Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1909-09-14
Cross-breeding Doesn't Pay.

ocrat, Paris. Ne.
Cross-breeding Doesn't Pay.
&C. ID. Smead, V. 5 In Tribune Farmer.)
While it is true that the crossing of
breeds in some instances has produced
some individual animals high in merit,
it can just as truthfully be said the prac-
tice always has been and always will be,
when considered as a whole, disastrous.
Percheron mares can be bred to Clyde
or Shire or Belgian stations and some
grand individual foals will be the result,
or vice versa; but when these foals are
kept as breeding animals it is safe to say
FIVE out of every six of them are quite
inferior to either of the parents. The
Poland-C China can with degree of Ger.
tainty be crossed with the Berkshire,
and litters that are fine produced, but 1t
is rare, indeed, that the second litters
from these crossbreds are ever equal to
the parents on either side. The Ayr
shire and Jersey cross well together;
also the Jersey and the Guernsey, and
some grand cows at the pail have been
thus produced. But, like the crossing
of swine or horses, we rarely find when
these crossbreds are bred to crossbreds
that calf is produced that is equal to
either the sire or the dam.
The few breeds have named are
those between which a similarity exists.
None of them is extremely different in
its nature or general conformation. |
have so chosen them to show more fully
that even where breeds are quite alike
there is nothing gained in crossing
them. | now desire to speak of crossing
breeds that are dissimilar in conforma-
tion and disposition, as the Holstein
with the Jersey, Ayrshire or Guernsey.
All of these are dairy breeds; not any OF
them of beef tendency.
Wherever in this country We find the
blood of Holland prevailing quite largely
we will find the black and white cattle
mainly; where we find Scotch blood pre-
vailing we find Ayrshire cattle and dod-
dies and the Clyde horse. In country
where the blood of Old England prevails
we find the Shorthorn ana Hereford cat
tie. If the locality is beef country
largely, the Dutchman will have desire
to cross his beef cows with Holstein
bull, TO get little more milk, and if the
people are English and the locality is a
dairy section the farmer is desirous of
seeing if Shorthorn bull will not pro-
duce a better calf if crossed on his Jer-
sey, Guernsey, Ayrshire or Holstein cows.
Thus it is when we travel through the
dairy districts of the United States we
rarely find any uniformity in the dairy
herds taken as whole. The scrubs,
am sorry to say, are in majority. In
proof of what am saying l have only to
call the attention of the reader to the in
uuiries that | have answered in the
Tribune Farmer for the last few years.
How frequently do we see one like this:
my Dear Dr. Smead-I am in trouble.
| have splendid cow, five, six or seven
years old. She is half Jersey and
half ShorthOrn. bred her, or bought
her when she was two years of age, and
she was a fine mixer. have taken the
best of care of her and fed her as you
aud others have advised in the Tribune
Farmer; but she now fails to get in calf.
Or, while she is the picture of health
and is really fat enough for beef, she
produces now only four, five or six
quarts of milk, while last year and other
years she produced from twelve to six
teen quarts at milking. Can you tell
me, doctor, how to get her in calf, or
why she does not produce more milk"'
Now, this is a sample of many inquiries
that come to me to answer, the larger
percentage being, you will note, from
those who own cross bred cows, especial
ly where a milking breed has been cross
ed with beef breed.
II is true that from so abrupt cross
as between Shorthorn bull and Jer-
sew COW, or a Jersey bull and Short
horn cow, a heifer will many times re-
suit which will when she first comes in
milk be one of great promise, and may
continue to be until she has given birth
to from three 10 four calves. Then the
heiter, having her full growth, will be-
gin to take on flesh, and her milk pro-
ducing function, which she inherited
from the milk producing parent, will be-
gin to grow less and less in spite OF any
line of feeding that can be advised.
Thus il is that cows bred in this way
when they should be at their best as
milk producers are simply worthless as
milch cows. In the west, where beef
production is a larger industry than
dairying, it may be advisable to cross
high grade Jersey cow with Shorthorn
or Hereford or Poll Angus bull, and the
owner may be enabled to get some
heifers which will pay fairly well for
two or three years in the dairy and then
can be sold TO the butcher. But this
plan in a general way is not profitable
Que. Cow beef doesn't pay well enough
to breed for beef in that way, and it
costs tco much TO run dairy with heif-
ers. A better way, where it is desired
to run a dairy in connection with beef
cattle, is the one practiced few years
ago by A. W. Trow of Minnesota. He
kept high grade Jersey herd of cows.
His best ones he used pure bred Jer-
sey bull upon to raise heifers to replen-
ish his dairy with, and the Others in his
milking herd be used beef bred bull
upon and then fattened every calf TO sell
as yearling beef.