SELECTING SIRES & COWS.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16152, 29 November 1924, Page 18 (Supplement)

SELECTING SIRES & COWS.

' IMPORTANCE OF RECORDS. It is generally believed that like tends to produce like. Consequently, when selecting a herd sire, or cows to pul in the herd, a good deal of attention is paid to the records of the immediate ancestors. There are some who lay a great deal of stress upon this, and rightly so; but, on the othor band, they should not forget that breed, type, and character should be taken into consideration. Some go to extremes on type, pedigree, or performance, and as a result build up a .herd lacking in uniformity, or else iliey may have a magnificent looking herd, but one which does not pay its way. It Is advisable to use judgment when selecting the animals in order that one may secure an animal of good type, with a choice pedigree, backed by good performance. Many are not good judges, and in this case they would profit by getting advice from someone' who has had experience. Some are good judges from a conformation standpoint, but are a failure in selecting animals from a production standpoint. Experience has shown that the best bred animals may produce inferior, offspring, but, on the other hand, there is less likelihood of failure where there is good breeding than with nondescript breeding. Mr J. W. Gowan, of the University of Maine, who has made a study of the Jersey and Holstein breeds,, claims that the. performance records offer a much better means of choosing dairy cattle for milk yields than does type or pedigree. Speaking before the World's Dairy Congress, Mr Gowan said: "The milk yield of the dam predicts the probable milk yield of her daughters quite accurately. Thus, the average milk yield of daughters coming from dams of 12,0001 b milk yield was 16,1061 b, and those coming from dams of 26,0001 b milk yield was 23,279. The milk yields of the daughters increase as the milk yields of the dams increase. A similar relation exists for the butter-fat, percentage contained in the milk; the datn's record has a good deal of value in predicting the butter-fat: percentage of the daughters. A cow also indicates the milk yield of her fullsister quite accurately. In faet, a full-sister's record is as good for predicting the milk yield of a cow as the record of the dam of that cow.. The same .is. true for the butter-fat percentage,, a cow's butterfat percentage having a correlation with her full sister’s butter-fat percentage equal to the correlation between the butter-fat percentage of daughter and dam. In a similar way the great disadvantage of not having a record of the sire may in part be obviated by a record of the full sister since the relation between the butterfat percentage of full-sisters is as great as it would be between the butter-fat percentage of sire and daughter, were it possible to measure directly the butter-fat test of the sire.

Dairymen are more and more realising the importance of the long-term test. Purchasers are asking for records, and are willing to pay a premium for animals that have a high milk and butter-fat record. Many dairymen are actually losing out in their sales by not having kept milk records. Even in the farm sales a grade cow will go up considerably in price if the owner can state accurately the quantity of milk and butter-fat produced in a given time. Not only is the cow herself worth more, but the chances are that her progeny will also be good producers. Sometimes there will be an outcrop of bad blood, and a good cow will throw an inferior calf, but this is no argument against the fact that there is an inheritance of milk production as well as of type.