By F.H. Jeter,
Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Wilmington Morning Star on Aug. 12, 1946
There is a place for dairy cows and poultry on eastern
Carolina farms. If you doubt that, visit the farm of Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Taylor
on the Richlands-Comfort Highway, about three miles from Richlands in Onslow
County. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor operate the Taylor Stock Farm.
Farm Agent Charlie Clark Jr. enthusiastically declares that
this is one of the finest registered Jersey dairies of its size in North
Carolina. The Taylors own a herd of 65 registered Jersey heifers and cows with
30 animals now in milk.
Back of the present herd are long years of hard work and
intelligent effort. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor began developing this herd 15 years
ago. In 1931, they began their dairy work with three-year-old grade cows,
selling surplus butter and cream. With this small start, they next bought three
registered Jersey cows from the Coastal Plains Branch Station at Willard. Then
in 1933, they secured five more registered cows from the herd at the
Statesville farm. To these eight animals, they added a top herd sire secured
from Granada Farms near Hickory in Catawba County, and they continued to sell
butter and cream from the farm until 1939, seven years ago.
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor will tell you that in 1931, they sold
only about 1 ½ pounds of butter a day for 15 cents a pound; and then during the
next nine years, their production developed to where they were selling 101
pounds. In 1940, they built and equipped a $10,000 modern dairy barn which was
ready for use in 1941. When the barn was ready to be used, they began to retail
grade “A” fluid milk. In the meantime, their herd had been increased to 30
Jerseys with an average of about 15 cows in milk at a time.
In 1942, four years ago, the Taylors felt that they needed
new blood in the herd, so they came up to the State College dairy farm and
bought two nice cows. They purchased two more from Ray Maine in Aurora, 15
others from the herd of Dr. Clarence Poe of Raleigh, and three additional ones
from the Coastal Plain Station near Willard. Each of these animals was of top
Jersey breeding and made a valuable addition to the Taylor herd. A new herd
size was secured from an importation of Morrowcroft farm from the Isle of
Jersey, and, of the famous Cock Robin breeding.
At the present time, therefore, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are
milking 30 cows from the herd of 65 animals. Each cow is on test with the
American Jersey Cattle Club, and the owners have complete records of every cow
in the herd. Their top ranking animal produced 14,000 pounds of milk and 575 pounds
of butterfat in 305 days of milking. The herd averages 9,600 pounds of milk and
430 pounds of butterfat in the regular 305 milking days.
Some of the cows do not go under 6 per cent of butterfat at
any test, and the herd is noted for leading the State time and again in
butterfat production.
Farm Agent Clark says that the State Jersey Committee
selected two heifers from his herd to be sold in the State sale held in
Charlotte last September. Another cow was selected for the State sale in
Statesville in August, and a fourth has been selected to represent North
Carolina in the National Dairy Show to be held in Columbus, Ohio, in October.
This committee of experts visiting this farm congratulated Mr. and Mrs. Taylor
for the excellent breeding work which they had been carrying on and for the
high quality of their individual animals.
The farm proper consists of 172 acres of land with 160
cleared or open. Of this amount, there is an allotment of 21.5 acres of
tobacco. The remainder of the open land is devoted to the production of feed
crops, largely supplementary grazing crops, silage corn, and hay.
The farm has meant much to the surrounding community for the
reason that Mr. Taylor has sold a number of his best bull calves to neighbors
at reasonable prices. These animals are being used on native cattle to build up
the quality of family cows in Onslow County. Mr. Clark estimates that it will
be only a short time now until the Taylors will be ready to sell some of their
surplus heifer calves as well. In the meantime, of course, these heifers are
too valuable and too badly needed to be disposed of except in unusual
circumstances, much as when one or two are selected for state sales.
In addition to the dairy work on the Taylor farm, the owners
are operating a hatchery for Barred Rock chicks. The Taylors have always sought
the best, and so they secured their original poultry stock from T.N. Wilcox of
Tryon, Polk County, operator of an outstanding Barred Rock breeding farm. Mr.
Wilcox’s birds have received national as well as state honors, winning many of
the national egg laying contests. From an original purchase of chicks, the
Taylors saved 200 hens and from these they have developed a flock of 1,200
laying hens.
They have incubator capacity for 12,000 eggs, and hatch and
sell about 24,000 baby chicks each season. Each year, about 200 of the best
laying hens in the flock of 1,200 are selected and used for breeding purposes.
The hens are trap-nested and each egg produced is carefully recorded. Some of
the top hens lay from 307 to 309 eggs a year, and the entire flock of 1,200
hens has an average of 250 eggs per hen.
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor’s ultimate aim is to have the best in
Jersey milkers and in Barred Rock layers. They are pointing the way to what can
be done with livestock and poultry in eastern Carolina, and they say that what
they are doing others can do also. It’s an interesting farm.
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