The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-01-21
Live Stock and Dairy.
THE LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY IN TIE
SOUTH.
Building Up the Dairy Herd.


milk cow annually is about 1900
pounds that is the average for each
animal in the State. This means
that we have a great many that pro-
duce less than this quantity of milk
and great many others that pro-
duce above the average quantity.
BEGINNING TO GRADE UP.
It is possible to take any grade in
this aggregate and develop it to
profitable production. This is Un-
necessary, however, because every
cow is not needed for immediate i'm.
provement. Only a few may begin
this year to develop and improve the
land; consequently they will have
the advantage in getting for their
beginning stock fairly good animals
or those that produce between 2, 900
and 4, 900 pounds of milk.
This beginning stock should be
healthy animals, with good coats of
thin fine hair and fine soft skin
have marked wedge shape as de-
soribed in the last article and show
fairly good dairy type. One can
readily secure in any locality, good
mixers, that not only furnish good
quantity, but good quality Of milk
as we'll. Let this be the stock to
start with. They are grades or
mongrel stock, perhaps, but because
they are good mixers they will be
profitable from the beginning.
would urge the beginner to
KEEP A RECORD OF THE MILK,
80 as TO know exactly what each ami
NAL is doing. This will then be
valuable aid for the selection of
future animals for the herd. The
record will tell which are the. best
animals in the herd. You are anx-
ious to know this for the reason that
offspring from the best mixers will
themselves inherit the characteristic
of producing good returns in milk.
The great factor in building up the
dairy herd fl ON common stock lies in
THE BULL THAT HEADS THE HERD.
If he comes from line of good
mixers and good butter producers,
his offspring will have that same
ability. Inasmuoh as one halt of the
future herd will contain the blood of
the sire that heads the herd, it is
safe to say that the bull then is half
the herd. I would rather have five
poor COWS and an exceptionally fine,
we'll bred and purely bred bull to
start herd than five exceptionally
fine COWS and poor bull. Under no
circumstances should the dairy
farmer use a grade, or CROSS or scrub
bull. To do 80 would require years
of labor and pains to counteraot this
evil influence of such breeding.
BUT AS TO THE COWS:
While I would always advise the
purchase and selection Of pure, bred
sire with performance back of him,
would not advise the beginner to
purchase pure bred COWS. They are
in the first place too costly for the
average farmer and too delicate for
the beginner to handle. This would
be the suggestion that follows: Go
about your neighbOrhood and pur-
chase the better class of good milk
ers that are available. Take them
home and keep a record of the
amount of milk they give then test
with the Babcook tester to determine
the quantity of butter fat in the
milk that each gives. Then get a
bull; good one, a pure-bred one
and one that had mother that gave
a large quantity of milk. Put yOur
maOney that 10OuLd go to fancy cO1OS
IN q good bull Uith per- rformGrace back
of him.
WHY THIS PAYS BEST.
Let me illustrate the result of such
plan: Suppose you have good
COW that produces 5000 pounds of
milk each year. According to the
law that like Pegets like, the off
spring of such a COW would also
give 5000 pounds of milk. And
such would be the case if the bull
used had also come from a dam that
produced 5000 pounds. There would
be- no improvement to follow. But
suppose instead of the 5000 pound
bull. you had secured one that came
from a line of breeders that produced |
annually 10000 pounds Of milk. |