Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1909-11-12
A LESSON IN DAIRYING
By Ira Il. Whitney, Instructor mt
Washington State College

oie large NUMBER or dairy
men today who are depending upon
keeping up their herds by purchasing
cows from time to time. We can find
nerds throughout the country that
were started fifteen or twenty years
ago that have been kept up by this
method; and, as result, the herd is
no better now than when first started.
In many cases, 1t Is not as good, and
the owner of such herd is loud in
his declarations that there is no
money in dairying.
lie is manifestly impossible to build
up dairy herd by buying the cows
needed to maintain the herd, and
such being the case, the dairyman
must arrange to raise his own COWS.
Nowadays we find many dairymen
who are breeding their cows to any
Kind of a bull, their idea being that
any bull is good enough, so long as he
brings the cows in milk. Those
same dairymen realize the necessity
of raising the heifer calves to re-
place the cows that are being dispos-
ed of and consequently will save the
heifers from the cows which they
consider are best in the herd. These
dairymen do not realize the truth In
the statement that 1.-The bull Is half
the herd" They think that because
COW Is a good producer, her daught-
err will naturally be the same, never
giving one thought to the sire.
1t is quite a common practice for a
man who is starting a dairy herd to
breed his cows to his neighbours bull
for the first year or SO; and when one
OF the best cows in the herd presents
him with nice bull calf, to keep the
calf to breed his herd. Such prac-
tice cannot be too strongly con-
demned. Let us say, for example,
that the mother of the calf he is saw
ing will produce $50 pounds of but
ter fat per year, and we Judge the
dairy COW by what she produces. The
sire of the calf Is of no particular
breeding, but If he were about the
same grade as the COW, we would ex-
pect that the calf would partake of
the characteristics of his parents, and
he would, in measure, at least trans
NIT these characteristics to his off
spring. The sire, then, which has
been saved to head the herd, Is capa-
BILE of transmitting the qualities that
go to make up a two hundred and
fifty pound butter fat producer. Let
us say that this Is the average pro-
duct of the herd which he Is to head.
1t Is to be expected that under these
conditions the heifers will be any
better than their mothers? Certain
ly not. The grade sire then must be
condemned for the dairyman can
not afford to take chances with him
With the right kind of pure bred
sire, and by right kind" Is meant
one in which the desired character
istics have been fixed by long and
continued breeding, and is in himself
first class individual, we are rea-
Sonably sure that we will get the kind
of heifers that we desire, especially
when we are using him on grade
COWS which have no firmly establish
ed characteristics.
Let us, for example, take a sire
from strain of animals that are
producing five hundred pounds of but
ter fat pc ryear, and let us use him
ter fat per year, and let us use him
to three hundred pounds. Is it not
reasonable to expect that the heifers
of those cows will be better than their
mothers?
1t is essential also, in building
up the dairy herd, to know what each
COW in the herd is producing, for, in
order to accomplish results as rapid
ly as possible, the heifers should be
saved from the best cows, as they
would undoubtedly be better than
those from the poor producers. The
dairyman should require all of his
cows to come up to certain stand
ard of production, and he should dis
pose of all of those who fail to do
so. BY this method he will be able to
raise his standard from time to time,
and after a few years will have
herd of grade cows that will rival
the best pure bred herds in the coun-
try from the standpoint of produc-
ton.