PUREBRED SIRES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6900, 4 May 1929, Page 12

PUREBRED SIRES

Only 25 per cent, of the hulls at the head of dairy herds in the United States are purebred, yet thousands of purebred bull calves arc slaughtered for veal every year because there is no demand for them as breeders. Undoubtedly some of the calves are inferior and ought to be slaughtered, says W. E. Wintermeyer, dairy husbandman of the United States Department of Agriculture, but most of them are far superior to the grade and scrub sires that are now being used in many dairy herds. Many dairymen with small and me-dium-sized herds, which often contain poor cows, say they cannot afford to own a purebred bull because of the high original cost. In reality, says Mr Wintermeyer, these men can least afford to own an inferior bull.

In a publication issued by the Bureau of Dairy Industry, “Purebred Dairy Sires,” Mr Wintermeyer quotes figures obtained from the records of dairy herd improvement associations in all parts of the United States that show how rapidly a good dairy sire can increase the production of a herd of average cows. Cows in these herds having an average yearly production of 4,6i)51b. of milk and 1791 b. of but-ter-fat a year and mated to purebred sires, produced daughters that average 7,6071 b. of milk and 3001 b of but-ter-fat, a gain in one generation of 2,9121 b. of milk and 1211 b. of butterfat a cow.

This increase in butter-fat production at 2s a lb., is worth about £l2. Allowing about 25 per cent, for the extra feed required for tho higher production, the value of the net gain a daughter due to the purebred sire would be about £9. A purebred bull - would need to sire only a few such daughters to pay for himself and the yearly iniGomo would be increased by an amount equal to £9 multiplied by the number of his producing daughters.