Imperial Valley press., 1913-09-10
Breeding Horns on.

it is synopsis of an address deliv-
cred by Prof. w. J. Spillman, Of the
department Of agriculture, pertaining
to Mr.. Stevenson's experiments with
Holstein cattle, and goes on to say
that che at present is of the opinion
that the polled trait in our various
breeds of domestic cattle is probably
dut to the fact that in their origin
from the wild breeds of cattle, three
types were intermingled. First, the
solid horn type, with the honey hon
eycomb interior structure, carrying
an arterial circulation, that were rig
idly attached to the skull. Second,
the loose or dwarf-horned type, the
horn consisting simply of the shell
attached loosely to the skin so that
they could be moved with the finger,
and not fast to the skull. Third, the
pure polled type"
Mr.. Stevenson also thinks that a
careful tabulation of the results in his
herd will result in the discovery of
some principle not now understood,
which will enable breeders t. forecast
the qualities and characters rvhich will
result from any mating. Hy has had
experience of thirty years with herd
of grade Holsteins, and he now be-
lieves that concerted effort on the
part of Holstein breeders would result
in establishing the hornless trait uni
versally in the breed He also thinks
this can be done without sacrificing
the dairy qualities in any way, as his
own cattle without horns are of high
dairy quality and from good families
of the breed Mr.. Stevenson started
his herd by securing every naturally
polled Holstein that he could learn
about. They were all good individuals
of good pedigree and satisfactory per
formance. This is an interesting thing
to all Holstein breeders, for without
question most dairymen realize that
the horn is of little if any practical
use to dairy COW, and it could be
bred away without lessening the
actual dairy value of the individual
The following extract is taken from
the paper:
Where one parent is cross bred
and the other pure polled, half the
calves are pure polls and half cross
breds. Where one parent is cross
bred and one pure horned, half the
calves are cross-bred and half pure
horned. But where both parents are
cross-bred, we get the surprising and
interesting result that one-fourth of
the calves are pure polls, one-half
bred and one-fourth pure
horned Herein lies the hope of the
breeder who is trying to get rid of the
horns on a horned breed He can,
by using male of a polled breed,
get any number of cross-breds. Then
by mating these cross-breds, one
fourth Of the progeny will be as pure
polls as if they never had a horned
ancestor When once a pure polled
animal is secured, he wilf-Rever get
a horned calf, no matter what COW
he is bred to. But a cross-bred is of
great value. BY mating him with
horned cows half the progeny will be
cross breds. These -breds can
then be used in producing pure polls.
at is therefore possible for the
breeders of polled Jerseys to intro
duce into their herds the best blood o.
the Jersey breed. If the blood thus
introduced carries the horn character,
the polled calves resulting will be
cross breeds, but from them can be
obtained pure polls carrying the best
blood of the stock
"A very important practical point
to the breeder of new polled breed is
how to tell a pure poll from cross
bred poll. This is fairly easy in the
case of males, hut less so in the case
Of females. In the first place, if the
animal has scurs even minute ones, it
is cross-bred. If it has no sign of
scurs it is proba bly, pure polled, but
this point has not received sufficient
investigation to render it certain
whether cross-bred5 always have
scurs. | think it is probable that they
do. If so, then we have an infallible
means of deciding whether a polled
animal is pure or cross-bred with ref
erence to the poll character.
"ln tie absence Of definite krowl-
edge on this point there is still way
to settle the question whether given
animal is pure polled or cross-hred
polled, especially in the case of the
males. 1t should be remembered that
a pure poll never gets horned calf,
though his calves may have scurs if
the cows had either scurs or horns
Cn the other hand. if the male is a
cross-bred poll, whether he has scurs
or not, half his sptrn; will carry the
horn character. Hence, if he be mated
tc horned cows, about half his calves
will be fully horned On the average
Of a large number Of eases it will be
almost exactly hall. II depends on
whether the eggs of the horned cows
are fertilized by one or the other kind
of sperm, which the malo produces in
equal numbers"
A practical rule, therefore, for de-
termining whether a young polled
bull is pure or cross-bred poll is
to mate him, say, to a dozen horned
cows. If dozen calves thus produced
are all polled, or have only scurs, then
the chances are that the male is pure