A REMARKABLE JERSEY.

Waipa Post, Volume IV, Issue 180, 17 January 1913, Page 4

A REMARKABLE JERSEY.

ROSALIND OF OLD BASING. Will an improved type of Jersey be developed is a question that has caused considerable discussion of late among some of the dairy farmers of Central Alberta, writes Mr F. T. Fisher in Farm and Dairy. While not inclined to place themselves positively on record without further observation and a longer series of tests, many of them are inclined to the opinion that under the wonderfully favourable climatic conditions prevailing in Central Alberta, and the richness of its pasture, there will eventually be developed a type of Jersey which will be a distinct improvement on the original stock as found on the island that gives its name to the breed. The discussion arose in connection with the remarkable record made by the wonderful cow Rosalind of Old Basing in a three-year official test recently completed. Rosalind of Old Basing is the property of Mr C. A. Julian Sharman, a farmer near Red Deer, Alberta, by whom she was raised. In the three-year test the following results were recorded : Highest milk yield in one day, 521 b ; highest .milk yield in one month, highest milk yield in one year, I5,700lb; average butter test, per cent; butter in one year, 1,031.891 b; butter in three years, 2,504.391 b; milk in three years, 37,784^4!!).

This establishes a new record

for butter production, and places Rosalind of Old Basing in the proud position of Champion Jersey producer ot the British Empire. Besides the very desirable revenue from the sale ol Rosalind’s production of milk as shown above, she has produced three heifer calves, for which her owner has been offered and has refused £4OO. In considering this record it must be remembered that Mr Sharman is not a wealthy experimenter who could afford to obtain results at any cost. Rosalind’s owner is a farmer of moderate means, whose sole source of income is his farm, and Rosalind, with the rest of the herd, was handled solely for profits, rather than for championship honours, the cow under test receiving exactly the same ration and treatment as the rest of the herd.

At the banquet recently given by the Board of Trade of Red Deer, to do honour to Mr Sharman, in consequence of his winning the British Empire championship, stock men present remarked of Rosalind (and similarly of other Jerseys raised in Alberta), that she is bigger, heavier, and a better milker, than her imported dam. Her progeny also promise to be fully up to the Rosalind standard. It has long been recognised that the Alberta beef animal on wild pasture, and rough feed in the open in winter, will turn off at greater rates than any other animal in the world under similar conditions. There would therefore seem to be nothing unreasonable in the theory of the dairymen that the same natural conditions will produce world-beating results in the dairy breeds.