ARMED IN DEFENCE OF TYPE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 14 November 1934, Page 16

ARMED IN DEFENCE OF TYPE

Type Classification in N.Z. Proves Soundness of Show Ring Standards

Burins the last feu- months, much prominence has been given in New Zealand to the pronouncements and public utterances of Mr Robert Bouttloui', principal of the Royal Agricultural College. Cirencester, England, with regard-ter what ho describes as ••the type- fetish.” Lengthy accounts 0 f .several of Mr Boutflour’s speeches Jiave appeared in the daily papeis and many of the stock and farm journals here', and in many parts of the world, lYiit the'' writer has watched in vfun for any real attempt to take the English authority to task, or to refute and confound • statements which must appear, ridiculous even to a farm schoolboy, and which fairly clamour for the pulverising they deserve, air Boutflour is a man noted for his arrest ing statements, and some of his utterances in the past might well, have gone unchallenged in that, even although of an extremist nature, they were at least most refreshing. Perhaps, also, many of his critics have left him alone on the “give him enough rope” principle, but surely, metaphorically speaking, he is ripe for the hanging since hisT recent characterisation of show judging as “glorified fortune telling. Mis’castigation of the showring system is really astonishing and ill-consider-ed in one so well informed.

An able reply to critics of show ring standards for dairy cattle is given in this article by Mr C. W. Balmer, reprinted by courtesy of the “N.Z. Dairy Exporter. In this article the author gives a spirited answer to the arguments adduced bv a well-known English writer and shows that the New Zealand V.H.C. Jersey cows, seated solely on type, hold great production records. The arguments hold good of any breed and not solely applicable to Jerseys. This is an article which should commend itself to any student of the fascinating subject of stock breeding.

DOES TYPE OFFER A GUIDE TO

PERFORMANCE?

The crux of the whole matter is this. Does type offer a guide to performance? Will the blind following of performance lead to type? To noth these questions my answer is “ves.” But Mr Boutflour would answer “no” to the first, and that is where he and I differ. 1 would say, too, that attention to type offers the quickest road to production, while, in following the second course, we are taking the vert, very long way round, and ignoring the accumulated knowledge garnered over years of breeding and observation. We are setting ourselves to prove and learn all over again a truth which is hoary and venerable, and unquestioned, that Jtw.o and. two are four.

have a. bob on a horse, what form do they put <it on—outward form or running form? If they put it on the outward form they enter the class known as ‘ ‘ Duggie ’s Mugs. ’ ’

the deep, wedge-shaped chest,, the strong coupling, the powerful, driving hind-cjuarters, with good length from stifle t-o hock, the hard, flat bone, etc., been evolved solely and absolutely through attention to speed, and have the generations of master breeders which stand behind the modern racehorse. given_.no .thought to those outward manifestations -,ot speed.-when planning their breeding programmes Have they never even, regarded them

The writer goes on to say that, in his standards, lie has not laid down any standard of type because, frankly, he. does not know one. Standards change .and breeders of dairy cattle should go:out for efficiency alone and let,type evolve. “If the cow to carry

Whatever, the edifice we are erecting, whether it is of mud, of brick, of wood, of stone, or of flesh and bone, it must be built with a pre-knowledge of the various strains and wear and tear to which it is likely to be submitted during its lifetime and buttressed, reinforced, stayed, morticed, or moulded accordingly. The architect and builder know that for an edifice to stand up and give service it must be planned and built on certain very strictly defined lines. These plans are accepted as a standard for centuries, perhaps, and then an earthquake comes along and razes all their fine buildings to the ground. Docs this mean that the standards they have been following for years are all wrong, wrong from basement to battlement? Does it mean that the architects for centuries have been following false doctrines? Well, we have our own experiences here in New Zealand. Buildings are still going up, and, to the casual observer, they look much the same, but actually they have boon modified a little, the foundations have been strengthened, they are more strongly reinforced.

ENLIGHTENED BREEDING

PRACTICE

Mr Boutflour claims Ghat lucre has been no advance made iii the production of dairy’Rattle lot a century or so, and is quite happy to atlributo the blame for this to the. pernicious system of showring judging. \\ e have reason to believe that there are many great cows in Britain, and we find ■it hard to believe that there has not been, a marked improvement in- the general standard and average production of dairy herds of recent years. We in New Zealand are surely not- the only people to raise the standard-of our herds year by year. With us improved farming methods and general, management must, admittedly, he given a lot of the credit for improved average production, but. enlightened breeding practice has also played a part, the importance of which cannot be over estimated. That it is possible to point to a few English cows which nut un some great records a hundred years ago does not mean that no advancement has been made since that time. Just think of it. Somewhere about the year 2020, the old man is interviewed by the papers on his ninety-fifth birthday, when the herd which averages under 4501 b. fat is not too good. “What do I think of the dairy cows of to-dav.'” he snorts. “Why, let mo tell you, voting man, when I was a tiny toddler, there was a cow at Waitara that gave over 12001 b. of butter-fat. The cows of to-day, indeed!” then, are wo improving production by tho showring and its general influence, or in spite of the shawring? Is type a fetish, are type and production correlated?

