GUERNSEY CATTLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20014, 3 December 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

GUERNSEY CATTLE

AN ISLAND BREED ITS VOGUE ABROAD The Guernsey is an offshoot of the Normandy breed, and is larger, stronger-boned, and coarser in appearance than the Jersey. It has not been bred with such care, and its outlines are not so regular or symmetrical. The largest cows belonging to the origin'll old-fashioned type uro to be found in the west of the island. The climate of Guernsey, with .ts northern aspect, is not so genial as that of Jersey, with its sunny southern exposure, and consequently the cattle are hardier and more inured to cold on their arrival in England than those from Jersey. The latter, it is true, be-: come acclimatised in a few years, and their descendants retain their hardiness, but they also lose the refined delicacy of skin and form, and become Stronger in frame and altogether coarser, as is also the case in Victoria. Some strains of Island-bred cattle in high condition arc too broad at the withers, but on their losing condition as a result of heavy milking chel shoulder-top becomes sharp as it ought; to be. Apart from these, poor-milking cows of a beefy type sometimes occur, and should be discarded for breeding purposes. Young animals arc not too highly fed in their native land, which would tend to make them heavy and coarse, but the calves are made to fol low the cows to pasture to clean up what the cows reject. Progress in U.S.A. The Guernsey has made great progress in the United States of America, into which country it was introduced in the nineteenth century. It was nor, however, until 1893, when the dairy qualities of the breed were brought under notice by records made at the World’s Columbian Exhibition at Chi cago that Guernsey interests began to expand to the extent they deserved. The American Guernsey Cattle Club was organised in 1877, and of later years many importations of Guernsey cattle have been made, and much enthusiasm has been aroused on the part of dairymen in exploiting and developing the breed. The Guernsey ranks at the present time as one of the most popular breeds of dairy cattle. Standards which demand excellence in conformation and characteristics pertaining to dairy typfc are filled by many of the American-bred cattle. Development for usefulness, rather than for beauty of form, has resulted in a lack of refinement and neatness of outline in a good many of the animals; The comparatively few Guernsey cattlein. the country encourage breeders to retain all the purebred animals, and this accounts for much of the laek of uniformity that exists. The American Guernsey Cattle Club was first to establish an advanced registry for official annual productions of milk and butter-fat, and this again has been a standard towards which breeders have worked to a greater extent, in many instances, to the neglect of breed type. Marked improvement., however, in uniformity and excellence of dairy form has been noted in the show exhibits of the last few years. So far as Australia Is concerned, the Guernsey, has not made the progress that might have been expected, considering the proof it has given of its adaptability to the conditions and ris ability from a production standpoint. It has made more pronounced headway in New South Wales, where there are a greater number of pedigree hcrUs, than in any other State. The report on the testing of purebred dairy cattle under the official Australian testing plan conducted by the Department of Agriculture of New South Wales shows that for the year 1925-26 the number of Guernseys tested was 89, and that the percentage of those that were below the prescribed standard to the total tested was 31 percent, ac compared with the milking Shorthorn (75 per cent.), the Illawarra milking Shorthorn (51 per cent.), the Jersey (40 per cent), the Ayrshire (57 per cent.), and the Friesian (31 per cent.). Heavy Producers. The Lismore Experiment Farm herd contains five Guernseys that have exceeded an estimated yield of 10001 b. commercial butter in 365 days, and the records of not privately-owned herds prove the productive ability of the breed. In a. leaflet issued by the Guernsey Cattle Society of Australasia it is stated, on information obtained from an official source, that in 1915 an Ayrshire-Shorthorn grade herd (consisting of 71 cows) was officially tested and averaged 1491 b. butter-fat, while in. 1924-25 the female progeny of the same herd sired by a Guernsey bull averaged 2551 b. butter-fat. The total increase in production was 19221 b. butter-fat, or 25151 b. commercial butter, from 18 fewer cows, which represents £1.15 15s added income, with considerably less labour. Some of the foundation cows averaged 1831 b butterfat, but the Guernsey-cross daughters reached 226J51b and their grand-daugh-ters 2351 b butter-fat. A considerable increase in production was shown in the first progeny, and it became greater in each successive generation. These are facts no dairyman desirous of raising the standard of production of their herds can afford to disregard.