The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-04-20
The BrattlebcrO Meeting.

Breeding dairy cattle is receiving
more attention at present than ever be-
fore. Yet all observant breeders know
that the improvement in cattle for but
ter is not keeping pace with that of
mechanical appliances, although the
cow is the first requisite to success in
this line. We often see farmers who
have everything for success save the
one thing, a good dairy COW. They 90
on year after year trying to make but
ter from cows which are no better
adapted to that business than the
Clydesdale is for a race horse. This is
not the result of carelessness or indif-
ference, for many of them spend money
freely to bring their herds up to their
ideal, but the nearer they get to their
model the further they are from getting
a profitable dairy animal. Why? Be-
cause they are trying to produce ply
steal impossibility called general pur-
pose cow--a COW that will combine in
one carcass all the good qualities of all
the different breeds from the gross,
phlegmatic Hereford, which has been
bred and trained for ages for the pur-
pose of laying on flesh, to the highly or
ganized and nervous-tempered Jersey,
which has been bred and trained for an
entirely different purpose, that of Civ
ing a large flow of rich milk. No
amount of reasoning will convince
those men of their error. But it is no.
ticeable that they are the ones who are
always grumbling that dairying doesn't
pay.
Another class of dairymen, although
they acknowledge the superiority of the
pure breeds OF dairy cattle, have an
idea that successful dairy COW must
be large COW, and after adopting one
of the dairy breeds at once set to work to
improve it, as they think, by increasing
the size. The Jersey, for instance, they
consider good COW, but too small. If
asked why, they tell you that after she
has passed her usefulness in the dairy
she is good for nothing for beet,
whereas if they were larger they would
make a good mess of beef, and their
calves, if bulls, would make larger steers
and so bring in more money. This is
true, but first consider what we are
keeping the COW for. If for making
butter then we want the COW that will
| give the largest return for the feed
eaten. If the larger COW will not make
such return in proportion to her size
over the med um-sized ,One, she is kept
at loss. Few seem to realize that it
takes certain quantity of food just to
support the COW and keep her alive.
After that, what she eats goes into milk
or meat. Now the big COW of 400
will require just so much more food for
support than the medium one of say
900 pounds, as 1,400 is to 900. And un-
less the extra food eaten goes to the
production of butter loss is the result.
Keep this up for eight or ten years and
the big calves and extra 500 pounds of
old COW beef will not make the loss
good. We should first find out for
what purpose we want COW and then
breed the cow that comes nearest to
our needs.
am often asked what I consider the
best breed for the Vermont farmers.
My answer has always been, the Ayr
shire and the Jersey. If for the pro-
duction of milk alone, no breed will
produce it so economically as the Ayr
shire. Why? Because she is built on
economical lines. Originating on the
bleak hillsides Of Ayrshire in Scotland,
trained for years IN the school of adj
versity, improved by breeding and Sc
lection until she has developed just such
qualities as are required for the eco
nomic production of milk on our Yer
mont hill farms. And / have proved
to my own satisfaction, at least, that
she is capable of thriving and giving a
good flow of milk on ration that would
barely keep one of the large-framed
phlee matte Holsteins from starvation
But if butter is the object sought, and
in my opinion that ought to be the sine
qua non of Vermont dairymen, claim
that there is no known breed of COWS
that can approach the Jersey in the
economical production of frst-class
article of butter. Why? Because she
is the oldest and best established of all
our dairy cattle, having been bred pure
for over two hundred years for this very
purpose. If we examine the method
by which this was done we will find thai
the advocates of the general-purpost
COW are not only working against the
laws of nature, but are ignoring all the
experience of the past. AT an early
date the farmers of the island of jersey
were shut out by stringent laws from
all intercourse with other cattle, anC
were of necessity compelled to resor
to in-bre eding in modified form. Al
butter-making has always been tn,
leading industry, they naturally selected
for their breeding animals those wht
had demonstrated their superiority il
this line. This method of breedin!
being carried on from generation t.
generation, with the aid of gentle ant
kindly treatment, gave them race o
cattle possessed of predisposition tt
turn their food into butter which wa
simply marvellous, and with inherited
power to transmit the same to thei
offspring.