Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1914-01-17
PRACTICAL BREEDING FO
PRODUCTION.
FOR
by Guy H. Miller, before the State
Dairy Convention at Tulare.

The following article is quite
lengthy one, but it is strictly to the
point in regard to breeding up dairy
herd that is worth while. The dairy
business in this valley ought to be
made, and can be made, wonderfully
productive business, and this article
tells you how to get the best herd
possible Read it through and profit
by it. For that purpose we have Civ
en- it space.
AS this is dairy and creamery
convention, | take it for granted that
the majority of those present are
financially interested in herds of com
mon and dairy cattle to a greater ex-
tent than in registered herds of any
of the dairy breeds. | will, therefore,
in discussing the subject of breeding
for production conhne this paper to
the subject as applied to butterfat pro-
duction in the herds of our dairy sec
tons.
These herds are largely composed
of cows that have some Shorthorn
blood of the range as foundation,
and are for the most part sired by
various grade bulls, each of which
shows some of the characteristics of
one of the leading dairy breeds; and
the result is herds showing a general
collection of varied types. Grade
herds showing uniformity of breed
ing throughout are the exception. In
many herds one sees lanky, black
cows showing a dash of Holstein
blood; thick-neckeded yellow cows
with mealy noses showing in color a
dash of Jersey Blood and brindle
cows, gray roans and white and red
Shorthorn mongrels, many of them
ready for the butcher. AS breeding
foundation this kind of herd is not
the most promising, and as produc-
ing herd this kind more often than
otherwise ranks low. 1t is quite a
climb to breed such foundation up
into herd contaiing the two most
desirable characteristics of good dairy
stock, namely, uniformity of appear
ance and the uniformly high individ
ual production.
1t should be the aim of every dairy
man to breed herd that shows as
whole the general type of one of the
well known dairy breeds and he
should make choice of one of these
breeds in the beginning. In buying
cows to make up foundation herd he
should select cows with large barrels,
good milk veins and milk wells, COWS
free from decided beefy tendency.
These cows should show that they
carry some of the blood of the breed
he has selected. This is not only best
ing appearance in his herd (and uni
formly pleasing appearance is quail
ity of commercial value), but it is best
from the practical standpoint of
breeding for production. 1t is an evil
dent fact that the sire who is expect
ed to get heifers that will be an i'm
provement on their dams will succeed
best where he has the least opposition
of general type and characteristics
to overcome in the cows that are to
be the dams of these heifers. In other
words, bull will succeed best mated
to cows whose type and breeding are
most in harmony with his own. A
large black and white COW showing
many of the Holstein characteristics,
if bred to a thoroughbred Guernsey
bull, is never likely to produce heifer
that will resemble thoroughbred
Guernsey 1t should be the policy of
the dairyman to breed up his herd as
near to the type and capacity of high
lass purebreds as possible.
The Guernsey, Holstein, Jersey and
Ayrshire breeds of cattle have been
bred for untold generations with more
or less intelligent effort with the pur-
pose in view of establishing them as
distinct individual breeds of cattle that
were noted for their ability to pro-
duce sufficiently large amounts of
dairy products to make them the most
profitable to maintain for dairy pur-
poses. As facilities for determining
the dairy merit of the different indi-
vidual animals have been invented and
perfected breeders have made greater
progress in establishing and intensity
ing this inherited quality of each
breed in the line of its own special
characteristics, as for instance, one
breed produces large quantities of
milk of a relatively low per cent of
fat; another breed produces a small
err amount of milk of relatively high |
per cent of fat The crossing of ami
mails of two such breeds often pro
duces cows giving a relatively small
e n. 4 4