DOMINION HERD TESTING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 291, 7 December 1929, Page 24 (Supplement)

DOMINION HERD TESTING

Last Season’s Splendid Record MOVEMENT STILL GROWING Two of the most encouraging features of dairying in New Zealand at the present time are the interest taken in herd improvement, and the greater use of fertilisers. Because per-acre production tells the story of profit or loss at the end of the season, both are equally important. Last season saw 35,000 more cows under test than in the previous season bids fair to improve upon that record.

More than 250,000 cows were tested during last season, as compared with a few beggarly thousands six years ago, and although the advance is highly creditable, it must not be forgotten that as yet only 20 per cent of our cows arc under test. The figures each yea? show how many unprofitable herds there are in every district, but more particularly they show how nearly every herd contains a few members that are not paying for their keep. By eliminating these, the farmer is able to increase his profits; herd testing is the foundation stone, paving the way to more profitable utilisation of the farm pastures. The Year Reviewed. Each year the Dairy Division reviews the progress made in the testing movement from data collected from one end of the Dominion to the other, and the figures are always illuminating. This year, because of the very great increase in testing, they are particularly so. The continued expansion of the group herd testing movement, which had its birth in the Waikato, and which still has its greatest stronghold there, is a feature of special interest. Six years ago to-day’s position was reversed. Group testing was in its infancy, and “association” testing (where the members do their own weighing and sampling) was firmly established. As more farmers in each district became interested in testing, the group movement, spread, and recent years have seen “association” testing fall steadily into the background. Group testing is suitable only for districts where, within a fairly small radius, numbers of farmers are prepared to test; in districts where dairying is too scattered, the cost is high, and the older methods are more in favour. South Island Lags Behind. The South Island has not pulled its weight in the testing movement, and in some districts very little testing is done at all. Both Otago and Westland are backward, no testing whatever having been done last season in the latter district, while in Otago only a few hundred cows were under test. Southland is showing more favourable progress, and had 11,000 cows under test last year. This year, following on assistance given by Mr C. M. Hume, there has been an increased interest taken there again, and the movement has received a further fillip. One of the tragic features of this lack of interest in herd testing is that the very districts which stand to benefit most from it, take the least interest in it. The dairy stock in Westland, speaking generally, is very far behind that in other districts, so that if farmers tested, and culled on the strength of the test sheets, they would profit greatly. Both Poverty Bay and Hawke’s Bay show satisfactory increases in testing last season, and in both, more interest is again being taken this year. There are wonderful possibilities in these districts for dairying, and for many years

there should be a steady growth of darying in both of them. Production Steadily Increasing. Slowly but surely the average production of the cows under test throughout the length and breadth of the Dominion, is increasing. No sensational increases can be expected, for it must be remembered that with every increase registered in testing, more poor quality herds are coming under review. In tho first instance, it is the most progressive farmers with th best herds, who take up testing. Gradually others fall into line, and it very often happens that as the number of cows tested by an association increases, the average production decreases until such time as culling influences put production definitely on the up-grade in the bulk of the herds

Seasonal variations alter the position also, and in a dry summer a decrease in average production might be recorded which would give a wrong impression of the cows under test. Taking these factors into consideration therefore, it is interesting to see that butter-fat production rose last season by 161bs. per cow to 2401b5. average in the whole of the 259,000 cows under test —an average which is appreciably above the New Zealand average, generally estimated at round about the 2001bs. mark. More important perhaps is the increase shown in the length of the lactation period; cows are to-day milking for longer periods than they did formerly, and where a seven months’ season was the rule, a season of eight months is displacing it. That this period can be further extended is the opinion of those connected with thc testing movement. The most striking figures in the review each season are those connected with the highest and lowest averages for groups, herds and indivadual cows. Those give the concrete instances of differences which must appeal to every farmer. If such differences occur in all groups, and in practically all herds under test, it must be assumed that they occur also in herds that are not being tested. The owners of those herds are definitely losing money. Last seasons averages for instance were:—•

That one table is sufficient evidence of the value of testing of which to-day there can be no possible doubt whatever. Yet there are farmers who not only refuse to have anything to do with testing, but openly condemn it as an unnecessary expense. We said at the commencement of this article that testing and the use of fertilisers were two of the most important things in dairying. The expenditure in poth is not lost; it is purely an investment which yields a much richer dividend than money invested in most other directions.

Highest assn. or group avge Lowest assn, or group avg Highest herd average .. . Lowest herd average .. . Days in Butter-fat Milk. Production 273 358.50 140 131.76 322 475.70 115 50.54 305 888.00 105 8.00 242 240.59 Average all cows