FARMING WORLD.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20388, 31 December 1937, Page 19 (Supplement)

FARMING WORLD.

RED POLLS

DUAL PURPOSE TYPE VALUE FOU CROSSING j Although there are actually several ■Red Poll studs in the Waikato the breed is perhaps not so well- ; known as other breeds, but this } dual purpose breed is achieving: in- j j creasing popularity in Britain and Ire- I i land. The breed is also making headway in South Africa and the fol- | lowing article, written by the seerej tary of the Red Poll Breeders’ Society J of Great Britain and Ireland, which j appeared recently in the South African j Farmers’ Weekly, sets out the various attributes of the breed and indicates ( the progress the breed has made of recent years. The Red Poll has a life three or four times as long as the average cow of which the animal-husbandry experts talk, which the present Minister for Agriculture in England says live no longer than four and a half years (states the article). There are entire Red Poll herds with cows averaging eight years of age and over, which have produced, over a period of 10 years, an average of 800 gallons of milk annually on nothing but homegrown food without any manufactured artificials. This is some explanation of the excellent percentage of Red Polls that ! won the Ministry of Agriculture’s certificates of merit last year, awarded ( only to cows that have averaged 90001 b of milk or more for three years, and have bred a calf every year during that period. Of 135 Red Polls so successful, no fewer than 50, with an average age of 11* years, averaged more than 10,0001 b of milk | for the last three years. The en- ] I tire 135 had an average age of eight; j years, a fact whir'll strongly supports j j the contention dial the average Red 1 j Poll has a much longer span of life! than the average British cow. Dehorning Other Breeds Is it not significant, at a time when the horned breeds are giving place to polled cattle, that I lie Red Poll is be--1 ing largely chosen for the specific pur- | pose of dehorning other cattle? But i the Red Poll is also required for other J reasons. Until special investigations j were undertaken, the extent to which I ! it is being used for cross-breeding was not appreciated. In South Africa, j it seems, it has been crossed mainly i with Shorthorns, Friesians, Devons, ' Afrikanders. There is a shortage of Red Poll sires, and would-be breeders, as proved by the communications I have been receiving, have failed en- | tirely in their quest for bulls within ! that Dominion. Though the shortage is not so acute in Australia, nevertheless, through the use of Red Poll bulls for the conversion of Shorthorns and flerel’ords 1 into polled cattle, the demand has | been well, sustained for a long time. The president of the Australian Red ' Poll Breeders’ Association is engaged ( upon an experiment in cross-breeding that may have far-reaching effects. ! The owner of a great herd of Red Polls is crossing Herefords with Red Poll bulls, and the result is expected to “he the founder of a type of cattle as : definite and as world-famed in the oattle industry as the Corriedale in the sheep world.” The prepotency of the Red Poll sire is never more apparent than in crossbreeding; 95 per cent of his progeny, out of horned cows are invariably polled, the balance having nothing more than “slugs.'’ That, at all events, is the experience of a breeder in the south of England, who has concen- J trated on breeding the 'Red Poll bull j to Ayrshires, to enable him to obtain ] good quality cows. Red Poll heifers J have averaged 700 to 750 gallons,j while the steered calves have been | reared to excellent purpose. Here j are some detailed particulars of the 1 crosses lately used in England:—At the last Norfolk Fat Stock Show, the special award offered to the best beast , bred and fed in Norfolk was given to j a Red Poll-Friesian steer which, to! all appearances, was a purebred Red Poll, frorm which it could not be dis- ' tinguishou. It was bred by a north Norfolk/farmer, who keeps a British Friesian herd which he crosses with a Red Poll bull. Beef and Milk A mid-Norrolk farmer claims to be producing steers by crossing British

By “ STOCKMAN."

•Fries#mds with a Red Poll bull, which he can show “against anything in weight for age at 12 months.” He declares that he can get steers of this cross to weigh from nine to 10 cwt, at 18 months of age, and that butchers’ reports invariably state that such steers “die extraordinarily well, with a higher dead weight percentage than most other bullocks.” One steer sold at 18 months had a live weight of 10 cwt. On the dairying side, lie adds the cross generally produces cows that yield 10,0001 h of milk, some of the outputs of his first cal vers being 4663 lb in 26 weeks, 57661 b in 26 weeks, 57301 b in 23 weeks, and 36371 b in 17 weeks. On a Kentish farm, where a Red Poll bull is bred to Ayrshires, 80 per cent of the calves have been of red colour and 95 per cent without horns, the remaining 5 per cent having only slugs.