FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



About this time several well-known cattle breeders on the tableland, 

 seeing that dairy heifers were likely to soon command good prices 

 at the several auction yards, selected Ayrshire bulls from Victoria 

 and New Zealand, and put them with the best sorts of their station 

 cattle. By this means a constant supply o-f heifers was kept up for 

 disposal to the smaller dairymen by the auctioneers for many years 

 after the cattle boom. 



But notwithstanding the rush of cattle, pedigreed and otherwise, 

 to the coast from the Sydney markets and the tableland, there were 

 always to be found a number of dairymen in the Illawarra and Shoal- 

 haven Valley districts who moved slowly but surely, and never lost 

 the quality of their dairy herds. It was these men who saved the 

 situation during the eighties. Bulls from their herds produced the 

 milkers, whilst other bulls were kept for pedigreeing purposes. 



It was during the cattle boom of the seventies that the disease 

 termed " coast cough," but afterwards diagnosed " tuberculosis," made 

 its appearance among the coastal dairy herds. It was first noticed 

 on the Berkley Estate, near Wollongong, the property of the Messrs. 

 Jenkirus. Mr. W. R. Jenkins had obtained possession o-f the progeny 

 of Royal Butterfly 6th (18, 757, C.H.B.), imported by Mr. R. L. 

 Jenkins, of Nepean Towers. Shortly afterwards the disease made its 

 appearance, and was peculiar to the low-lying, swampy lands for years 

 before it reached the hilly lands, owing probably to a great extent 

 to the fact that it was on the rich flats where these Shorthorns were 

 first introduced in those years. Another cause of the development 

 and spread of the trouble was that it was customary for those far- 

 mers who were raising young bulls and heifers for sale to spend 

 much of their time each day for weeks or even months before sale 

 day washing and scrubbing the young animals in order to make their 

 skiri and hair deceptive to the uneducated buyer or observer. 



Since then many causes have been put forth for this disease, each 

 having a certain school of followers. These causes include in-and-in 

 breeding a system of breeding scarcely understood, and certainly 

 not followed to any great extent on the South Coast. Then we have 

 crossbreeding suggested as the real cause. Certainly if this was the 

 cause there would scarcely be a beast left of any strain in ten years. 

 Then, again, the breeding from unpedigreed sires is put down as the 

 main cause of the disease. If this were the cause of the trouble, 

 why, then, did the bull Royal Butterfly 6th (18, 757, C.H.B.) introduce 

 the disease into the Illawarra district in the first instance ? The 

 truth is, had our dairymen persisted in the beef Shorthorns for any 

 length of time, a cow that would give 4olb. of milk per clay would 

 soon have become a rara avis among their herds. When, therefore, 

 the Herd Book was established, breeders were not satisfied with fair 

 returns ; they went for phenomenal ones. The result was that ex- 

 cess in production robbed the dairymen, through the agency of " milk- 

 fever" and tuberculosis, of many of their most cherished animals. 

 The real trouble is, therefore to be found in >luction. 



It was about 1878 that Mr. John Farraher, of Kiama, sold out ard 

 purchased Greenmount, Candelo. He has previously purchased a pure 

 Jersey bull at the Sydney Exhibition of 1877, which he took to the 

 Bega district, together with a few choice cows. The half-brother of 

 this bull and a few c.f the cows, which afterwards were purchased by 

 Mr Farraher from Mr. Henry F. Marr, of Garden Hill, Wollonguuff. 

 Subjoined is an account of Mr. Marr's cattle, which goes to show 

 that they had been purchased from Mr. Edward Larkin, of Windmill 

 Hill, in 1877 : 



Mr. Henry F. Marr, of Garden Hill, Wollon-.m^, writing to the 

 " Illawarra Mercury" in the late part of 1877, says : " At the present 

 time tin- attention of ' interested parties' is much given to the neces- 



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