The Influence of a Previous Sire

Southland Times, Issue 18059, 31 January 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Influence of a Previous Sire

It was at one time generally accepted that the horse with which a. mare was first mated exercised a certain influence, not only upon the particular foal produced as a result of the first service, but also upon the subsequent offspring.

even though the mares wero mated with other sires. The researches recoatly conducted by Professor Cossar Ewart have gone to show that if thero is anything at all in this theory, its influonco is smaller than was at one time supposed. Indeed, the most careful observations on the part of our most successful breeders have, for years gone «o show that if there was anything in it. it was so very .small as not to be worth taking into account in every day breeding operations. Somo years ago, an experiment was carried out by a well-lqnown Scottish breeder, with the object ot testing to what" extent, if at all, tho supposed influence of this first sire affected the subsequent progeny of a number of ewes. For this purpose of this experimcrat, six half-bred shearling ewes crosses between Cheviot oweß and a Boarder Leicester ram were selected, and mated with a Southdown ram. The lambs from this cross showed distinct Southdown character. In the following year, and the three succeeding seasons, t^ie same ewes were mated with a Border ram, and in not a single instance could the smallest resemblance be traced between these lambs and tho sire with which the ewes were Hrst mated, that is the Southdown.