BUYING ON LOOKS.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20248, 17 July 1937, Page 11

BUYING ON LOOKS.

HOW FARMERS GAMBLE. Commenting on the value of milk recording, i the Bucks Milk Recording Society states that the number of farmers who engage in milk production to make a living, and yet who do not keep records, is "almost unbelievable,” says an English farmers’ Journal. As a rule, when a farmer Is short of milk and wants a cow he goes to a market, and "looks” are all that guide him. He looks at her horns to ascertain her age, then looks at her top and under line to estimate her constitution (length of life), and finally looks at her udder; and should she have been well stocked for 24 hours or more he Invests In this seemingly good cow. Whether this cow will give him 500 or 800 gallons of milk in a lactation is beyond his calculations and farthest from his thoughts, yet the difference In these yields would approach her value. It must be admitted that this is the general rule, and it is evident that the farmer went to buy "Cow” and not "milk.”

Surely the time will come when some of these, speculators will prefer to buy a cow with a proved yield, even 8t enhanced values. The gain Is not confined to that one animal, moreover, but passes on permanently to the herd.