The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1911-02-02
Community Breeding.
BY Carl Gaumnitz, Manager of
Johnston Land company's
Dairy Farm, Butler, MINI.

4. 4. 1. 4. + + 4. + + !. + !. I. 1. i. j. +
The highest object of breeding is to
secure animals whose usefulness Is
greater than that of their ancestors.
By community breeding" we mean
simply the getting together of farm
ers. deciding upon some breed to raise.
then buying and using bulls in part
,, nership.
Such breeding is neither an expert
ment nor an impracticable idea, but it
is a plan which has been fully worked
out not only in foreign countries, but
also in the United States. The Guern-
sey and Jersey Isles afford good exam
pies Each of these isles is about the
size of one of our townships, but new
ertheless each sells hundreds of thou
sands of dollars worth of cattle an
nually. In this country, Waukesha
and Jefferson counties in Wisconsin.
Rice, Pine and st. Louis counties in
Minnesota, are noted just because
they are raising one particular breed
of dairy cattle.
The Mortified Breeding Associa-
ton. in Rice county, has been in opera
ton comparatively few years; still
the farm bank-deposits have been
doubled. The community has repu-
tation for producing Holstein cattle
Even grades are being sold at an aver
age of SIS and the pure-breds are in
demand at fabulous prices If this
can be done at Mortified, it can be
done in other sections. The matter
rests entirely with the farmers of any
community.
Hereinafter Of increased production
Is really the object for which 10 strive:
for believe we perhaps think too
much of the selling Of the stock which
we get from better breeding. BY the
use of good sire, the farmer should
increase the production of his herd fifty
pounds of butter per cow. At 80 cents
per pound, this would make an in
crease of SIS per year per cow Such
wanted. There would then be no
sgrade cows for sale for several years,
because the farmer would want the
heifers to grow up, have their milk
weighed, tested, and the poorer ones
then culled out. Bull calves should
not be kept or sold for breeding pur.
poses. 1t is not expected that all
farmers will breed purebreds, since
this is science by itself, but one can
select sire with high producing
ancestry; then select his daughters
by the scale and tester.
Only few sires really possess out.
standing merit; so they must be tried
and found out by their offspring.
When thus proved. they become real.
ly valuable.
When a community is organized for
cooperative breeding, these tested and
tried sires may be passed about from
one farm or group of farms to the
next farm or group. In this way one
avoids untried sires, and keeps the
valuable sires as long as they are
useful. BY cooperation several men
or groups of men can do very cheaply
what would seem nearly impossible
for one man to do alone.
If this plan is adopted and followed
out by groups and communities of
farmers throughout the state, it
would no doubt add thousands of dol
lars to the revenue of the communi.
ties. and millions to that of the state.
The fact that it has been done else
where is sufficient proof that it can
be done in any community in Mime
sofa, if farmers will only get together.