TYPE IN DAIRY CATTLE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 284, 20 August 1918, Page 8

TYPE IN DAIRY CATTLE

!'» Long and familiar observation, of I various breeds of dairy cattle lias coti-

firmed the belief that excellent dairy I properties ate found in connection with 1 heads and countenances of almost every j eort. says a writer in the "Live Stock | Journal," A preference, however, would ■ eeem to bo reasonably duo to nicely : moulded heads of feminine type for tho , cow and of masculine type for the bull, j and we must take it as a general law I that where tho tendency to develop what ; are termed the secondary sexual cliarac- ' tors is strong, it is so in both sexes. For

this, reason the true match for a cow cf distinctly feminine form and cliar-

acter is a bull of strongly marked mas- ' culine character.'

! . Tho truly masculine-looking bull be- | comes the sire of heifers of refined feminina type, and the truly feminine-looking , vow'the dam of bulls distinguished by i masculino grandeur. There are, of 1 course, exceptions. Wo must make nllow- : ances for ill-assorted couples, whose olf- ; spring are sometimes exceedingly dis- ; appointing. AVhen a coarse, gaunt, i rough-looking oow is mated with a bull of strong male character, it is not un- | likely that her 6on may grow up a bull altogether lacking the sex assertion of ! his sire. He may have size, yet a head . more like that of an oi. or like that ; of his dam, than that of a bull; a neck , wanting the massive crest of the arch; j long and ox-liko horns, and n frame generally; ou tho lines of ilio form of 1 the ox, not of the bull.

i. In .different families of Shorthorns, ; and also of many other breeds, the hore- , ditary tendency to produce milk differs i considerably, in some t'lio milking pow- ; er seems to be lost. Probably it is not i irrecoverable, but when it lias been long I negle6ted restoration is usually a work i of long time, unless hastened by the introduction. of strains of blood in which | the milking power is great. To work up' i from, had milkers only, especially if the | deficiency of milk has been long a cliar- ; acteristio of the breed, is a slow, yet by I >io means a hopeless, process. . . The restoration of milking 'powers, j once great, after only a short interval ■ of neglect and consequent loss is comi paTatively easy, and may be even (mick- ! ly effected. Ihdeed, under conditions favourable to the production of milk ; rather than to the growth of beef we I often 6ee,. without auv special and conducive effort on the breeder's part, in- ;> stances.of : reversion to th* great dairy j properties of a family, in which the pro- : duotion of milk had been lessened either ' by neglect or by special, efforts to ini crease, at all costs, tho production of ■ beef.

13. impossible to lay down any positive rnlo as to the government of colours in Shorthorns, because the laws which govern them seem to elude exact discovery. Eeversion and atavism have a good deal to do with it... A lew general principles are acknowledged, such 11s, for instance, that the offspring of a red animal and white animal should be

roon, and that a white animal will not produce a red, nor a red animal a white. , Particular facts, however, present ex- < ('eptiona to these well-cstnblished general propositions. There have been e.i- ---■ ample 3of two red animals and also of ; two whites producing roans. "With reygard.to the alliance of white and roan, . Federally the colour of their ofFsm'ing ■ will be, not as many suppose, a diluted Toan, a roan paler than that of the roan . parent, but either roan of quite as dark ; tint, or pure white.