GRADUAL MODIFICATIONS IN TYPE.

a good udder for a long time needs a ( certain tail setting, it will c-oinel along,” he says, “and if we breed for constitution by breeding from longliving animals, then the factors essential to constitution will come along also.”

as manifestations? I rather think they have. That a few champions have gone unnoticed by discerning .judges as yearlings or two-vear-olds proves nothing. They were probably slow in developing or were passed over for sonic other reason, but they evidence to a marked degree, in nearly every case, the attributes - that all keen breeders seek and use in their breeding operations. Phar Lap, for instance, was passed over as a yearling, yet in his final development we have never seen a horse whose form so eloquently bespoke power and speed. The man who had bought him on this .as a three-year-old, without knowing anything of his performance, would have been “on a winner.”

Type has not been altered fundamentally but the builders have added to their store of knowledge and strengthened their designs. Now builders work for strength, durability, or, summed up in one word, service. And that is precisely what the stock breeder expects from his cattle. Does Mr Boutflower suggest that the builder should discard the accumulated knowledge of years, the efforts for stately and beautiful architecture, and start all over again, putting up crazy, crooked buildings, putting them up as often as they fall down until, by a process of elimination and the survival of the odd ones that remain standing, we shall one day have a city? That is

“BUILT ON FALSE PREMISES.”

In the first instance, I must disagree regarding the discrimination used in the breeding of racehorses. The parallel is quite a good one if the statements, and deductions were true, but the argument is built up on false premises. Has type been utterly disregarded in the evolution of the racehorse? Ila-ve the fine,- sloping shoulder

WHAT IS REALLY WANTED

■ I ... To (Jo Mr Eoutflonr justice. Jus earlier statements on the subject were not'quite so sweeping, but here again there is the same apparent endeavour to drive the nail home by placing it head downward and hammering it on the point. With his aims, we are in entire, agreement;.with his technique, trifl- ~ Theso. aims he sets forth* briefly in tin- “article published and Stockfairness, we publish t!y: firs fc paragraph '.of this in fall: A CQi?,.shQjjidL»do the job wo keen her for, lTfi^pgiy;; 1 -tp'-giye n lot of milk. Now shy-can only do .this if she fulfils four

fl.oiig time rtnd keep free frn^U(..i3i3eaße;vl-.(uetv.- constitution). • , l ot of milk ner day regu- , .(S;)::tß.i'e.ed .tegnlarly. (if)"Produce similar offspring.

Xqjv, because I ask for this, some a£3nihe:.”:th'a£ Th-rtf hut for ugly cows, because I have not mentioned the set of .the tail, the. curl of the horn, and th»/colaur.-of the nose.. Do they really thinlV tliaT a ccw that will live to 12 years of-age and do the job the whole time is bound to be ugly? Has the raoeowncr, having bred the whole time for speed, developed an ugly racehorse, in spite of the fact that they never have classes for this type of horse at our shows? When these critics

tlio way lie proposes to go about stoclc breeding. Just as there are many different styles of architecture, Gothic, It Oman, etc., all built on the same broad principles, but differing superficially, so there are many different breeds of dairy cows—Jersey, Friesian, Ayrshire, Guernsey, etc. Their difference, which is superficial, we call breed type; their fundamental character, whcli is identical, we call dairy type.

Type, yes type, that is a word 'with which Mr Boutflour should familiarise himself, for it has a very definite significance and should have a very definite place in our breeding scheme. The English authority admits that he doesn’t know what type actually is, so perhaps we might enlighten him. It is the embodiment of the five essential points of a dairy eow—constitution, capacity, nervous temperament, blood circulation, and ability; in short, the very thing for which Mr Boutflour is socking.

CONSTITUTION DISPLACED IN THE COW.

■Does the fortune teller in the showring foster constitution? "Well, the cow must have wide or full nostrils, a well-developed open trachea, or wind pipe. Why? Just for fun? or because this enables her to take in freely the large draughts of oxygen which are essential for the clearing of her blood? Cows with small nostrils do not breathe appreciably quicker, which is the only way in which they could get even with nature, so we assume they

must get less air into their lungs. Whatever use the opcn-nostrlled cow makes of the extra air, or whether the above deductions are correct or not, the cow with a muzzle so pinched that she could drink out of a tea cup has never been known to have a good constitution as far as 1 know. 2Cext we examine the thorax and we want it deep, fairly broad, with wellspruug. fore-ribs, to allow full room and development for the heart and lungs. I say only fairly broad, because we find that 'depth is the characteristic most, closely associated with well-deve-loped heart and lungs. The beef animal is broader in the chest than the dairy cow, and yet has, on the at eiage,

a smaller heart and lungs. The racehorse is narrow in front, vet, like the dairy cow, is built for stamina. Then our cow must have bright, healthy eves. The eve is the barometer of the body, and excellent indication of health and constitution. But then a cow might have this open nostril and trachea, this Jeep -chest -and t\ clisprung fore-rib (no hollows behind the shoulders please, you fortune tollers), and these healthy, bright eves, and yet 1)0 a dud. That is because she must have all of the live essential points of a dairv cow. Back to your crystal, me lads!

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