VALUE OF HERD-TESTING

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1929, Page 4

VALUE OF HERD-TESTING

BENEFITS OF CALF-MARKING EXPANSION OF WORK IN TARANAKI. MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION. The second annual meeting of the Taranaki Co-operative Herd Testing Association was held in New Plymouth yesterday. Mr. G. H. Bell presided over about 30 members. Air. C. Al. Hume, Hamilton, organiser for the Dominion, gave an address. In moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, which has .already been published, the chairman said the year had been very successful and members might be well pleased with the expansion that had taken place —13 groups had been developed. They could congratulate themselves on the fine performances. Averages showed a great increase and he did not know of another association that had as good figures for an equal number of cows. With one exception, the testing officers employed had been very satisfactory and, while there had been minor complaints of the kind that would always occur, the association had worked very well indeed. The federation had been trying to place the movement on a better footing, but, though the- federation had done good work, it had not yet succeeded in getting as much done as it desired. ■A- central executive had been formed, the membership comprising four members of the federation, two representatives of the department, Professor Riddet, of Alassey Agricultural College, and the chairman of the Dairy Control Board. It was from this executive that the recommendation came for the appointment of a supervisor to work throughout the Dominion and watch developments in testing. He was pleased, to say that the Waikato Association had been persuaded to allow the federation to have Air. Hume, who was manager of the New Zealand Co-opera- ' tive Herd Testing Association. No man had more experience than he had in this connection. He "would watch the work of the associations, their expansion and their methods. VALUE OF CALF MARKING. It had been felt'that such an appointment was particularly necessary owing to the fact that calf-marking, of which Air. Hume was the originator, had been adopted. Calf-marking would do a great deal for butter-fat production, if the scheme were properly handled. In the past they had not been able to help the various associations very much in this respect, but now that Air. Hume was available great things were hoped for. Air. Bell concluded by thanking his committee and the testing officers for the work done during the year. The motion was seconded and carried without discussion. Air. E. W; Garner was re-appointed auditor. A delegate from Central Taranaki said there seemed to be a certain amount of- opposition to the movement from Government testers. The Government system and the association's system seemed to overlap to a certain extent. The chairman said that in the past the Government testers had been instructed to get as much work as possible, as the applications'for semi-official testing had slackened in the past few years. However, now that the central executive was functioning with two representatives from the dairy division on it, they could rest assured the subject would be dealt with, probably at the next meeting. He had thought it would be as well to wait till Air. Hume had. reported on matters throughout the Dominion before the executive thrashed the matter out. At present it would be as well to leave it in abeyance. Air. Hume congratulated the district on the advances the movement Fad made made in Taranaki during the past four years. The progress indicated to him that the dairy farmers, who were solidly behind the movement, realised they had a great deal to gain. The chairman and secretary (Air. H. Baily) had done a great deal of good work, but without solid support from the farmers net nearly so much could have been accomplished. He did not know the cow population of Taranaki, but in the Waikato they finished the year with 80,000 cows under test and this year the figure would be 92,000. There was room for improvement in Taranaki. SUCCESS IN THE WAIKATO. The success in the Waikato had been solely due to the calf-marking system. It had brought dairy farmers into the movement and it was keeping them in. He had been told by Air. Baily that a trouble in Taranaki was that when they thought a group was full a number of farmers had withdrawn. They had had that experience in the Waikato, but it was not nearly so serious. Hundreds of farmers regarded the benefits the association conferred as necessary as topdressing. There were hundreds of nien who would not take, animals from a herd unless it had been under test and there were many boys who had left their fathers’ farms because they had refused to test. Testing was going to give the Dominion a very much keener type of dairy farmer. It was becoming much harder to make a Jiving and, consequently, it was necessary to work much harder and obtain greater efficiency. He could not understand any man milking cows unless he knew what he . was getting from them. They could compare farming with a town business. If they went back 25 years they would find town businesses being carried on in an easier fashion than they were to-day; neither did they then hear of many bankruptcies. But if business people were to carry on in the same easy way to-day they would not last very long. The last business to be brought up-to-date was the dairy business. The factory end of the business was quite good, but it was the production end where improvement was needed. Nature had given New Zealanders a wonderful climate. Farmers did not have to house their cattle in the winter or feed concentrates’ as they had to in England, Denmark and America. He contended that the average production per cow in the Dominion should be 3001 b of fat, instead of 2001 b as at present. Yet hundreds of farmers who a few years ago had cows with an average of 2001 b to 2201 b, were to-day obtaining averages of 3001 b. This result had been brought about by the use of additional fertilisers and by better methods. The owner of 40 cows who could increase bis herd average bv 1001 b was

