COW TESTING.

Waipa Post, Volume III, Issue 124, 2 July 1912, Page 4

COW TESTING.

Mr James Burgess, Warea, Taranaki, delivered a paper entitled “ The Benefits of Individual Cow-testing to a Farmer.” Mr Burgess said that the object of the paper was to show what could be done with the ordinary herd by the ordinary farmer, without any expense worth talking about. He thought New Zealand was being left behind in the matter of cow-testing, and said that it was

surprising that so few progressive farmers had adopted the system. Nothing else would increase the value of a herd at such little cost, and without it a herd could not be built on right lines, and no improvement could be relied on. He had built up a most satisfactory herd by testing. In six years he had not bought a single highpriced cow. Speaking of his first year’s testing, he said that the cost to him had worked out at about 9s per cow per year, which amount included an allowance for time spent, and which gave a return of at least 3000 per gent. The total delay to the milkers was not more than JO minutes for every ten cows. At the end of the second year he got 2341 b of fat from every cow, an increase of I2lb per cow, and at the end of the third year he worked out the average at 241 lb. The average was now 26ilb, which reprecented an increase of 631 b in five years, and this .had been done without buying a single milker at more than £lO. Latterly, he had not bought much, new stock, he having become convinced that there was nothing better than breeding from one’s own selection, and building up from something with a milking strain behind it. A farmer who culled without testing was working very much in the dark. When he was keeping only cows, his returns were 16 per cent, less than they were now that he was keeping all the heifers which were necessary. While working on these lines he had not. had a single case of abortion or of contagious disease on his farm. Some Taranaki land, Mr Burgess remarked, was not as rich now as it had been some years ago, which, he said, meant that the farmers had really been selling their land piece by piece all the time, instead of which they ought to have been improving it. The average production per New Zealand cow was set down at ißolb. of butter-fat per year—he, personally, found that the average was nearer l6olb. or 1701 b., where he had been able to trace it — and if every farmer could raise the figure to 2.401 b. it would, of course, be a good thing for the farmer; but what a great thing it would be for the country!