STRATHMORE HERD-TESTING

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1933, Page 9

STRATHMORE HERD-TESTING

GROUP’S ANNUAL MEETING. The first annual group meeting of the Stratmore-Tututawa herd-testing- group was held on Tuesday afternoon in the Strathmore Hall. ‘After Mr. A. Coyne (Makahu) had been voted to the chair, the meeting was 'first briefly addressed by Mr. Hugh Baily, secretary to the Taranaki Co-operative Group Herd Testing Association and afterwards listened to an interesting and instructive lecture by Mr. C. M. Hume, Dominion supervisor of group herd testing. Mr. Hume addressed the meeting on similar lines, to his other lecture delivered in North and Central Taranaki during the past few days. He reviewed the growth of the herd testing movement from its inception to the present day. He showed that it had become of such vital national importance that its control had been placed in the hands of a central executive, made up of some of the ablest men connected with the primary industries of the Dominion, including Dr. C, J. Reakes (Director of Agriculture), Mr. W. M, Singleton (Dairy Division) and Professor W. Riddet (Massey Agricultural College). Mr. Hume described the heifer calf marking scheme and the certified bull scheme of the Dominion Group Herd Testing Federation. and stressed the importance of dairy farmers paying more , attention to the selection of their herd sires. Mr. Hume went into the questionof skim-milk as a profitable by-product to those dairy farmers going in for home separation, explaining the requirements of “porker” trade, the open air. systein of pig-keeping, and the construction- of “creep” feeding pens and troughs. At the conclusion of his address, .Mr Hume answered a number of questions,most of them dealing with calf marking. , X J The following committee was elected for the group: Messrs. A. Coyne (chairman), C. J. Coulton, A. H. Frank, J. J. Hopkirk and H. Mayo. It was arranged that if Tututawa was again merged with Strathmore and Makahu districts for grouping purposes in the coming season, one or two representatives/should be invited to join the committee from that area. ' . . -nr Votes ,of thanks were passed to Mr. Hume for his fine lecture, to Mr. Baily for arranging for Mr. Hume’s visit, and to Mr. Coyne as chairman of the meeting. ? i- -' • •