While this book seeks to be comprehensive in the subject of dairy cow selection and management, it is nevertheless confined to information and guidance which as a whole is not available in any other book that I know. But I have assumed certain elementary knowledge, such for instance as the fact that a cow is milked by squeezing the teats or applying suction by means of an alternating mechanically made vacuum, and the need to give a cow a couple of months' rest between each lactation. The basic elements of dairy farming are available from a thousand sources. The desire which has inspired this book is to impart from my own experiences the knowledge and the enthusiasm which makes cowmen and cow-keepers into herdsmen and pedigree cattle breeders. Above all I want to show how it is possible so to simplify and modify the work of dairy farming as to make it a truly scientific and mutually happy association between cattle and men.

The immense and increasing toll of disease in our dairy herds need never be, and the young and rising generation of herdsmen and herd-owners who are at last beginning to adopt the commonsense methods introduced in my book, Fertility Farming and supplemented in this book, know that in their herds at any rate, it will not be.

As the son of a working tenant farmer in Yorkshire, I milked my first cow at the age of five, I regularly milked a dozen cows morning and night when I was twelve and I have been milking cows ever since. From being my father's cowman, through periods of assisting other herdowners I became my own herdsman when I took on Goosegreen Farm twelve years ago. I have been my own herdsman ever since. But I haven't always had to milk all my own cows. For first my wife and later my good Italian friend, Toni Capozzoli, milked the cows along with me morning and night, until Toni eventually took charge of the milking himself. Together we have developed a herd which has won numerous prizes and championships, both for production and inspection at all the main shows in the south-west, and as I complete this

book I am informed that in the Somerset County Herds Competitions (which take account of milk yields, butter-fat, type, bulls, young stock and general management), we had the second best Jersey herd; second only to the herd which was supreme against all breeds in the National Competition. Though I continue to be my own herdsman to this day, I could not have written this book without the devoted cowmanship of my wife in the early years and Toni for the past eight years, or the tireless attention to the manuscript of my secretary, Rae Thompson. My deepest gratitude is theirs for making my part in the joint effort possible.

Goosegreen Farm, F. NEWMAN TURNER Sutton Mallet, Bridgwater, Somerset, March 1952

I am grateful to the Editor of The Farmers' Weekly for permission to use some material which I first wrote for his journal and to the following secretaries of cattle breed societies for the judging points of their breeds used in the Appendix on the 'Why and How of the Breeds'; Mr. Edward Ashby of the English Jersey Cattle Society; Mr. M. F. J. Batting of the Dexter Cattle Society; Mr. W. H. Bursby of the British Friesian Cattle Society; Mr. S. H. Dingley of the Ayrshire Cattle Society; Mr. A. Furneaux, Secretary of the Coates Herd Book (Shorthorns); Mr. R. O. Hubl of the Kerry Cattle Society; Mr. R. F. Johnson formerly of the South Devon Cattle Society (who is now Secretary of the National Pig Breeders' Association); Col. T. M. Kerr of the English Guernsey Cattle Society; Mr. A. C. Burton of the Red Poll Cattle Society. The breeders themselves who have described their methods and their breeds have my warmest gratitude.

I am specially grateful to Brian Branston for permission to quote lengthy extracts from his book, Breeding for Production, Lawrence D. Hills, who read my manuscript and made valuable suggestions, and Douglas Alien for many of the photographs.

My thanks are also due to the Principals of Wye College, the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and Mr. F. J. Rigby for the comparative costings on page 43.

I would also like to offer my thanks for photographs of plates 1 and 2 to West Midland Photo Services Ltd., Shrewsbury; plate 3, Wiltshire Gazette; plate 5, Independent Newspapers Ltd., Dublin; plate 28, G. S. McCann, Uttoxeter; plate 33, English Jersey Cattle Society; plates 34, 38 and 47, Farmer & Stockbreeder; plate 35, Mr. G. F. Dee Shapland; plate 37, R. Hobbs; plates 39,42 and 48, Sport & General Press Agency, London; plates 43 and 44, Lady Loder; plates 45 and 46, A. E. K. Cull; plate 50, Nicholas Home Ltd., Totnes. All other photographs are by Douglas Alien of Bridgwater.

Since the publication of this book, the author has transferred his farming operations, and Jersey herd, to a farm of 500 acres, on the edge of the Wiltshire Downs.

There, it is hoped to develop the work, and continue the experiments on a larger scale. As a major part of a comprehensive organic farming and animal health centre, an animal hospital will be established to develop, with all classes of livestock, the herbal methods of prevention and treatment of disease described in Mr. Newman Turner's books.

All communications for the author should in future be addressed to Feme House, Shaftesbury, Dorset.


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