FRIESIAN MILKING-CATTLE.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume VI, Issue 2, 15 February 1913, Page 179

FRIESIAN MILKING-CATTLE.

J. Liggins,

Tokomaru.

It is. difficult to one who has visited the home of the Friesian cattle, and has studied the breed in its native habitat, to understand why the owners of the famous black-and-whites in this country and their breed association should describe these cattle as Holstein-Friesians. Apparently without due consideration we have followed the lead of American breeders in this respect. While the Americans may have imported from Holstein — a province of Germany but formerly a portion of Denmarkthe names given in American pedigrees lead one to believe that the foundation cattle were really imported from Friesland, the northern portion of Holland, in the vicinity of the Zuyder Zee. For instance, we have Colantha, Johanna, Pietert]e, and . other Dutch names too numerous to mention here. The English Holstein Cattle Association probably did import their cattle from Holstein,. an impression borne out by the absence of pedigrees in their herd-book, which in no case gives any ancestry beyond the. dam and sire ; whereas if the stock had been purchased in Friesland they would have been able to furnish extended pedigrees, for the Frieslanders are most careful in preserving the pedigrees of their cattle. Our nomenclature is the more surprising when it is remembered that the foundation animals of the oldest herd of black-and-whites in New ' Zealand were imported from the vicinity of Leeuwarden, North Friesland. It is true that since then many American animals have been imported, but at the time of the inception of. the New Zealand Holstein-Friesian Association it is fairly safe to say that the Grigg cattle predominated in New Zealand ; and even now the fine herd at Weraroa Experimental Farm possesses many of the large, roomy, beautiful types of the original Grigg cattle. Indeed, from my personal observations in Friesland, the type of Domino is the true type of the Frieslander of the present day. In saying this I have no desire to depreciate American importations as a whole; still, there have been importations from America that would have been improved if, in addition to milking characteristics and milking records, they had demonstrated better care on the breeder’s part in obtaining a larger type of cow. With proper care we certainly can attain in time the desired type with our present stock. Of course, the simplest way to this end would be the importation of stock from Friesland. Unfortunately, at the present day the necessary quarantine restrictions prevent this. It

is sincerely to be hoped, however, that it will be possible in the near future to secure the stock we so much desire. It is not generally known in this part of the world that the Friesian breed has a great antiquity. It possesses a history dating well back two thousand years, and is directly descended from the cattle owned- by the Friesians and Batavians, the earliest record of which is dated three hundred years before Christ, the Roman Tacitus mentioning the cattle of the Friesians. Since that time the stock has been kept absolutely pure. Living up to the present day' under the same roof as that of the homestead, the cattle are most docile. It is no uncommon sight to see them being quietly milked in the open, and to see them removed from one pasture to another by means of small boats. Large open drains separate the fields, and the cattle are never known to cross on their own account. It is the manner in which they have been handled for two thousand years that has produced the docile and valuable animal of the present day. The good qualities of the breed have been developed in many distant parts of the world to which they, have been exported. It is evident, however, that their best characteristics are maintained -to a higher degree in the country of their origin. The conditions under which the cattle are there bred warrant this assertion. Grazing as they do on the richest low-lying pastures of the world, they develop large frames and a capacity for heavy' milk-production, while their ancient lineage enables them to transmit their good - qualities to their offspring. Their prepotency is great —so great, indeed, .that crossbreeds exhibit the black and white colour for generations.

In a class of seven in a dairy-cattle-]’ competition at the recent Horowhenua Show, cadets from the Weraroa Experimental Farm occupied the first, second, and third positions.

During the last six months of 1912 the British Government spent in compensation in consequence of foot-and-mouth disease in England and Wales a sum approximating £52,000.

Mr. J. T-. Shepherd, Manager of the Waerenga Experimental Earm, who possesses the power of water-divination, has recently investigated Central Otago country in this connection. He has found that over the greater part of Central Otago there are strong indications in many localities of the presence of underground water. In more than one place huge volumes of subterranean water were located.