102 
On the Development of a Dairy Breed from our 
Native Cattle. 
By P, R. GORDON, 
Chief Inspector of Stock. 
Ir has long been a popular belief that food has a potent effect in increasing 
or diminishing the percentage of butter fat in the milk of cows; but recent 
experiments and observations have shown that there is only a modicum of 
truth in this. There can be no disputing the fact that generous feeding 
increases the flow of milk, and in thus far, the increase of butter fat will be in 
proportion to increased bulk of milk; but the most generous feeding has but 
a slender effect in increasing the percentage of butter fat. This was demon- 
strated by a series of carefully conducted experiments and observations at one 
of the State Agricultural Colleges in America, and afterwards corroborated by 
observations of practical dairymen in the west of Scotland. - It is, therefore, 
a fact that the richness of milk depends on an inherent distinguishing property 
of breeds of cattle, and the same is, to a large extent, true as to quantity of 
milk yielded. Perhaps no better illustration of the above could be selected 
than the contrast between the Jersey and Ayrshire breeds of cattle. In the 
former, although the yield of milk is small by comparison, its quality is 
exceedingly rich. In the latter, the milk yield is great, while the percentage 
of butter fat is much below that of the Jersey. When dairymen have been 
brought to recognise the fact that quality of milk depends on the breed 
rather than on the food consumed, improvement in our dairy cattle will follow, 
almost as a matter of course. Itis unnecessary to state that the shortest way to 
improvea dairy herd would be to builditup on well-known milk-producing breeds, 
such as the Ayrshire, Jersey, Guernsey, Holstein, or the south coast dairy 
cattle of New South Wales; but, removed as we are at so great a distance 
from the native habitats of these breeds, the establishment of a pure dairy herd, 
on either of these lines, would not only be costly, but would oceupy a considerable 
portion of a man’s lifetime. But, the question will seul occur, whether 
we have not in our native cattle the nuclei of good dairy stock, requiring only 
skill and careful selection to evolve from our ordinary cattle a first-class dairy 
breed. It is well known that the shorthorn—or Durham—ceattle, of which by 
far the larger proportion of our Australian herds are composed, were at one 
time one of the most valuable dairy breeds in the United Kingdom; and 
although they have for so many generations been bred purely for beef produc- 
tion, their milking properties thus allowed to become latent, still the dairy 
shorthorn at the present day more than holds its own against all other breeds 
in milking trials at the great Londondairy shows. In our own colonies, many 
shorthorn cows are to be found fully equal to Ayrshires at the pail, and little 
behind the Jerseys in quality of milk. If careful selection of cows of our 
native cattle were made, and great ¢are exercised in the selection of bulls of 
well-known milking strains, religiously weeding out all cows that did 
not come up to a certain standard, say sixteen quarts or 40 lb. of milk 
daily, in a few generations a valuable dairy breed of cattle would be 
developed. It should be carefully borne in mind that the bull is half 
_ the herd, and, therefore, the utmost care must be exercised in the selection 
of bulls. No bull should be admitted into a dairy herd unless its 
dam has been a known good milker, and its sire the progeny of a good milker. 
