The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1905-08-10
THE TssT or PRODUCTIONS
q Il More Important, Says II. .. Mat.
tsson, Than That Of Pedigree In
Fixing Value Of Cow.

II is . flne thing to build up and i'm.
prove q breed Of cattle, but fear that
most breeders make q mistake in pay.
ing too strict attention to pedigree and
such little attention to the performance
Of individuals. On this account animals
sometimes 80 out into sections where
they are given an individual test, and be-
Ing found wanting. the result is there is
at once q prejudice against the breed,
when in fact the trouble is only with the
individual animal. For instance, at .
fair where q competition for butter
fat prize was offered, In one case found
a Holstein COW whose milk showed only
two per cent. Of fat, and as she was In
that test. this low percentage was
known to all dairymen present; the re-
suit was that in that particular section
the demand for Holsteins was not stim-
ulated. The same was true in the case
Of a Jersey COW whose pedigree was Of
the best; yet when she came to trial In
one Of these butter contests, she showed
only three per cent. of fat in her milk.
It certainly ought to be known TO all
breeders Of cattle that while we are told
that like begets like, there are many in
stances where this does not happen.
Hence the necessity for more earnest
study Of individuality and q careful
wedding out. know It is hard, when q
breeder has an animal that so far as
color, form and all other characteristics
of the breed are concerned is perfect, to
send such an animal to the butchers
block Just because she may fall far be-
low what her breed would call for In per-
formance; and the temptation to sell her
to some one Of the many who want to
buy thoroughbreds, but do not like to
pay much more than scrub prices, must
be strong.
All the greatest records ever made In
this or any other country have been
from herds built up, not on pedigree, but
on performance. wish to refer you to
one herd Of the kind would recommend
1t Is that on Commissioner Wieting' q
farm at Cobleskill. Here are some 81
cows Of all the breeds known, but each
individual COW In the herd was selected
from what her performance had been
regardless Of any pedigree. They will
show q years record of quantity and
quality Of milk that is second to nc
herd.
So much for breeding ana wedding out
Now for the one other important thing
toward success In building up the
best herds-that is, care and manage
ment. Too often there Is no methot
or regularity in anything pertaining
to the herd, except perhaps that ol
studying up pedigree, SO as to be able
to repeat 1t back for many generations
as q school child would the multiplica
ton table. II plans for caring for ant
handling q herd had been studied II
the same regular, systematic way tina
the pedigree is kept, It would be Of thu
greatest Importance to q successful
herd. It is too frequently supposed tina
the COW Is an animal that pays little o.
no attention to anything except chew
ing her cud, and that anything asid
from this would be of no account. From
many years experience with handling
and caring for them, am convince,
that no other animal will respond NOR
quickly, or to SO great an extent, a
will the COW to kind treatment and
regular system of feeding and milking
and that everyone who will adopt sucl
a plan will be surprised to see how sool
they will adapt themselves to regulari
ty In everything. and seldom II eve
make any mistake on their part. Abov
all things else. never make the mistak
OF putting the herd and its management
second to any other work. but max
everything else snbservient to that.