FAT BREEDING STOCK.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 763, 11 March 1910, Page 10

FAT BREEDING STOCK.

: • ' A VEXED QUESTION. : In .view of the continual complaints of the way in which breeders insist on piling on fat on their show stock, it is interesting to note that the same vexed question is very much in the air in Australia. "Bendelly," in this wock's "Australasian," considers it a debatable point

[ as to what extent the showing of fancy • stock assists actual breeding. Fat is the i most useless things that, enters into the composition of any breeding animal. It is bad enough when the excess of adipose tissue is accumulated naturally—when stock are. ranging at .will on natural pastures—but when the rolls of flesh are built up by artificial feeding, the value of the. subject as a breeder is not much higher than it would be if its immediate destiny were the cooking-pot. Fat has an injurious effect upon the system. It overloads the intestines, kidneys, and other vital organs,-and,;through its action upon the heart and blood-vessels, it impedes the circulation,,affects the breathing, .and generally handicaps muscular and nervous action. One cannot, "Bendelly" considers, blame' the judges.;for .giving awards to animals, which, unless subjected to some rigorous treatment of starvation arid exercise, are subsequently barely capable of reproducing their species, seeing that it is- the. custom; or fashion to present nearly all stock for, competition thus .overfed: ," One"might,'.however, reasonably'expect' of judges that .they,- would single out the worst offenders in'this respect for censure, and by so doing let' it be more understood that the functions of. breeding, arc rendered nugatory by , such tactics. The object of breedingstock exhibitions has. often, been defeated, iri.the past, ba unless judges set their faces, against fat, qr-.unless such, clause or regulation be in- 'j troduced .into,catalogues ..making it corri-pulsory-to,parade\soriie''of the stock begot .by-.these mountains of flesh! Many *a sl'udmaster 'knows, better 'than to use . either bull or ram, even of'his own breed- j ing; w-hich has scored handsomely in the - show, arena.under artificial conditions, but be does not proclaim the'fact from .'the , house-tops.. ■. ''■;">' "''■'.' '