VALUE OF BULL

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3183, 28 May 1932, Page 7

VALUE OF BULL

“ WORTH 20 GOOD COWS.”

“ One good dairy bull is worth 20 good cows,” said Mr Thomas Scott, in an address to the Hampshire Milk recording Society at Winchester recently.- Mr Scott is engaged in the investigation of records of bulls for both the South Devon Cattle Society and the English Guernsey Society, and believes that while much benefit has been derived from the recording of cows probably much more will come from the proper keeping of bull records.

Mr Scott says he can go round his own Devonshire district and find 50 good cows sooner than he could find one good bull. In the course of his survey of South Devon cattle he had come to the conclusion that only one-third of the number of bulls were fit, and the remaining two-thirds were probably doing more harm than good. The only way of obtaining a successful bull, he says;,; is to get hold of one that had already proved he was a producer of good milking stock, but a problem arose as to the choice of a young bull. Many of the best bulls were slaughtered before they had a chance of finding out their merits, but by suitable regulations it might be possible to select young bulls with promise, and see they were not slaughtered till the time came when they could be tested as to whether they were really good or not. Mr Scott told the Winchester gathering that he thought the bull sale business wanted organising a little if British breeders were to maintain their supremacy as the worlds best breeders of dairy cattle. In South Devon they were fortunately situated; their breed covered a small district, and there was scarcely any other breed in that district. But as a whole the organisation of the bull business was not going to be so easy, because of the many breeds.