Australia : The Dairy Country. 



A fine herd of Holsteins. 



There is no doubt that rapid as has been the expansion of this 

 industry in Australia, its development has been distinctly retarded 

 by the want of reliable milkers. 



But what is the farmer's bane is the farm labourer's boon. The 

 scarcity of labour has checked the farmer's operations, but it gives 

 the man seeking employment a wider field. 



Competent milkers readily find employment at $4.80 to $6.00 per 

 week and keep. In every important district good dairy hands also 

 have facilities extended to them for entering into arrangements for 

 dairying on shares, with profit to themselves (see pp. 16-18). 



(2) An Inferior Stock of Milk Cows. The fact that while in many 

 districts there are to be found dairy herds averaging barely 300 

 gallons per cow per annum, with a butter fat percentage of little 

 over 3.5, carried on the same class of land as herds which average 

 over 500 gallons per cow, with over 4 per cent, butter fat, will enable 

 any dairy farmer to realise how much room there is for improve- 

 ment in this thriving young industry, and what scope there is for 

 the man accustomed to get the best results from his land and his 

 herd. But the Governments of the respective States afford special 

 facilities by way of importing and placing at the disposal of farmers 

 stud cattle of the highest standards. Private persons are also 

 doing a great deal in importing and breeding high-class animals. 

 Herd-testing associations are becoming more numerous. Farmers 

 are learning that it is profitable to keep milk records and to cull out 

 of their herds the cows that do not give payable yields, and pro- 

 nounced advancement is being made in this direction. 



