HERD IMPROVEMENT.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1279, 10 August 1922, Page 6

HERD IMPROVEMENT.

LINE-BREEDING AND INBREEDING

CONSOLIDATION OF TYPE,

INCREASING BUTTER-FAT PRODUCTION. Information of considerable value ito dairy farmers as to how to breed stock as to improve their type and increase their production was imparted hy Mr A. E. Mis/sen, of Hamilton, a well-known authority, at the meeting of the Morrinsville branch of the N.Z. Farmers’ Union on Saturday night. Mr P. S. Philpott presided over a fair attendance. Yalue of Feeding. Before touching on the important subject of breeding, Mr MAssen said be would like to refer to other and hardly less important branches of the business —feeding and weeding. It was quite unnecessary to dwell overmuch on the subject of feeding. The dairyman might spend a fortune in breeding and selection of stock, and yet make little headway unless he attended to 'this very important branch of his. business. Unfortunately few farmers fed their stock either well enough or wisely enough. The majority underfed their stock'. Few dairymen realised that the old saying was true, that half the breed went down the throat. It was essential that feeding should be continuous, summer and winter, for the winter feeding of dairy stock played a very important part in summer production. Grass was the natural food of the cow, and Af there was an abundance of good rich succulent grass litlte else would be needec] to help the increase and maintenance of milk and butter-fat. Mr Missen stated that without generous feeding the benefits of scientific Again, by generous feeding the “ boarder”, or “ cull” cow could be more easily and more quickly detected. Too many farmers kept too many “boarders.” The “ cull” would consume just a: much as the good cow, but instead of putting it into the bucket site put it on her back or wasted it.

The Scales and Tester. In every shed there should be a set of 'scales and )a testing outfit, for only by the scales and Babcock te ter could the “ robber” cow be detected. There was now on the market what was known as cow-detectors, and some of these had proved to be quite reliable. Herd-testing was shortly to become a very important branch of the dairying industry, and steps to put the' recommendations of the Morrinsville Union into practical form were being taken. In a very few days he hoped to s°e the Union’s "work bearing fruit and he’rd-tesiting taken up enthusiastically in the Morrins> villa district. Eventually he hoped to see the whole Dominion benefiting by the commendable efforts of the Morrinsville branch of the Farmers’ Union. The “Bobber” Cow. Mr Missen isaid he could tell of numerous instances where the “robber” cow had been sold and resold year after year through the farmer not having storne systematic method of being able to identify his neighbours-’ culls. He was .in hopes that this state of things would not continue much longer and that the cull would find her proper place—the butcher’s block or the boneyard. Scientific Breeding 1 .

To the .speaker’® 'Way of thinking what he had already placed before the me'eting, important as it was, it had its limits and would never carry the dairyman further than being the ordinary cow-puncher. Feeding, weeding and breeding should go. hand in hand, and who could tell the limits it was possible to attain by the scientific breeding of dairy stock ? Who among those present would have thought it .possible 20 yeans 'ago to have cows producing up to 19991 b and 12001 b of.butter-fat in one year ? And yet there were cows in New Zealand that had done it. Mr Miissen believed it was quite possible by careful selection and breeding to still further increase the production and go far beyond what had already been attained.

Increasing- Production. Of late years line-ibreeding bad come very much to the fore. Linebreeding was destined to play /a very important part in increasing the but-ter-fat production of the herd and raising the standard of .production. He ventured to predict that within five years from now New Zealand’s average will rise ito 2001 b butter-fat per cow. Breeders of all breeds ot pedigree cattle had for many years been working on the line-breeding-theory. Among the Shorthorn breeders Collings Brothers and Mr Bates adopted this method of .improving their stock, and practically,the whole of the English dairy Shorthorns were descended from stock bred and reared -by these founders of the dairy Shorthorn English and Channel I?<land stock breeders had shornn a capacity for selection unequalled in iany other part of the world. involution of Types. Line-breeding involved inbreeding,

but inbreeding was not line-breeding. Evolution of types had been brought about by this method. In the Shorthorn, Bates established their type hy inbreeding and maintained it by linebreeding, and probably no other breed of dairy stock was inlbred to the same extent as the Bates’ Shorthorns. Sires were mated to their own daughters and again to their grand-daughters.

The Jersey Breeders.

Jersey cattle breeders bad .systematically followed this method of improving their herds from both a type and butter-fat point of view. lit was argued by some that line-breeding and inbreeding must have the effect of destroying constitution, impairing vitality and eventually ruining the' herd. That no doubt would follow if carried on indiscriminately or in the hands of the novice, for it was admitted that if certain desirable characteristics were transferred from parent to offspring, so also would the undesirable traits be transmitted and intensified. Breeders of all the breeds' of dairy cattle had realised the importance of > line-breeding, and the most typical among the various breeds were those that were linebred. Many of New Zealand’s best producers were line-bred cows. Among the Jerseys: there were many line-bred cows, heavy producers, and a study of the pedigree would go to show the value of this method of selection and breeding.

