Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-10-31
Tail out the Herds and Flocks.

| Winter is coming on-the period
on most farms, Of expensive feeding
1t is. therefore, not advisable te
carry anything through the winte,
except the best stock. On every
farm there are more or less inferior
animals, animals that have not paid
more than the cost of their keep,
some that have not paid that much;
animals that are bound, sooner OF
later, to lose the farm money. Now
is good time to get rid of them;
sell them at some price. If not in
condition for sale put them in con-
dition during these favorable months
for feeding and get rid of them.
One of the most difficult problems
on the farm is to keep the live
stock tailed out; to get rid of the
improbable animals. If the unprofit-
able COWS were weeded out there
would be reduction of one-third on
every dairy herd in every state in
the west. 1t is not SO important to
keep other classes of stock tailed
out. because the keeping of these
does not ordinarily require the labor
that is connected with dairy cows
but there are COWS that will never
pay for the corn to finish them.
There are colts that will never make
good horses. Why not tail up the
herd at this season of the year when.
they look better than they will IN.
the spring and when al the i'm
provement that is to be made can be
best made on grass. Unless this
matter is looked into pretty carefully
the farmer will accumulate lot of
stock that will lose him money from
year to year. There are always men
who will buy poor stuff, provided
they get it cheap. These are the
fellows that are desirable customers.
If they cannot pay, give them time;
but get rid Of the inferior stuff be-
fore winter comes on. Use the knife.
One of the reasons why Great
Britain maintains her supremacy, or
at least her reputation Of breeding
good live stock, is that there is no
market from breeders for any but
the best. For these there is usually
splendid home and foreign market.
Hence, the English breeder uses the
knife freely on his male stock and
makes a close Gull on the female
stock, and in this way keeps his herd
up to the standard. Unfortunately,
in the United States. great many
breeders think that everything that
sports a pedigree has value. 1t
would be hard to make a greater
mistake than this. The law of
variation rules in all herds of live
stock. Variation is both up
ward and downward, and unless the
breeder uses the knife freely on the
inferior specimens and puts his in
ferior males and females into the
fattening pens he will soon have an
over supply of inferior stock and
lose his reputation as breeder.
We know just how difficult it is for
the farmer to use the knife when he
is satisfied that some fool neighbor
will give him $50 for a bull that is
not worth over $25 or $50 as a
steer. From the commercial point
of view this seems to be dead loss,
but if he ever expects to build up a
reputation as a breeder and give all
his neighbors to understand that
everything that comes from his
place is first class he must use the
knife freely and must carefully Gull
out his stock, whether that be hogs,
cattle, horses or anything else. If
the inferior stuff in the herds Of the
United States was sent to the sham
bles and nothing but choice stud
offered. much higher prices woule
be realized at public sales; therff
would be much more real profit to
both buyer and seller and the stand
ard of breeding of all kinds of live
stock would bevery greatly advanced.
Remember that q poor thorough:
bred is not worth any more nor as
much as high grade of individual
ity. Neither Of them are fit to use
on the farm. A thoroughbred in
breeding and a scrub in qualify is
a very dangerous sort of animal to
introduce on the farm. The breed
ers' associations have long since
realized the Importance of this free
use of the knife and some have en-
deavored from time to time to in
troduce rules that would compel a
farmer to use the knife on tenth
of his males. All such regulations
are bound to be Ineffective. There
is no person can carry out this plan
Except the farmer himself and he
must do it, knowing that for the
time being he is throwing away good
money, but with a certninity OF re-
covering it, and far more, retaining
a reputation for offering on the mar
ket as breeding stuff none but
first-class animals, we'll bred and Of
a high individual merit. A repu-
tation of this sort is worth every
thing to the breeder, and he cannot
expect to win the greatest success
until he acquires that reputation
which can only be acquired by the
close culling of all breeding stock
and sending to the shambles every.
thing which is not up to the stand
lard, without regard to present loss