HERD TESTING

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1574, 15 November 1924, Page 5

HERD TESTING

FARMER'S DAUGHTER STATES THE CASE.

AN INFORMATIVE ESSAY.

The following is the essay, on " Herd Testing and Its Benefits" awarded first prize among the Roto-o-Rangi school children, and also the one given a special prize as the best effort among all the competitors in the wihole of the Cambridge district. It was written by Miss Elizabeth Diprose, of the Roto-o-Rangi public school:—

The new scheme which the Cambridge Co-operative Dairy Company has started' in our district will be of great value to the dairy farmers if they avail themselves of the opportunity offered.

The tester comes once a month and takes the weight and a sample of the night's and morning's milk of each individual cow. Later the results are forwarded from the office to the dairy farmer, thus enabling him to know which are his good cows and which are h'is " boarder" cows. It is not fair to the cow or to the dairy farmer to test only once or twice, and then say that this is her test. Tests vary a great deal according to weather conditions and the general health of the cows. For instance, one cow in our herd tested 5.7 for the month of August, and only 3.9 for the month of September. In the' meantime, however, she had had a slight sickness, but to all outward appearance had quite recovered.

Any cow that does not come up to a profitable standard should be culled out and sold for beef. Otherwise some unfortunate dairy farmer may buy her, and rear her calves for dairy cows, thus helping to keep Uhe Dominion average (and also his cheques) at a very low standard. Some say that a cow that gives three hundred pounds of butter-fat or over has a fair margin of profit. Some dairy farmers do not test because they say that their cows are doing as well as their neighbours'. Perhaps they may be. Why not test and cull out the poorest ones? The otiher cows would then have a better average, and in a short time the farmer would be getting approximately twice as much for his returns from the same number of cows as his neighbours who do not test. Some say that they cannot afford 'it—then they cannot afford to be dairy farming. If everyone would only test, and sell the " boarders," the Dominion average might soon be up to that of the Danish standard.

It is a good thing for a dairy farmer to top-dress and improve Ihis farm, but if he does not test how is he to know which cows are paying for the labour spent in improving his farm? Some people are under the delusion that their cows are better than anysne else's. The scales 'and the Babcock tester soon prove whether, they are or not.

With land and everything else so higth priced, to make a success of dairy farming one must test. The difference between having good cows and bad cows often means to the dairy farmer the difference between success and failure.