FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



In 1867, at an important sale in England of purebred Aldcrney 

 cattle, fifty-seven cows averaged 45 guineas each, twenty-nine ovo- 

 year-old heifers averaged 53 guineas each, and twenty-tlii c* one- 

 year-old heifers averaged 42 guineas each. It is said that it was this 

 sale and the subsequent Press reports which caused the first boom 

 in Channel Island cattle in England. 



Much the same types of cattle, and cattle of similar breeds and 

 strains, were exhibited in the Illawarra district, and practically Dy 

 the same exhibitors, during the following years of 1868 and 1869, 

 with the addition of Mr. Hugh Colley, of Longbrush, Kiama, who 

 won first prize during those years in the Ayrshire class with a very 

 handsome black and white Ayrshire bull bred by Mr. James Robb, 

 of Riversdale, Kiama, from the black and white imported bull. 



In 1870 a decided change took place in the class of stock ex- 

 hibited in Kiama and elsewhere. It was the dawn of the Shorthorn 

 beef craze, which never should have been tolerated at cattle shows 

 in what was essentially then the centre of the dairying in Xew 

 South Wales. The Kiama Society broke away from the old faith, 

 and gave its best prizes to beef Shorthorns. Just imagine the 

 change that took place in the few short years that followed. In 

 1875 we find Mr. W. R. Hindmarsh's 6th Duke of Derriment, a bull 

 bred by Mr. Morton, of Mount Derriment, Victoria, which cost 

 75> carrying off all the honors, and Mr. William James' dairy 

 bull, bred purely for dairy purposes, being classed as a crossbred. 

 If we turn to the Ulladulla A. and H. Society from 1875 to 187* 

 we will find Mr. W. R. Hindmarsh's brother-in-law (Mr. \V . \\ . 

 Ewin) 5th Duke of Brunswick (bred by Messrs. Robertson Bros., 

 of Colac, Victoria), for which he gave 1050^ winning all the prizes, 

 and yet Ulladulla was, and is now, essentially a dairying district. 

 Why was it done ? Simply because there was money in these 

 Shorthorns at the time. The Duke of Derriment's heifers, with- 

 out a single exception, would not, because they could not, feed their 

 own calves. Young animals of this strain were reared on foster 

 mothers of the old dairy type, and the real dairy calves were killed 

 to make room for these animals that were worse than worthless 

 for the dairy. The committees of the several agricultural societies 

 lent themselves to this craze, very likely thinking that when the 

 boom was over they could revive very soon again their old breeds 

 of dairy cattle. But the sequel goes to show that only those dairy- 

 men who held on to the old breeds were successful in the dairy 

 cow tests that were established late in the seventies to counteract 

 the beef breed craze in the early seventies. That is to say, if we 

 take the good strains that were to the fore in 1867, those strains 

 with very few exceptions were to the fore in the tests of 1879-1883. 

 which goes to prove that the beef Shorthorns \\ere, with rare ex- 

 ceptions the cry-back which accidentally dropped into the hands 

 of a practical dairymen a ruinous investment for dairymen. Of 

 these we can only enumerate about six out of hundreds that we 

 have seen. The idea of getting back to the old breeds and strains 

 by using the Ayrshire as a cross has not been successfully carried 

 out in many instances. At least there has been a very considerable 

 number of failures to the very -few successes. The repeated failures 

 caused many excellent dairymen to drift into herds composed of 

 pure Ayrshires and Jerseys. 



In 1879 the Kiama Agricultural Association offered prizes of 6, 

 5, 4, 3, and 2 respectively for the five best butter producing 

 cows on home pasture. The following is the result of the competi- 

 tion : 



Cole Bros. Date of Test : j8th February. 1879, till 6th March. 

 Weight of milk for week : 4_;oAll>. Weight of butter : 



88. 