receiving £3OO more in income, and this might mean all the difference between profit and loss. MUCH ACCOMPLISHED. The federation had had a very, difficult problem to tackle, but, said Air. Hume, he felt those associated with it should be satisfied that they had accomplished so much up to the present. When they set out to form a federation a little over three years ago—Air. Bell had been one of the promoters — there had been a number of local jealousies fb overcome. In the first year there were only eight associations in the federation, in the second year 12, while last year there were 21. Owing to the fact that it did not have an executive officer, the federation in the past had not been able to give the various districts the help it had wanted to. The federation was directly responsible for the increase in testing out the Dominion. This year 250,000 cows were under test, and last year there were 204,000. In the next annual period the figure would approach 300,000 and they should aim for a great increase on that. In Denmark just under 30 per cent, of the cows were tested, but Waikato tested a higher proportion than that. The aim was to get the testing movement started everywhere. Any system of testing was better than none, provided the testing was carried on throughout the whole season. As they all knew a cow might show up very well during a short season, but it was the production during the months of February, Alarch, April and Alay that really indicated which cows should be kept and from which ones heifers should be kept. Calf-marking was now in its fifth year of operation in the Waikato. Five years ago good calves were selling at 30s to 35s apiece, and one consequence was that the man who had a surplus of good calves knocked them on the head rather than rear them, and poor calves were going into the herds. Something had to be done, and the result was the inauguration of the calf-marking system. In the Waikato they marked 7000 calves last year and they hoped to mark 8500 or 9000 calves this year. Last year, he thought," they marked probably more calves than all the other associations together. THREE QUALITIES REQUIRED. ■■ Three qualities were wanted in a producing dairy cow. The first was constitution and the second butter-fat backing; the association did not mark a calf unless the dam had reached a certain standard of production. The third was breeding. They could not do without the pedigree bull. He had hit fairly hard at the pedigree bull, but not at the one that had breeding backed by production. It was quite possible that some of the calves marked might never do as well as their dams, but he believed that 99 per cent, of them would at least pay their way, and if all the cows in the Dominion were to pay their way they would be in a very much better financial position than at present. There was a big trade in marked calves in the .Waikato at the beginning of the season. They had men putting calves on the bobby calf lorry and buying up marked calves. Fortnight-old. marked calves fetched 25s to £3.. 10s, while some from cows giving up to 4001 b of fat brought £6 to £7. A man with a herd of 40 cows more than paid his testing fees by selling his marked calves. Recently the first sale of marked calves and yearlings had been held in the Waikato; there was never any trouble in selling them.

The question was often asked why th© federation while insisting that the dam of a marked calf must have reached. a certain standard of butter-fat production, no such backing was insisted on for the bull. They had to give breeders time to put all pedigree cattle under test. He was quite sure more of the breeders had their cows under test than before. While the farmers raised the standard of the grade herds, the breeders must raise their standard. Now they had Air. Bell and other breeders coming in under the scheme, it was felt, all pedigree bulls would come from cows that had a test record.

In the Waikato last month over 1500 pedigree bulls were sold to dairy fai mers. There were 1712 herds in the Waikato association and, according to returns from 1468, 50. per cent, were using pedigree bylls.. Calf-marking was directly, responsible for to-day’s increasing use of the pedigree bulls. Afany other countries were trying to encourage the use of. pedigree bulls by subsidy or legislation, but Air. Hume did not think .that, was necessary, because calfmarking would, show the need. They had only got to. show a man that it would pay him to use a pedigree bull and he would do it. EFFECT OF FERTILISING. Mr. Hume said they had to recognise that the use of fertilisers was having a big effect on production. Farming methods were undergoing a change and more fertilisers were being used. After all, they went in for dairy-farming tor what they could get out of it, and he felt the increased use of ensilage in place of hay was going to be a big factor in production, and even might be in solving many problems of the present day. If they increased their average to 3001 b of fat there was no dairy country in the world that could stand against them, because they would not be able to produce more . cheaply. Herd-testing had an educational value and it was in this connection that the testing officer was so valuable? The associations were doing their best to obtain the right type of officer, and with the help of Alassey College it was hoped to obtain a better man than previously. So long as the trend was upward they could be satisfied. Replying to Air. F. Stanley and other members of the association. Air. Hume explained ways to overcome difficulties met with in calf tattooing. In answer to Air. W. J. Freeth, he said that when a pedigree and a grade bull were allowed to run together in one herd, the association would not tattoo the calves. The chairman moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Hume. In seconding, Air. Marchant said he was disappointed there were not more breeders present. He did not think the breeders were doing as much as they might to help the association. Air. Bell was assisting the movement, but the others should do so, too. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the chairman and secretary. Subsequently the following executive was elected: —Messrs G. H. Bell (chairman), F. Stanley (Bell Block), T. E. Trask (Eltham), T. E. Larking (Okato) and W. H. Stephens (Maketawa). Another member will be appointed, to iepresent the Okoke-Afokau district.