BREEDING CENTRE

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22459, 21 September 1944, Page 8

BREEDING CENTRE

IMPORTANT RESEARCH WORK RUAKURA FARM EXTENSION A new breeding centre to be used in connection with large scale held experiments in artificial breeding and research into problems of fertility has been completed at the Ruakura Animal Research Station, Department of Agriculture. The large building contains a laboratory and indoor stalls for bulls as well as other apparatus used in the experimental work. At present there are 16. bulls tethered in the four paddocks at the centre, all of them being proved sires or the sons of the proved sires. For the purposes of handling and convenience, the bulls are individually tethered to overhead wires and a j iarge exercise yard with special exercising apparatus has been provided for them near the laboratory build- I ing. I Dr. C. P. McMeekan, Superintend- { ent of the Station, stated at a meeting of the Ruakura Farm Advisory Committee yesterday that some time had been spent in the preparation of ap- j paratus and instruments to cover the j field work that was being under- j taken this year. The organisation { of the groups of herds to be insemin- . ated had been in the hands of the ] herd improvements associations in the districts concerned. Three : groups fiad been organised, one in ( the Manawatu and two in the Wai- ' kato district. The Waikato units : were located in the Matangi-Cam- | bridge district and the Te Rore-Te j Pahu district. There would be approximately 3000 cows in the three groups and it was intended to try j to cover these with ten proved sires, j Future in Hands of Industry j Some difficulty had been met in j forming compact units for this work, said Dr. McMeekan, and it seemed likely that if this form of breeding were to become widespread, the j farmers interested would have to do the inseminations themselves. For j this reason, it had been decided to include in the experiments this year I herds where the farmers would do j their own inseminating. The speed > of development and the scope of this work might be influenced to a large extent by the success or failure of farmers doing their own artificial stock breeding. The future of artificial breeding work rested with the industry itself. It was hoped that the station would be able to provide the industry with sufficient information to allow it to establish its own artificial breeding service. Dr. J. F. Filmer, Director of the Animal Research Division, said that a limiting factor to the extension of artificial breeding in the Dominion was the availability of proved sires. Until there was some well thought out plan providing sufficient worthwhile sires,* little progress could