ON THE LAND

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1930, Page 15

ON THE LAND

IS BREEDING CHANCE WORK? LONG AND TRYING EXP'ERIMENTSs To-day the cattle breeder has become 1 a kind of great creator, an architect who plans and contrives, and sees, after much failure and discouragement, the great, structure put up and the final work achieved. The ideal meat-produe-in" beast is for him something more than a fortuitous concourse of meaty atoms. It is a great problem to be solved and a definite result to bo approached. The animal of future years is as dough in hands; and by countless experiments—sometimes supported by the freaks of nature, sometimes as cruelly thwarted and baffled by them — he keeps before him, as a clever archL teet might, tire plan which is to realise his ideal and reach the desired perfection. He must try all theories before he learns , the right one; he must be prodigal of experiments if he is to hope for great results. Triumphs such as ho seeks are not to be carried off without repeated efforts and inevitably frequent failures. The bovine tribe are his study, and beef is his aim. No landscape gardener visiting an unplanned pleasure ground, no suburban builder, casting a professional eye on a promising property, requires to be more shrewd in his appreciation of the points in which Nature may aid him, and the methods by which ho may counteract or modify or win her over to his views. As that contractor considers where he will lay out his squares and his terraces, where to construct his main thoroughfare and where permit side roads and short cuts, so the breeder, considering the anatomy, of the ox of the present, knowing the disposition of its ribs and its Joins,' deliberately lays out the ox of the future. His aim is before him from the beginning. He blends blood lines and anticipates; he notes the qualities of tribe and the traces of strain; he sees how in the course of a couple of generations certain qualities are accentuated and. others -disappear, and lie follows the achievements of some favourite sire, and finds in his progeny the germ of his expectation. Nature is plastic in his hand. But she is a tricky goddess. She has done much for him, and yet she may desert him at the critical moment. Just when he has solved the problem of his life, when he has discovered the philosopher's stone of his existence, she perversely intervenes, and the long-looked-for calf that was to realise the butcher’s ideal turns out one of Pharoah’s lean kine, weekly and. leggy, where it might be tidy and comfortable and coarse and rough where it might be mellow-skinned and sleekhaired. Yet the famous Durham ox w 7 as the produce of a common cow, and some authorities..have not hesitated to say that tho early success of Charles ■Colling in his experiments with Toeswater cattle —the parents of the Shorthorn —came more from good Inck than deliberation. 3RAN FOR STOCK. • . ' VADIOU'S MIXTURES IN USE. .To make a good bran mash for cows add a tablespoonful -of salt to the bran put into the pail and pour over it as much hot water as it will absorb. Set it aside and cover the pail with a bag to keep in the vapour. When ready to feed, add cold water and stir the contents of tlie pail. It should be slightly warm, when fed. If too cold, add a little hot water to take the chill off. For fattening -cattle the bran may bo fed dry, and mixed with other concentrated ’feeding stuffs; but for milch cows it is . always best t® givo it in. the form of a -watery mash, because milk-producing animals require to consume a large quantity of water. There is no surer way to a •cow dry off or reduce her flow of milk than to feed her on dry meals and fodders, notwithstanding the -fact that she may have access to, drinking water -regularly pr continuously. _ • Certain kinds of dry meals, are difficult of. digestijq,. but .when mixed with a good writery bran mash digestion, becomes easy. Unlike dry meals, a .bran mash has no tendency* to lodge, and form a caked mass within the cow’s stomach. In fact, a soft bran mash with a little linseed oil added la one of the best remedies for impaction, or gorged stomach, in cow or bullock, if given in time. Black treacle, say ilb to lib,' in a soft bran mash, is a remedy for costiveness or stomach disorder. A little black treacle is generally beneficial, except for cows that are pregnant or in calf. Nevertheless,- 31b of treacle or half a bottle of linseed oil may be given in a soft bran mash just before calving. TAMWORTH FIGS. EIXE, HARDY. BREED. The popularity of the Tam worth , pig is increasing. This is due to its hardi..ness, activity, prolificacy, and tendency to produce -a large proportion of lean meat. It is extensively used for crossing, by which .means excellent results are obtained. In Queensland there is ' a strong demand for Berkshire-Tam-worth sows which are mated with Berkshire boars or those of other breeds for the production of bacon pigs. The Gatton Agricultural College specialises in this class of sow for which orders arc booked long in advance of farrowings. The great function of the Tamworth breed is the production of bacon. It excels in length of side, lightness of shoulder and large proportion of lean to fat meat. The type of pig that finds most favour with consumers, bacon ■curcrs, and pork butchers must be long in the body and deep in the side, wtih a comparatively narrow hack, light and narrow hams and shoulders, and ligiit, muscular neck. This form is desirable because it is the side of the pig that furnishes the best and most expensive cuts, and it is necessary to -have as much as possible of this at the. expense of the other parts. The large-increase in the consumption of pork has encouraged tho demand' for young, lean • pigs, and the change in fashion that has put young, tender pork on the market has helped to increase the sale. Pig raisers naturally favour the pig that will return them the greatest profit, and the Taniwortli has proved itself art economical breed;

