MILK AND BEEF

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20587, 28 November 1936, Page 15 (Supplement)

MILK AND BEEF

DUAL PURPOSE CATTLE Discussing the possibility of dualpurpose cattle—whether milk and beef can be obtained from one breed — Mr D. A. Buchanan Smith, the wellknown geneticist of the University of Edinburgh states that it is a commonplace in biology that while a plant or animal is busily engaged in growth, it has little or no energy left for reproduction. It is this argument, he says, which is used in many forms against the possibility of combining in one animal the functions of both beef and milk, for beef represents energy used for growth and milk energy used for reproduction. There is a certain justification for such an argument. Physiologically the simultaneous production for beef and milk is incompatible. But the fact that the two take place (or ought to take place under modern systems of Agriculture) at different periods in the life of the animal appears to have been ignored. Modern standards of quality beef de-

mand an animal killed before it is two years old. There is a distinct demand for meat from animals slaughtered at around 18 months of age. Allowing even two and a half years is the best age for slaughtering, then the productive system is not called into full action until the growth period is almost at an end