II Nov., 191 2.] Kcpleius/iiiig the Dairy Herd. 657 



REPLENISHING THE DAIRY HERD. 



By M. Thomas, Dairy Supervisor. 



The dairy farmers of this State will, before many years have passed, 

 have to face a serious situation unless a change in present methods is 

 adopted. This will be how to replenish their dairy herds, which are con- 

 tinually being depleted by various causes. 



The cutting up of large estates, under the Closer Settlement Act, into 

 dairy farms, and the extension of the dairying industry generally through- 

 out the State, has created a large demand for dairy heifers of good 

 quality which seems very hard to satisfy. 



This is a subject that requires very careful consideration on the part of 

 our dairy farmers. The ruthless destruction of large numbers of heifer 

 calves is, to my mind, a great waste of raw material, which should be 

 utilized to better advantage especially in securing a certain supplv of 

 well-bred and well-reared heifers to replace any gaps that may occur 

 in the herd. 



When one thinks of the number of heifer calves, from cows of a 5, 

 6, and, in many cases, 7 gallons a day capacity, that are annually 

 slaughtered for pigs' food, one can only conclude that eventually there 

 must be a dearth of dairv heifers, and our herds, instead of improving, as 

 they should do, will become of an inferior class. It, no doubt, seems to 

 be the easiest way for the farmer to go to a cattle saleyard and purchase 

 a few heifers, every now and then as wanted ; but this is altogether 

 wrong, for he is generally buying the calves that have been carelessly 

 reared for throe months, and then turned out to take their chance. The 

 farmer who has fed his calves for five months, and reared them well, does 

 not part with them unless forced to do .so. For a good milking cow to 

 stand the wear and tear on her system for years, a heifer must be reared 

 from birth properly, so as to have stamina in her as a cow when she 

 comes to the bail. 



A lot of the heifers that are purcha.sed in the saleyards are not so 

 -well reared as they require to be, and hence we often hear a farmer say, 

 " 1 bought a couple of heifers in the yards a few weeks ago, but they 

 are no good." This means that he will sell them for whatever sum the 

 dealer likes to offer, and purchase others, from the same source, that 

 possibly may turn out as bad, if not worse, than the first ones. Therefore 

 the farmer who depends on this haphazard method of replenishing his 

 herd will be far behind the careful farmer who rears the heifer calves 

 from his own best cows, and rears them properly. 



The correct method of rearing a calf has been described in previous 

 issues of the Journal ; it will, therefore, suffice to say that we have at 

 our disposal many valuable, scientifically-tested, substitutes for the butter 

 fat extracted from milk ; whilst the farmer who will grow his own lin.seed 

 will have all there is need of to rear good calves. Another important 

 reason why the farmer should rear his own stock is to minimize the danger 

 of introducing disease into his herd through purchasing a beast from an 

 unknown and possibly infected source, and which may 7ause the loss of 

 a whole year's profit to him. 



In order to attain a high milking standard in a dairy herd, it is not 

 essential that only pure-bred stock should be kept, for many of the most 

 prolific milkers are of mixed breeds, and many of the pure-breds are 



