VALUE OF HERDTESTING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19953, 10 November 1934, Page 15

VALUE OF HERDTESTING

NEGLECT OF FARMERS -HANDS INSTEAD OF HEADS” “If herd-testing had become universal about 10 years ago I believe that the dairying industry would have paid its way to-day, or at least on the prices prevailing last year,” contended Mr C. M. Hume, supervisor of the Dominion Group Herd-Testing Association, in an address to the Hamilton Rotary Club After briefly tracing the history of the movement, which he described as the costing system of the farmer, Mr Hume deplored the haphazard manner in which the majority of dairymen had built up their herds, with reliance based principally on guess-work. The dairy industry had lagged behind in the matter of organisation and the progressive moves that had taken place in every office during the past 20 years were now being set in motion in the sphere of primary production. It was necessary to tighten things up and the only way he considered the farmer could face his difficulties was to become more business-like. In the past there had been too much use of hands instead of heads. “Herd-testing figures can, if properly applied, explain practically all the difficulties that the farmer meets in making his cows pay,” declared the speaker. “Herd-testing is educational and this is why it is so difficult for it to meet with the full approval of the farming community. Many fail to grasp the significance of the figures which they receive, in showing them where to cull and from which animals to breed.”