HERD TESTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1933, Page 3

HERD TESTING.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—We hear a great deal about the need for testing herds. Could someone tell me if the total amount of butterfat as shown by testing returns is .more reliable than factory returns, or should the two be approximately the same? Or js it that testing herds is done only to show what individual‘‘cows do. I heard of a case in which there appeared to be a wide margin. Perhaps the method of. calculation makes a. difference.l do not understand it. Perhaps someone who does fully understand will explain. —I am, etc., '.' «. ; ■ . , PUZZLED. Hawera, July 14. [The two sets of returns referred to by “Puzzled” are entirely different in character and can hardly be compared. The factory returns represent the test of the whole of the milk from the herd sent to the factory; The object of the individual testing is to * ascertain the unprofitable cows so . that they may be dispensed with. Very often a farmer does not have his whole herd under individual test,, and in such cases it is extremely unlikely that the average individual test of those cows - under test would equal the factory test from the'complete herd. -Ed.r '