STRIPPING THE COW. ■ I' I WHERE THE PROFIT IS. "Strip them good,” was a wide admonition of our father when we were milking the family cow or tlie dairy herd, according to Paul Church, of Tazewell (Illinois), County Dairy Herd Improvement Association, says the Prairie Farmers. Figures recently compiled on the cows in his association show that 18.3 per cent, of the profit in milking ■cows conies in the last eight-tenths of a pound of milk from each cow.” Mr. Church made a test to determine how much fat was in the strippings. An average cow in the herd was-milked as the regular milker quit, having finished his job. Another milker stripped the cow and got almost a pound of milk. A similar test was conducted in 14 herds, including both grades and purebreds. The average test of the strippings was 9.4 per cent, butter-fat. The strippings were found to be 18.3 per cent, of the total profit. ‘‘lt is a very easy matter,” says Air. Church, “to leave almost a pound of milk in the udder. A number of times I have seen fathers follow their boys and milk as much as a pound of milk from each cow,” SUPPLEMENTARY '.FEED. BEAT-GIVING .MATERIALS. One of the phases of farming which is not studied as closely as it should be i-s the science of stock-feeding and the real food value of grasses and crops. It..is generally assumed that grass is a perfect stdek food and in recent years ■ short grass or young grass leaf has been estimated as a true balanced ration, but it should not be taken too much for granted that if the best class of grass is supplied that it is the best food that can be given to stock at all seasons of the year. The value of grass is certainly not as great-in midwinter as it is in late spring or early summer and what is of equal if not greater importance stock requires moje carbohydrates or heat-forming elements in winter when these are at their lowest in ; . grass than they require in summer when they are at their highest. New Zealand farmers depend more upon grass as a food for stock than any other farmers in the world, except, of course, where stock are grazed on natural pastures alone. The mildness of their climate enables them to do this in a very satisfactory manner, but it is probable that the use of special fodder or root crops, or even of high-priced concentrated foods, in the winter season may give more profitable results than grass alone, which is so generally ■considered the cheapest of all stock foods. It is true that our farmers make considerable use of hay and ensilage, which are valuable adjuncts to pastorage in winter time, but these, after all, as a rule, are generally made from grass, being the surplus growth of summer. Ensilage or hay made from luteerne oi‘ 1 from other legumes are undoubtedly a very excellent supplement to winter grass, and besides providing more suitable nutriments z-for • winter feeding than ; the same fodders made from grass are more palatable to the animal and m-oro beneficial all round. If the farmer does not raise these special crops he can help to make his rnea-r dow hay more, nearly approach them by adding treacle or -molasses at the rate of one pound per gallon of warm water, > well l -mixed and sprinkled over the hay. This will help to keep up the body warmth of Hie stock and at the same time make the hay more palatable. It should be remembered at this season of the year that the provision of hea.t-producing foods is important for all classes of animal life. The ordinary body heat of domestic stock is considerably higher than that of man. The ‘ normal- temperature of -cattle is l'o2deg. -Fahrenheit, of sheep 1043deg.j of pigs lOodcg, and of the human body 98deg. It is doubtful .whether grass in the winter season contains more than 20 per cent, of carbohydrates, while lucerne hay -contains 47 .per cent., bran 52 per cent., meadow hay 49 per cent., pollard 60 per cent., and, maize meal nearly SO . per eent., by chemical analysis. The importance, therefore, of such additions to the winter feed of slock is manifest.