Stud Cattle Breeders' Page.

Southland Times, Issue 20633, 3 November 1928, Page 15 (Supplement)

Stud Cattle Breeders' Page.

NEW RED POLL BLOOD

A £5OOO BULL.

AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. INFLUENCE OF BREEDING. A CHANGED VIEWPOINT. The show season is upon us and farmers and breeders are looking forward with interest to keen competitions in the show rings. The influence of such functions on live stock breeding can, perhaps, scarcely be over-estimated, but the following taken from the Field sets out some of the advantages of the Agricultural and Pastoral Shows, and the changed viewpoint regarding them:— Not very many years ago agricultural shows were looked upon as social or sporting events rather than as the serious business affairs into which they have now developed. The showing of live stock was an expensive hobby, and most exhibitors treated it as such. Many landowners kept pedigree stock in a pubic-spirited endeavour to set an example to their fellows and to improve the live stock of the surrounding district. Others kept up their herds and exhibited their best animals in a spirit of friendly rivalry’ with their neighbours. But comparatively few regarded their live stock interests as a commercial proposition, and the percentage of ordinary farmers who ever dreamt of exhibiting an animal was almost negligible. To-day all that is changed, and it is safe to say that most exhibitors look upon an agricultural show in exactly the same spirit that the manufacturer regards the trade fair—that is, as an opportunity to display his goods to possible customers. And a large proportion of the exhibitors of the utility breeds is now composed or ordinary farmers. There are, however, still a number of sceptics who refuse to believe that agricultural shows are of any value, though their ranks are being thinned every day. They call themselves commercial men, and are rather proud of the fact that their stock are not show animals, while for pedigrees they have a profound contempt. They usually justify this position by telling one that their neighbour once bought a show bull which proved useless as a stock getter, and from this solitary instance they condemn shows and pedigrees as unworthy of the attention of practical men. It must be admitted that this point of view received considerable support during the boom period five or six years ago. All sorts and descriptions of people, with little or no experience, took to pedigree stock breeding. The result was that a vast amount of very poor stock was sold as pedigree, and pedigree stock generally got a poor name in consequence. In addition to this many of the new-comers to the game could not understand the difference between fatness and fitness, and some of their show animals were treated in such a way that they were perfectly useless for breeding purposes, thus encouraging the view that exhibition stock is no good to the ordinary farmer. But a system is not to be condemned because it is occasionally abused by .its followers, and most practical men realize that the show yard is of the very greatest value to the live stock industry. Show Ring Judging. Animals in the show ring are, in theory at any rate, judged to scales of points laid down by the various breed societies. And these scales are drawn up after the most careful consideration by practical breeders. It is true that sometimes a certain feature is given a value out of all proportion to its utility. Thus the possession of a black nose has nothing whatever to do with the amount of milk which will be given by a Guernsey cow, yet it is sufficient to disqualify an animal from obtaining a prize in the inspection ring. But unless an animal be required to pass some tests apart from the purely utility ones we should lose the breed standards altogether, and should soon find the different breed types merging into each other. Apart from the pure breed characteristics, however, the scales of points are very similar for all breeds of a similar class. Thus the points for dairy cattle are alloted with the idea of giving prominence to those features which denote milking capacity; beef cattle and pigs are judged on their fitness for the butcher’s block; sheep on their possibilities as mutton and their quality of wool; while farm horses are considered as draught animals. In Great Britain animals are not often judged on the score card system which is popular in some other countries; that is to say, the judge does not take each exhibit point by point, and allot so many marks for its head, so many for its neck, etc. He judges the animal as a whole, and places it accordingly. But in practice it will be found that when a good judge has placed all the animals in a class they will usually occupy very much the same positions as would have been the case had they been score-carded; because the scale of points referred to has always been drawn up by the leading judges, and represents their view of the relative values of the different features. Although, as we have said, the official scale of points for any breed represents the ideal to be aimed at, there is one respect in which it fails utterly, and that is in assessing the value of “character.” An animal may be perfect in shape and symmetry, but if it lacks that indefinable something known as “character” it would be rejected by any good judge or breeder. And this is the reason why we prefer to let the judge do his work in his own way rather than force him to score card every animal. “Character” is recognized at once by a natural judge of stock, but it is very hard to assess in value of marks to be awarded. Object Lessons. It may be taken, therefore, that the prize-winners at a big show do represent the best type of animal of their own breeds from a utility point of view; and as such afford object lessons to breeders and show them what to aim at. Probably even the confirmed sceptics, the most hardened “no-use-for-show-stock” men, are subconsciously influenced in their breeding ideals by a visit to an agricultural show, and it is certain that shows have played and are still playing a most important part in developing the live stock industry of this country. From the exhibitor’s point of view, however, a show must do more than tend to improve the ordinary stock of the country if it is to help him. It may be very nice to feel that one is helping along the live stock industry, but such a feeling will not pay the rent. The exhibitor, therefore, expects show yard successes to lead the way, directly or indirectly, to increased sales at remunerative prices—and they almost invariably do. A success at a local show often results in a local demand for breeding stock, possibly at only a little above ordinary commercial prices; but as local shows are usually the hunting ground of exhibitors who have not yet reached the stage of showing at the bigger events such a demand is of the utmost value. But a success at one of the national shows may well result in business from all over the world. It is hard to estimate the volume of business arising from the Royal or other large show. The orders may not come immediately or dirfectly, though many of them do, but they percolate through for months afterwards and come from the most unlikely places. But if breeders are to reap the full advantage of successes in the show ring they must follow it up by advertising. A manufacturer whose goods are awarded a gold medal at an exhibition does not rest content with hanging the coveted award up

in his office: he tells the world about his success and brings it to the notice of possible customers. Why, then, should the exhibitor of a prize animal do otherwise? Why should he expect the great buying public which was not at the show to find out about his success for itself ? A flock or herd which is successful in the show ring must contain good stock; but the public has a very short memory, and unless it is reminded of these successes from time to time it will forget all about them and place its orders elsewhere.

The temperature inside various types of hats was tested on a recent hot day in London. The highest record was the black silk hat, 103 deg.; next came a lady’s blue felt cloche and a ventilated black bowler, both 98deg.