DEHORNING PROBLEM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19990, 5 November 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

DEHORNING PROBLEM

BREEDING AS A SOLUTION Pacts Are Produced In An Interesting Treatise Opinions expressed at a recent meeting of the Wanganui Agricultural Association, indicated that there was a good deal of controversy locally on the subject of dehorning cattle. The Scottish Journal of Agriculture for July, 1927, issued by the Board of Agriculture, publishes an interesting treatise on the subject, and introduces an aspect which has not yet been considered very seriously in New Zealand—the dehorning of purebred stock and the breeding for a concentrated polled influence. The article has a particularly Scottish application and interest, but the principles outlined by masters of live stock breeding should not be without interest to all cattlemen.

Facts arc dealt with, and the article records facts. It uses these facts in order that they may guide those who are endeavouring to produce & race of hornless Ayrshircs. It reviews the history of polled breeds in America, of breeds which are still horned in the main, but of which there is a purebred ■ section which are polled. It shows how 1 this condition made its appearance in certain established breeds, and to what; extent the condition was promoted by the deliberate crossing of horned stock by bulls that were polled. Both methods of securing the polled condition have been resorted to. Th© article does not commit itself to any verdict concerning which method is the better adapted to the end in view. Th© names of the authors, Sir Robert Greig, L.L.D., M.C., and Mr A. D. Buchanan Smith, M.A., C.Sc. (Agr.), are a sufficient guarantee of caution and reserve. The number of “polled” Shorthorns (registered) in the United States is equal to that of all Shorthorns in Scotland, and there are more “polled” Herefords in the United States than there are horned Herefords in England. Economic reasons led to the first efforts to establish polled strains of recognised cattle breeds in the United States. The packers protested against the losses they were sustaining from bruised meat in'the carcases of horned cattle. They claimed that these losses were equal to a difference of 5 to 10 cent per 1001 b. in favour of dehorned as against the horned beasts. About 1870 breeders set out to dehorn their cattle by using n. Shorthorn bull on polled cows of various breeders or of unknown ancestry, and breeding in and in to the progeny. In 20 years’ time they had succeeded so well—records having been kept—that their standard for registration was four-fifths Shorthorn blood in the sire and an equal proportion in. the dam, and in 1905 they “closed” their book. The cattle so registered were, of course, not purebred Shorthorns; they are known as ‘ ‘ single standard ’ ’ Shorthorns, recognised to be deficient in respect of the 100 per cent, standard, but we imagine that to all intents and purposes they are a pure breed. The ‘ ‘ double standard ’ ’ strain of polled Shorthorns, or as they were technically designated, “polled Durham” cattle, springs from five “ sports” which appeared in pure-bred herds of Shorthorns descended from cattle registered in Coates’ Herd Book. These five, three heifers and two bulls, are all entered and numbered in the American Shorthorn Herd Book. The most influential of the five was Oakwood Gwynne IV., Vol. XV., p. 803, A.5.H.8., and strange to say she was the only one of the five that had slight scurs. Mated first as a registered bull, which by his name was of Bate’s breeding, this polled sport produced twin heifer calves, both roan and both horn-

less. Mated next with a different bull, but again by his name to be judged as of Bates breeding, she produced a red hornless bull calf. One of the twins mated to an ordinary pidegreed Shorthorn bull produced a hornless heifer calf, the other mated with her red hornless half-brother dropped a polled heifer calf. Mr Miller, of Ohio, got possession of these cattle and knew what to do with them. He kept within the f<j©r corners of the registered .Shorthorn breed, and from these descendants of Oakwood Gwynne IV., and in a less degree from the descendants of the other four “ sports O referred to the highly useful race of pure-bred polled Shorthorns of the United States has been evolved. The point is to keep a sharp look-out for polled “sports” in horned breeds, and make use of them to breed for a. concentrated polled influence in the breed.

Such polled “sports” are not unknown in Scotland. Mr William Niven, Pitlivie, Carnoustie, had one in his herd in 1918, registered as Winsome of Gowrie, Vol. 65, p. 999, sire Crown of Pearl (135998). Be it observed that her dam was a cow of Wild Eyes breeding, purchased from Mr W. C. Hunter of Arngask. Winsome’s first calf by the pedigree bull. Royal Gem was a polled bull with loose scurs, born in 1920. Two bulls, horned, were afterwards born, and then Winsome produced as her fourth calf, a polled heifer, Sunbeam (777751), by Garbity Royal Flush <171821). Cases of similar sports are recorded among Guernseys and Herefords, and there does not appear to be any sound reason why they should not be found among Ayrshires, if only they are looked for, and not sent to the butcher because an outrage on breed type. After all the branching horns in the Ayrshire, which impart such majesty to the showyard favourite, are a comparatively recent importation, and as eager a devotee of the breed as the late William Bartlemore admitted that they were the result of a West Highland cross introduced into the influential herd of Parker of the Broomlands.

The old-fashioned Dunlop cow had the “crummie” horn which still characterises the Swedish Ayrshire. Of the clear commercial value of a polled Ayrshire there can be no sort of doubt whatever. The process of dehorning by artificially preventing the growth of horns is effective as far as it goes, but the history of the “Polled Durhams” is demonstration of the greater effectiveness of the utilisation of the “sport.” ’The first double grandson of the American polled Shorthorn cow Oakwood Gwynne IV was Ottawa Duke, produced "by mating half brother and sister. He lived until he was 10 years old, and left 129 registered offspring. He never sired a horned calf. The lessons of this story are obvious.