IMPROVEMENT OF DAIRY HERDS.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 342, 21 August 1914, Page 8

IMPROVEMENT OF DAIRY HERDS.

CAN 'FARMERS CULL INTELLIGENTLY WITHOUT TESTING ? Many dairymen have every confidence in their ability to handle a dairy herd intelligently without adopting any method of testing. In the past we (Agricultural Department) have given many illustrations of mistakes that have been made by some of our very best dairvmen in their attempts to cull without testing their unprofitable cows. The cases cited were individual instances ; but even averages indicate' the great influence systematic testing may have on the results and, incidentally, on the Dominion's dairy industry. In three associations the members testing their cows two consecutive years the first season 205 two-year-old heifers. Of these, sixty-eight were culled by the owners after the first season. The 137 two-year-old heifers which were retained were again tested as three-year-olds, and averaged 204 lb butterfat. Those heifers which came into the test during the first season's testing as three-year-olds averaged 186 lb butter-fat, as compared with the 204 lb butterfat of those three-year-olds selected by testing. The increase is 18 lb butter-fat per heifer in favour of selecting on cow-testing association records.

Of the cows in test in these herds, 18 percent were two-year-olds. The census for 1911 credits New Zealand with 633.733 cows. Of these, 18 per cent represent 114.071 two-year-olds. ,If selecting on test represents 18 lb fat increase per heifer, and if twothirds of the heifers tested were retained, the value of the increase would amount to £68,442 in one year. Supposing these milked on an average six seasons, the gain would, on these figures represent £410,652. The testing of all the two-year-old heifers from which these were selected would have cost perhaps £15,000. This return .would equal over 2,600 per cent on the cash outlay. The labour will be recompensed by the information and interest which the figures afford; and, in any case, the dairyman should not hesitate to expend a little labour where such good investments may be realized. It would appear that the question is not "Can we afford to test?" but rather "Can we afford to milk without testing?" Of the two-year-olds on test, sixty-eight were culled from 205 before the commencement of the second testing season. This number represents 33 per cent of the number tested, while the culls from the four-year-olds represent 32 per cent of those tested. It seems obvious that the previous culling of three and four-year-olds was not done with the best judgment, and that, according to the law of averages, a number of good heifers were culled prior to the owners joining the cow-test-ing association.' That the percentage of three and four-year-olds culled on test should be the same as that of the two-year-olds surely indicates that previous culling and selection might have been done on better lines.