12 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 Jan., 1918. 



of advanced methods of feeding, breeding, and care of stock, and may 

 further result in much saving of labour through more systematic 

 working. It should, however, be remembered that all published theories 

 have not passed through the test of practical application, and conse- 

 quently the dairyman must use common sense in his studies, so that 

 only the useful material may be taken into account. 



' Systematic working is a powerful factor to success in dairy-farming. 

 Long as the days are, time must not be wasted. Everything should be 

 made as convenient as possible for the work, and advantage taken of 

 every natural facility in the location. All stock are surprisingly regular 

 in their habits, and consequently regularity in their feeding and handling 

 suits them, and may be turned to some little advantage in time saving. 

 Left to themselves, cattle generally graze over certain areas, drink, and 

 rest at fairly regular hours, and the regular milking hour wnll usually 

 find the cows at hand each day; especially if stall-fed at milking it will 

 very seldom be necessary to go for them. By working to regular hours 

 and on a definite system there is little chance of any work being 

 neglected or temporarily overlooked. Systematic Avorking is the greatest 

 labour-saving proposition ever devised. 



Good cultivation and silage storage are inseparable from good dairy- 

 farm management. Both must be part of the system, each helping the 

 other, and both assisting in building the archway to success, l^othing 

 will clean the land of weeds so quickly as harvesting the crop to the silo 

 before weed seeds are shed; and once in the silo there is no danger of 

 the seeds germinating afterwards, as with hay or chaff fed to stock. 

 The silo turns the weeds into fodder, and there is an end to them. The 

 full silo, as well as haystack, are possible on almost every Victorian 

 dairy farm, and no risk should be taken by allowing an unfavorable 

 season to find the reserve supply short. In time of drought, silage has 

 no monetary equivalent. The dairyman with silage knows so well its 

 value, and how nutritious it is for the stock, that money cannot buy it 

 from him. A full silo is the best investment a dairy-farmer ever has. The 

 basis of milk production is an ample fodder supply. The stock must be 

 always well fed if they are to milk well. To allow dairy cows to get 

 low in condition at any time will result in a reduced annual milk yield 

 from them. To overfeed stock is to waste fodder, but to underfeed is the 

 worst of bad management. 



The advisability of keeping only bulls that are both pure bred and 

 from first class dairy stock is now generally recognised, and breeders 

 having young bulls of this class have no difficulty in disposing of them 

 at satisfactory prices. By breeding heifers from stock of good milking 

 ancestry it is possible to increase each year the production of the herd, 

 but the bull used must be the best possible obtainable. Nothing but the 

 best should satisfy the progressive farmer, and no bull should be disposed 

 of until it is possible to obtain a better one. An increased annual yield 

 of milk or butter — or both — vn\[ result from the judicious selection of a 

 milhing-pedigree hidl, and this section of the archway is absolutely 

 indispensable. 



All fencing on the farm must be kept in good repair or much trouble 

 through loss of time and damage to crops and stock will occur. A neigh- 

 bour's bull mixing with the herd may seriously interfere with the 

 season's breeding programme, while there is also the possibility of either 

 owner's bull being injured through fighting. Recovery of straying stock 



