IMPROVING LIVE STOCK.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1932, Page 6

IMPROVING LIVE STOCK.

The suggestion that legislative aid be invoked to quicken improvement in the flocks and herds of New Zealand is not a new one, The proposal to make it illegal to use sires that have not the qualifications desirable for reproduction has often been considered by farmer organisations. It goes without saying that anything which will make good herds better or will make poor herds good is worthy of support. Whether that support can best be obtained by legislation is another matter, and it is a question upon which there is a considerable difference of opinion among stock owners themselves. It may be true that prohibitive legislation might prevent some farmers from being “taken down” in their purchases of live stock. But in the case of the sheep farmers selection in breeding has become a science, and there is no difficulty in any purchaser’s obtaining the advice he .requires or the right quality of stock if he will take the trouble to seek either. In regard to dairy herds the same reasoning applies. The herd-testing movement is open to the whole industry. It is not expensive, its efficacy has been fully proved, and it is applicable to large or small herds in almost every district within the Dominion. Associated

with it is the scheme of calf-marking, and if the dairy stock owners would make herd-testing and calf-marking part of the routine of production it would soon become the fault of any buyer if he accepted stock that did not come from tested progenitors. The remedy for the use of unsatisfactory hulls is within the industry itself, If it were proposed to supplement this by legislative action the law would have to bo drawn very tightly and supervision by officials to become closer than ever, It is not certain whether this would not in the long run prove more harassing than the detection of a few crooked dealers would warrant. Herd-testing associations already possess, and use. disciplinary powers where sharp practice is suspected, and these powers semn ample for the protection of the fair dealer. Before seeking further legislation with its corollary of more State supervision it might be worth while to develop more fully the powers that stock, owners and breeders already possess.