Following 1 a Strain. By line-breeding Mr Missen said he meant following right through the pedigree a certain strain. For instance. take the well-known cow Zinokin, which as a three-year-old produced 6491 bof butter-fat. Zinokin showed preponderance of the Twylish blood. Any animal having, say twothirds of a given strain, could be called line-bred.

Preserving the Type. Too many breeders of pedigree cattle were inclined to rush for big production and sacrifice type. Although a cow might put up a. phenomenal record it did not always follow that the' progeny of that cow would inherit the characteristic of their dam, Out-crosising might take place through a sire of a different Line 'being used and the two lines not nicking. This, of course, referred especially to pedigree stock. What probably interested the majority of farmers was : “ How am I going ito improve my grade herd ? Can ,1 linebreed on ordinary dairy stock ?” What he had slaid with regard to line-breeding referred to pedigree ■stock, but it was possible to follow it in connection with grade stock. It was most essential that fanners should have pedigree animls at the head of their herds. If it was true that half of the breed went down the throat it was also true that the hull was half the herd. In connection with the pedigree hull it was advisable •to buy the best that could he got.. The majority of farmers rushed for the hull that had the 'butter-fat backing.* That was a mistake. He would rather have a hull that came from a line of producers than one whose dam only was an exceptional producer. Interesting Points.

Other points in Mr Missen’s lecture, ■were :

Bates’ Shorthorns contained 90 per cent, of inbred blood. The majority of farmers had too much land. With less land they would have less work, lessi worry and better returns.

If feeding, breeding and weeding were followed up on systematic lines in a very short time New Zealand’s average butter-fat production per cow would be, noit 1601 b, but over 2001 b, and very possibly as high as Denmark’s.

In New Zealand there were cows producing over 9001 b of butter-fat per annum, and he believed that it whs possible for them to produce over 10001 b for one lactation period. Breeders/ associations were giving prizes to the owners of cows which put up these performances. One could not commend too highly the work of the Government in connection with its semi-official testing. Semi-official testing, even when the fees were £lO 10s for the first cow, and ; a sliding scale of fees for the dairying was the country’s main industry. 'he thought the Government .should do everything possible to help along the breeder who was prepared to pay high prices for stock in order to increase the standard of production.

All dairy fanners wanted money, and the only way they could get it was by increasing the butter-fat production of their dairy stock. If farmers wanted to consolidate the type of their stock they could not do it better or quicker than by linebreeding. Some of New Zealand’s noted cattle bad 90 per cent of the same strain of blood in itlieir veins.

People might sav that cattle of the same blood must be a mongrel lot, but there were no better cattle in the world than those of the K.C.R. strain, which were raised on the inbreeding and line-breeding system. The constitution of the cattle in the Channel Islands was the finest in

the world, and those cattle were inbred and line-bred. Too many farmers were apt to make too much of production and sacrifice type. If the breeder got away from type in the Shorthorn he would have a mongrel in appearance. It was the' farmer’s bounden duty to encourage production, but not at the cost of type. Two pedigree animals of different strains might not nick. He mated a Magnet Boy bull with a cow of the Sultan blood. The offspring was, a mongrel, “ of precious little use as a producer or as a show animal.” Its parents did not nick. The majority of farmers kept their hull's three or four years and then got rid of them. If the progeny were better than their dams the owners should stick to the hulls, for this was the only way in which to consolidate type and promote butter-fat production. If the farmers had to get rict of the bulls they had they should buy others of the Same strain, as those they had disposed of. By doing this they would make better progress than they would by jumping from ' one strain to another.

It had often been remarked that a grade herd was a better producing herd than a pedigree herd. Occasionally it might be' so, but nine times out of ten the pedigree was better ■than the grade. It was only the pedigree strain, in the grades that made them any good at all. It was also said that a pedigree herd 'did not have the constitution of a grade herd. That was not true. The pedigree was a better constitutioned beast than the grade. In the pedigree there was no foreign blood. Where there was foreign blood the constitution was being weakened instead of istrengthened. In the Island of Jersey no importations of foreign cattle were allowed. The restu.lt was there' was na tuberculosis in the cattle of Jersey Island. There was no other country in the world that could give the same record. That was proof enough that the pedigree was stronger than the grade. “ Whatever you do, see that the head of your herd ist a pedigree bull. You will take a deeper interest in your herd and in your work. There is nothing so absorbing ais the breeding of pedig)see cattle.”

Young breeders of stock were making names for themselves in New Zealand and slome had sold stock for as high as £BOO.

“ Feed, and feed liberally, breed, and breed carefully, weed, and weed carefully, and if you do I 'am quite sure you will make progress.”—Morrinsville Star.