A CHEAP BULL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18257, 16 August 1921, Page 6

A CHEAP BULL.

About the year 1914 John Brown and Peter Jones were farming in New Zealand. They had adjoining farms ot lot) acres each of the same quality of soil. Each man milked 30 ordinary cows with no particular breeding about them, and each year the average of each cow was IbOlbs butter-fat.

In the year 1914 Peter Jones had the offer of a young bull Butterfat’s Boy for £5O. This bull was bred from ancestry that had been great producers. In looking over his pedigree one was surprised to see how often the letters C.O.R. or A.R.M. appeared in his pedigree and ue was a pedigree bull. However, it happened that John Brown got a chance to pick up another pedigree bull. This bull was called the Duke and was offered to him for £lO. He looked a better bull than Butterfat’s Boy but none of his ancestors had put up a record. However, he was £4O cheaper and it takes a lot of hard work to earn £4O, especially when ,a man is short of brains and intelligence, so John Brown bought the cheaper bull and saved £4O. It happened that hisneighbour Peter Jones bought the bull Butterfat’s Boy at £5O, and as Brown from year to year saw the two bulls in the paddock he often chuckled how he had saved £4O, for there was no doubt the Duke was the handsomer bull. The years rolled on and at the beginning of the dairying season 1 920-21 Brown and Jones were each milking 30 .cows, daughters of their pedigree bulls, the Duke and Butterfat’s Boy. At the end of the season Brown’s cows had averaged. 1501bs butter-fat, while Jones' cows, the daughters of Butterfat’s Boy had averaged 3001bs butter-fat, or 1501bs for each cow more than Brown’s cows, or to bring it down to simple equations 30 of Jones’ cows equal 60 of Brown’s cows. At 2/- per lb but-ter-fat Jones earned £45 0 more lor the one season'than Biown. But this does not take into account the extra profits for the last five years, the extra capital value of Jones’ cows nor their estimated future value. Let us get back to 1914. Which was the cheap bull, Butterfat’s Boy at £5O or the Duke at £10? The Duke was the expensive bull. Up to the present time he has cost Brown about £1000; he has lost the start in the race, for Jones has just bought another bull with a record, - his dam has put up 6001bs of fat, while all his ancestors on both sides are producers.

In five years hence he hopes to breed from his present cows a herd that will average 4501bs of fat. It can be 'done, but one must get the right bull, It is false economy to buy a poor bull . In fact, it is .criminal. You are wasting the best years of your life, you are wasting the agricultural resources of the country. You are retarding production, all because of a short-sighted policy and a false economy, a penny wise and pound foolish policy, where you save £4O in 1914 and it grows into loss of £lOOO in 1921. If New Zealand is to lead the world, the dairy framers of New Zealand must be intelligent enough to put a bull at the head of the herd that is going to appreciate and not deteriorate their future herds.