The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-10-22

should be pure-bred animal,
strong, healthy and well formed
But he may be all of these and be
worthless as sire. If he Is to an
swer the purpose for which he is
kept he must be able to transmit
the qualities of good dairy COW to
his progeny. A few bulls will do
this in marked degree, but only a
few.
In choosing sire we need to pay
particular attention to the history of
the family from which he comes. A
few years ago l bought grade Jer-
sey COW of a neighbor. She was near
ly pure bred, but not quite. She was
noble animal. Three of her heifers,
In fact, the only ones l have ever
known about, were remarkable pro-
ducers. l have two of them now. l
seldom milk either of them without
thinking of that old grade COW. For
practical use on the farm, would
rather risk a bull from such COW
as that, even though she were q
grade, than to take chances on a sire
from family that l knew nothing
save that they were registered ami
mails.
Bulls Pedigree Important.
Now, kind reader, do not make
any mistake-I am not advising the
use of a grade sire. am only try
ing to show that after all, it is the
family from which the bull comes
that gives or does not give, reliable
promise of his future usefulness.
Still, after all, the only way to
really know sire is to try him out.
A number of the daughters of one of
our association bulls will freshen
this fall, and we are anxiously
awaiting to see the result, for this
will be the final test of the real
worth Of the animal into which we
have put our money and large
measure of our confidence. II these
heifers turn out as we'll as we hope,
the days of this bull will be long
on the earth. If they do not, then
we can get rid of him and try again.
No matter how prepotent the sire
may be, the individuality of the COW
must always be considered. A few
years ago one of our neighbors
bought two cows in nearby county.
One of them proved to be of little
value, but the other was the most
remarkable COW that has yet been
owned in our community. What was
still better, she was producer of
heifer calves. Several of them have
grown to maturity and in each in
stance they have been great pro-
ducers.
1t takes time to build up dairy
herd. Ordinarily, the cow produces
only one calf each year, and lot of
these will never be cows. If the
years were long enough one might
use a very ordinary herd of cows as
a foundation, and by breeding to a
good sire he might some day have
an excellent herd. But life is not
long enough to wait for results from
poor cows, even though they be bred
to good sire.
The man who is to produce herd
that is really worth while must have
at least one or two excellent cows.
II these cows come from the right
kind of family, that is to say, if
their dams were good cows, and if
good cows are the rule among those
nearly related to them, then there is
little doubt about the result when
we are fortunate enough to get
heifer calves from them.
Do not understand that l would
not keep a heifer calf from an or
dinary COW. Dairy products are in
good demand and an average COW
will produce some profit, but the
dairyman should ever look forward
to a time when the average COW in
his herd will have given place to
the great producer Of butter-fat OF
milk, as the case may be. We will
keep these fairly good cows for q
time, but we will ever look forward
to a day when it will no longer be
necessary to have them in our hero
because we have enough at last tha