FARM AND DAIRY
NOTES FOR THE WEEK. SOUND DANISH METHOD. You do not talk long to a Danish farmer about cows, says a Home correspondent, before he refers to the Progeny Performance Test. This test is simply a comparison of the erage yield of the daughters of a certain bull with the yields of the corresponding years of their dams, that is, the heifer lactation and later lactations are compared with that of their dams at the same age. Note is also made regarding the transmission of the fat per cent and total yield of fat, and whether the bull is prepotent or otherwise. In May or June Of each year, the owner of the bull has to collect 66 per cent of all the bull's progeny above one year,old, so that the judges may arrive at a decision regarding the conformation of the bull's progeny. QUEENSLAND'S BUTTER EXPANSION. Remarkable development is taking place in the production of butter in Queensland. In the year ended in Jtine 1927 49 million pounds were made, in 1928 69 million pounds, in 1929 74 million pounds, in 1930 76 million pounds, and in 1931 just on 93 million pounds. In cheese production, Queensland went from 9 million pounds made in 1926-27 to 131 million pounds in 1930-31. COST OF PIG PRODUCTION. . A bulletin on pig production issued "by.the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, indicates that the cost of producing pigs is much higher in Canterbury than in the North Island. In South Auckland pig recording feed trials pigs have been reared to porker and even to light baconer weights with the use of not more than a pound of meal (principally meat meal) a day, a cost of about Id a day, and : this includes the meal given to the sow. This is in strong contrast to the Canterbury annual cost of keeping a sow of 'fill, and the cost per weaner„ allowing nine pigs per sow of 24s 6d each. EARLY CUTTING. ItJs only jiuring the last few years that it has-been generally realised that bulk is not everything where grass is concerned. In the case of ensilage or hay early cutting is best for the silage or hay andJße%t for the plants which are left. Whefa a grass plant seeds, much of the goodness in the leaves and stem is withdrawn into the seed and becomes a dead loss on being shaken out. The plant is exhausted into the bargain. Early cutting conserves both nutrients and the vitality of the plant. So far as grazing is. concerned, recent investigations by Dr Woodman and his Cambridge colleagues have clearly shown that young grass is infinitely more nutritious than older grass, and has a constitution approximating to that of linseed cake. It is better, therefore, to graze little and often rather than let the grass get along and somewhat rank before turning in the stock. By so doing the maximum value is Obtained, and, at the same time, the grasses are kept in good condition. RETAIN THE PROVED SIRE. ■>..j Farmers in general are not so" an- : qcious "to get rid of their old,bulls as they used to be, for the simple reason that have learned by-hard : experience that in the past they have killed off a really valuable* animal long before his time. HOW. fre'•quently has a bull been sent to the ibutcherfwheh he is from two to three "years'oldjiand long before his true value ; to the herd can possibly have -been ascertained?' No bull that is reaUygood, and has a useful pedigree behind rhinf, should be sent to the butcher, until it has been seen what kind of heifers he is leaving behind
;/,mm. A good sire of heifers is worth "'holding oh to for, as long as he can serve a cow, for many a great winner at the leading shows has been- sired fey a bull well advanced in years. One recall the; names of: many a fine old veteran that has performed : yeoman seryice to his. ; £wner when Recording to, the theories'of some)' he should have been beef long before. This advice applies to rams, 'artdmany an,old ram has fixed the type of a flock or improved the wool when he is less active than he used to be* and when had he been in the pos7session of; some ; men he would have, been sold long before the benefits accruing from his use, had been discovered. _ ■
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Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3389, 17 December 1931, Page 8
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737FARM AND DAIRY Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3389, 17 December 1931, Page 8
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