THE RIGHT TYPE OF BULL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3494, 22 February 1921, Page 8

THE RIGHT TYPE OF BULL.

Perhaps the most important factor in the improving of our dairy herds is in the use of the proper sire. No doubt a good deal can be done to appreciably affect the annual milk returns by judicious yet generous feeding of stock, by testing and eliminating the unprofitable animals, etc., but the quickest and only rvay ro improve the breeding lies in the introduction of new and better blood through the purebred sire. If a good and proper sire, he is more than half the herd; if a poor sire, he is all the herd, thus endorsing the old saving that “the 'bull is half the herd.” Why work with a crossbred bull, or even with a bull from a beef-producing strain, when the idea to keep in mind is the improvement of the dairy herd? Far better to secure a bull of dairy type, and be content to turn off steers, may be, that possibly do not always appeal to the owner of fattening acres. There are any amount of buyers of steers from dairy herds—owners of rough or hilly land—who can “do” with a 1 ight-bodied steer, Able to scramble about rough faces, always provided these same steers of a dairy type have been well done in their calfhood. Generally, it will be allowed that there is a vast difference in the progeny of a “scrub" bull and a purebred, but there is not such a very great difference in the price, all things considered. It may be there is a purebred at the head of the herd, but it does not necessafS»_follow that a great stride in advance has been made as far as production is concerned. By bred-for-production we mean that he has in his ancestry a number of high-producing dams. A bull of a dairy type, but un known as to the performances of his ancestors, to our way of thinking, is of small worth. Pedigree is not everything. A good pedigree, besides giving the ancestry of the animal, should show four things: (1) The milk and butter fat records of the cows in the pedigree; (2) the records of any sons or daughters of animals which appear in the pedigree; (3) any show ring records that the animals have made ; (4) it may show any remarkable sales made bv animals whose names appear in the pedigree. A good pedigree should show good milk and butter-fat records by the immediate ancestry of the bull whose pedigree we may be considering. It is the case, in this country particularly, that a animal may be a very good one, but owing to tlie owner's neglect of recording returns, he has nothing to testify to her ability, and hence when he wishes to sell the off spring, buyers, as time rolls on, will look askance at the animal and bid a “boiling down” price. Very different, however, if the owner can produce records vouching some excellent returns away back to the animal’s g.-g. dam. Provided all is satisfactory in respect to pedigree and records, our attention next turns to the individual. Pedigree in itself is of no earthly use without constitution and size. The former we must demand, while the latter is a factor well worth having in a dairy bull. In a general way, in the ..making of a herd, an improvement from year to year in the annual output per cow should be the main consideration, and the bull which heads the herd should have better records than anv cow in the herd. This is apparent when we consider that the blood strain carried by the bull represents 50 per cent, of the blood that will be carried by his offspring ; n that herd. The real test as to the value of a dairv sire depends on his power to improve the production of that herd. Thus, it is essential that he should be kept until lus daughters have freshened, and we know whether they are better or poorer than their darns. If they are better than their dams were at the same age, then we can safelv say that this improvement is due to the sire. If the contrary, it is time to look round and secure a more satisfactory animal. “Do not sell vour dairy sire for beef just because you have used him in your herd for two years,” says D. S. Bullock, of Washington. Many a good dairy sire, that was making great improvement in the herd, has been condemned because the owner did not know his value. Port Hill Farm Chief, the sire of Sophie NIX of Hood Farm, the former world’s champion Jersev cow, only had three tested daughters, and was slaughtered before it was'known that his daughters were such remarkable producers. In getting a new sire to head your herd, one thing should be kept in mind—viz., that he should be better than the last one you had, and so make for improvement. One can forsee the time when “short pedigree” herds with such a practical milking foundation aa outlined above will have a special value, and rival quite old-established families. They will, indeed, be sought by every

dairy farmer who is awake to his own interest and who sees in the building up of his dairy herd a relatively easy way whirl Ulderlng the , burde, ‘ of taxation w ell seems inevitable in the near future.