On the Land

New Zealand Tablet, 3 July 1913, Page 59

On the Land

:S V ---.,- GENERAL. - .:. The sleek-looking cow is not always a good dairy ". animal. '.■;.■'".. ' - " : " A brood sow should be kept strong and healthy 1 I and in good flesh, but' not too fat. "J . One-should not be in too great a hurry to sow lucerne. . Get the ground ready first. :■ Good; crops of turnips may be grown with farmyard manure alone, but it is not economical to apply heavy dressings. . All young stock should be fed liberally. No young stock should be forced too hard. It is one tiling to keep a # young horse in a healthy, growing condition, and quite . another to put such a load upon his undeveloped limbs as they cannot well bear. Fresh, warm, separated milk is an excellent food for young calves, but some form of fat must be provided to take the place of that which. has been extracted from the milk. Ground linseed is perhaps the best form of substitute to use for this purpose. It is a fairly good rule that at the age of, say, six weeks, a calf will be consuming from 1\ to 2 gallons of separated milk, and lib of. dry concentrated food. At Addington last week there were fair entries and a good attendance of buyers. There was a good entry of fat cattle, chiefly of useful and prime sorts. There was an improvement in prices to the extent of about Is per 1001 b, the range being from 22s 6d to 31s 6d per 1001 b. Steers ran from £7 17s 6d to £ll ss; extra, up to £l6 15s; heifers, £6 to £lO ss; cows, £5 5s to £ll. There was a fair entry of calves, and • prices ranged from extra £4, good sorts £3 ss, down to 8s for inferior animals. In fat lambs the better class sold well up to previous week's rates. Tegs made 20s to 25s sd; medium, 17s to 19s 6d; and lighter, 14s to 16s 6d. The yarding of fat sheep was about equal to previous week's in point of numbers and quality,'and the bulk of the offerings was good to prime. The range of prices was: Prime-wethers, 21s 6d to 28s 6d; lighter, 17s to 21s; prime ewes, 19s to 26s 6d; medium, 16s to 18s 6d; aged and light, lis to 15s 6d; merino wethers, 16s 3d to 20s Bd. There was a moderate entry of fat pigs, but they were in good demand. Suckers brought from £3 10s to £4 10s; baconers, 52s to 58s; prime, £3 2s to £3 10s; extra good, £3 14s, equal to from 5Jd to s|d per lb. Porkers sold as follow: Lighter lines, ~3Bs to 455; heavier, 47s to 50s, or 6d to 6|d per lb. Large stores made 32s and 38s 6d; medium, 26s and 31s; smaller, 18s to 24sand weaners, 12s 6d to 17s. At Burnside last week there were average entries of fat cattle and lambs, whilst the supply of sheep and pigs was on a moderate scale. The fat cattle forward totalled 206, only a small number of which were really prime, the bulk consisting of medium to good quality. There was a strong demand throughout the sale, and prices for prime quality showed an advance of from 5s to 10s per head over last week's rates. Prime bullocks, £l3 10s to £ls 2s 6d; medium, £ll to £l2 10s; light, £8 10s to £10; prime heavyweight heifers and cows, £9 10s to £ll 15s; medium, £7 15s to £9. The yarding of fat sheep totalled 3050. Heavy weights were in rather short supply, and in consequence sold at an advance of Is to Is 6d per head. Prime wethers suitable for freezing were well competed for, and on an average were about 6d per head higher, while all other classes were firm at late rates. Heavy-weight • wethers, 26s to 28s; prime, 22s 6d to 24s 6d; medium A- weight, 20s to 21s 6d; light, 17s to 18s 6d; extra heavy ewes, 25s to 29s 6d; heavy-weight, 20s to 21s 6d; medium, 16s to 18s. There was an entry of 3820 fat lambs. There was a steady demand throughout the sale, and prices were very satisfactory. Extra heavy lambs brought from 22s 6d to 24s 9d; good, 18s 6d to 20s; medium, 16s to 17s 6d; light, 13s to 15s. There was a very moderate supply of all kinds of pigs. Porkers and baconers, being in short supply, sold under

keen competition at prices that were highly satisfactory to vendors. Except for fair-sized stores and extra good .slips, prices in this section of the sale were somewhat below late quotations." ■•"/'; -•■!'" THE CARE OF MILKING -MACHINES. Much has been said and written lately concerning the: contamination of milk sent to dairy -factories, and the effect of this upon the quality of the manufactured article, especially cheese produced from it : (says a writer in the New Zealand Farmers' Union Advocate). All the evidence available points to there being very sound grounds for the statements made,,and all those dairy farmers who have ssriously considered the matter must agree that there is room for much improvement in this matter of ensuring the cleanliness and purity of milk supplied to factories. The blame for most of the trouble is placed .upon milking machines, and there seems little room for doubt that this measure of blame is rightly placed—not because the machines are wrong or faulty, but simply because they are not kept "properly clean. Owing to various causes, the milking machine has become almost a necessity on many dairy farms, and it has undoubtedly proved a great boon to the dairy farming community, but like many other good things of a mechanical nature, it must be handled properly and kept in a proper condition if it is to be of real and lasting value. It is of no use to save money by supplanting hand labor by mechanical appliances if, as a result of neglect, money is lost through lessened selling value of . the marketable output. It often seems to me that the dairy farmer, the man on whose work the whole fabric of our great industry really depends, is far too apt to limit his thoughts and his aspirations to his own immediate surroundings, and •to pay too little attention to what is really a matter of vital importance to him—the various factors which affect the selling value of dairy produce in the great markets of the world. It is quite right that he should do his level best to improve his farm and his herd but it is a very great mistake for him at the same time not to do his best to ensure that his share of the milk supply, which goes to make the marketable product is delivered in such a state as to be fit for producing butter or cheese of the highest quality and best selling value. It is, of course, easy for the man who sits in an office and deals in dairy produce to find fault with the farmer, who does the toughest and hardest work of anyone connected with the industry, and I know, from personal experience, what this work means, but at the same time it is quite evident that more care is necessary on the part of many farmers in this matter ot keeping milking machines clean. ■.-'■-'-•."..'