself. One is naturally a bit shy of rushing things tvhen every man round him talks a strange tongue. My secretarial interpreter was not then in residence. THE ROOT OF THE, TROUBLE.

“I classify a certain amount of the cream on exactly the same basis as that which I taught in New South Wales. In addition, X neutralise and pasteurise a portion by giving the cans a hot bath for 46 minutes. On the morrow butter is made; it is somewhat metallic in taste, otherwise pretty good, whereas the unpasteurised butter is quite good. I had neutralised the excessive acid in both creams. On looking for the cause of the metallic flavour I soon find one of the principal ghosts of Argentine dairying, namely, rusty cans. Olu_for a good aluminium can factory such as I understand Australia is now building as a result of my inquiries in France and England last year. “A few days and I am convinced that no person in this factory has the haziest notion of how to classify cream correctly. I now put an advertisement in the press for two young men who wished to be trained as cream graders. About 3(1'0 young men stormed our city office next, day and 100 of these were sent to the factory for my further classification. It took me a day. I made a first selection of five, which I later cut down to two, one of whom is a New Zealander. They are both doing -well! * MAKING CHOICE BUTTEH. “.For three weeks I stay at tills factory; it took me” all this time to get one pasteuriser (flash system) installed. However, I am rewarded. Front the second lot of pasteurised cream a butter is made good enough for anything. 1 divide it into two lots, to one of which I cause the usual boron preservative to be added, and the other is inade without, preservative. As salt is never used for butter making here unless to a special order, neither lot contained any salt. “I have still in the freezing room here a box of butter without preservative. It is two months old, and I would grade it 93 points to-day! When this butter was a week old I was quite convinced that we could make butter here which would not suffer from the national disease of tallowy flavour, treated this cream in exactly the same way that 1 had successfully treated whole milk for drying in some Australian experiments. ON THE DAIRY FARMS. ‘‘l am now satisfied with what can be done to some extent, and I make arrangements to go and study the country somewhat. It is warm weather, so I go south to a place named Tandil. Here the land is nicely undulating (generally speaking, Argentine is as flat as the great plain country in Australia), and the pastures are sweet. It reminds me somewhat of the Upper Hunter River in New South Wales. I motored about 50 miles north, south, east and west from this little town. “Everywhere one saw large herds of red coloured Shorthorn cows that would at a little distance pass for Australian Milking Shorthorns. This was my greatest surprise. I had been led to expect to see great big, coarse, beefy eows, too fat to have much room for an udder. “1 have since, however, learned that this district is the Illawarra of Argentina. Here the estancios and farmers have been dairying for some years, and every year they rear the heifer calves. After 15 years' of such selection it is not surprising that one sees many fine types of dairy cows. AUSTRALIAN BULLS WANTED. “Given a hundred good Australian Milking Shorthorn bulls, and soon one would reap a rich milk harvest in this district. If Mr. Cole, of Darbalara fame, were here for 10 years lie would grow some new Melbas, "and all red, as no other colour Shorthorns will be looked at for dairying here.”

BEATEN BY AUSTRALIA. A QUESTION OF BUTTEH PRICES. The Melbourne Argus of June IS supplies a corrective of the statement in a recent Sydney cablegram that “Kangaroo” brand butter from New South Wales stands higher than New Zealand butter on the London market. The Melbourne journal says: “For a brief period m April Australian butter in London realised a price equal to, and a shade higher than.

those obtained for New Zealand produce. This fact gave rise to much satisfaction to dairying interests in the Commonwealth, and by some it was attributed largely to the establishment of the “Kangaroo” brand. This was not without reason, for London had indicated that the levelling up of prices to the New Zealand basis was due to the uniform quality of Australian butter. Unfortunately the position established was of short duration, and London quotations show that the market hitherto existing in favour of New Zealand has been again created. The Anglo-Con-tinental Produce Company, Ltd., dealing with this question in June, says that, in view of the fine quality of “Kangaroo” blitter that had been arriving from Queensland and New South Wales it was difficult to account for the difference in price between New Zealand and Australian butters, as only two or three weeks previously prices were equal. The company inclined to the opinion that possibly the re-establishment of the price margin between the two butters was partly the outcome of the Queensland and New South Wales products being in few hands. Victoria, it says, uses more agents for the sale of its butter, with the result that it is better advertised, and while available brought practically New Zealand price, from which at the time Queensland and New South Wales butter ’benefited.” DAIRY HERDS. SELECTING OF COWS. The question of selecting cows for the dairy herd was dealt with by G. G. Humphrey, head of the Animal Husbandry department, University of Wisconsin, at the last American (Liiry congress. The following pa-agraphs are from his address:—-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 a dairy cow. Dairy conformation of the parts of the body of the dairy cow bear a relationship to one another and to her functional activities in a manner correlative 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 chousing cows for dairy purposes. VALUE OF MILK RECORDS. The value of the milk and butter-fat tester cannot be over-estimated 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-lialf times as good as indication of a cow’s ability to produce milk as any of the physical parts, or combination of parts, of her conformation. It is true, nevertheless, that there lire a vast number of instances in which dairymen must depend upon conformation in the selection of cows, and in no instance can one afford to select, and build a herd without regard for it. Keen power of observation and judgment, combined with knowledge of the par!-; and characteristics of an ideal dairy 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 form a good basis for the study of selection of dairy cow.-, by conformation. In the case of underfed, poorly-developed cuttle conformation is of comparatively little value in the determination of merit. Under such conditions chance judgment, pedigree or record production all have to serve. Dairy cattle tend to be triangular or wedgeshape in outline, while beef cattle tend to be rectangular. ‘The wedge-shape outline is significant in that the base end of the -wedge-like body indicates roomy feed 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 important characteristics of a dairy cow. IMPORTANT CONSIDERATI!)NS Well-developed milk organs, including the udder and mammary veins, are a highly essential characteristic of good dairy cows. Good size and quality are most important considerations in judging the udder. Such udders with uniformly well-developed quarters, and with teats of convenient size, are most ideal. The mammary, or “milk veins,” 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 milk production, but are worth while to consider in building a herd. 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 their herd.;. SPREAD OF PASTEURISATION. Writing of coiidrtions with Argentine, a correspondent in the Waikato Tinies says: —There is a wave of pasteurisation spreading over the land lure, ami Mr. Pedersen, late of New Zealand, the recently appointed dairy expert to the <lovernmeiit of Argentina, is helping along these lines very materially. Nevertheless, there will or mans’ disappointments, for here w have no trained cream graders, and two cans of tallowy cream will spnil the whole day’s work. At our head factory in Buenos Ayres ] have caused pasteurisation machines to be installed, and L find the greatest. vigilance necessary, in order that a can or two of tallowy ei'cain n.-i y

not get mixed with the choicest quality. Sometimes this does happen, arid then the whole batch must go into secondgrade boxes. I will not tell you the local cause of this national cream disease, for I am not yet sure that I have fathomed the matter in full. The cattle in the north are of various breeds, and one sees many Holstein Friesians, but Shorthorns predominate. These latter are more beefy than in the south. The district is much newer to dairying, and many farmera, especially the Italians, do not appear to realise the value of the special dairy cow. The German farmer is the best dairy asset up here; lie sticks to his job. 'GENERAL. A number of the dairy farmers in Port Albert (Auckland) district, says the Star, have imported heifers and cows of pedigree strains from Taranaki, Waikato and Auckland- with a view to improving their herds. An increased number of cows will be milked and with the improved pastures due to top-dress-ing it is anticipated that there will be an increased output next season. “We are in the centre of the richest area of land in the Dominion,” said Mr. J. M. Johnston at Palmerston North. “In the Kairanga County there are 80,040 acres of good, rich dairying land, and if this was ent up in emulation of the soldier settler system, we would have 1700 settlers on the land over and above what we have now."

POULTRY NOTES. DUCK CULTURE. (By “Wyandotte.”) I would like to refer to the culture of ducks, and in so doing cannot do better than to refer to an article written by a. prominent New Zealand poultry writer (Mr. C. 11. .Ambler), who, inter alia, says:—“Of all the branches of modern poultry farming, none offers a sounder commercial proposition than the laying duck. Remarkable strides have been made in the breeding of ducks for egg production, and they offer yet another concrete example of what can be accomplished in improving the ability to lay eggs in domesticated poultry. There is very little difference in the constitution of the duck and hen egg, except that fhe former is invariably larger. The duck as a layer has come;to the front rapidly during the past fety years. The results of the laying competitions in England and in New Zealand have proved that she is a very profitable proposition. The breeding life of ducks is much longer than that of fowls, and they may continue to lay well into their sixth year. It is not unusual for drakes to be kept on in a breeding pen from the tenth month to the sixth year. “The importance of this point is well worth consideration, because one of the chief items to the commercial egg producer is the replacement of layers. Space forbids going fully into the advantages the duck has over the hen. Needless to say, of the several phases of duck keeping in New Zealand, the latest—the modern industry of breeding ducks for egg production —has attained a greater vogue than any other. It has reached a position when it may safely be regarded as a soundly established branch of the great industry of poultry-keeping. Without doubt, no branch of poultry farming is more overlooked than the keeping of ducks for egg production. There are many people who have splendid opportunities for duck keeping who somehow do not appear to realise that there are breeds of ducks that will lay more eggs than the highest records of hens, and there is no doubt that ducks for egg production can be made one of the most profitable branches of live stock culture, wherever reasonable opportunities for their keeping exists. Until quite recently the duck keeping was ignored by the general body of poultry keepers, and looked upon as a side line. The enterprise has mainly been directed towards the production of ducklings for the table, egg production being a minor consideration. “With the advent of a New Zealand Duck Club and the New Zealand Water Fowl Club, which have started many new duck breeders along the road which leads to success, more publicity will be given to the production of eggs, and no doubt efforts will be made to overcome public prejudice against, the eggs of the durk. There is ample room tor the clubs to adopt a publicity campaign. The possibilities of the commercial duckkeeping calls for a policy on business and educational lines. There are several varieties of ducks. Naturalists have generally admitted that the various races of domesticated ducks have sprung from the Mallard or wild duck, which is found all over the Continent of Europe, in America, Northern Africa and Western Asia.”

Choice of breed is very important. Reading and hearing of the wonderful records of ducks, many poultry keepers are of the opinion that any breed and any old duck will do this. 'This is not so; anyone taking up extensively a breed like the Aylesbury, and expecting to obtain full egg baskets all the year round will, without doubt, be very, very disappointed. If you want egg insults, procure the Indian Runner or the Khaki Campbell, for these are tin' greatest layers and the soundest investment. These two breeds have gained a prominent position through their remarkable capacity of economic-J production of .high grade eggs. Ranking next t.o tnese is the buff Orpington, which weights up to eight pounds and contains Runner blood. This variety gives fewer eggs, but like tlie Khaki Campbell more flesh. Both the Runner and the Khaki Campbell are active ducks and will wander long distances in search of food, and their keenness for devouring injurious pests is their most valuable attribute. The ideal place for these breeds is the. open paddock, housed in movable, houses. In the smaller holdings these houses (■an be fixtures if more convenient. Ducks are particularly f om.l of white slugs. Many people are of the opinion that water pools are necessary for the ties, and it is not therefore necessary tn provide sv‘milling wale; 1,-, ensure fertile eggs. Not only have al! domestic dii'eks great beauty, but they are generally more hardy than the ordinary fowl, need less care ami attention and may be kept on land flint w iiild be quite iiiisuited for keeping f iwls.