Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1919-06-10
A $4,000 Guernsey Bull Calf.

Recently the Maine Agricultural
Experiment Station published bulletin
274 which enables the dairymen to dis
tinguish between the bulls of the Guern-
sey breed which improved the breed and
those which did not. This bulletin
takes this axiom a. its fundamental
postulate,-the most important thing
which breeder of dairy cattle desires
to know 10 whether BULLS transmit
ting production qualities to his offspring.
If by chance the bull 10 on the average
lowering the producing qualities Of bis
daughters, or that they are poorer In the
butter-fat of their milk than their dams,
1t would appear that he is exercising .
harmful effect on the breed. On the
other hand II this bull is producing an
increase in the amount of milk, In its
richness, or both, In bis daughters over
that of their dams he may be said to be
influencing q beneficial effect on the
breed. These facts are tabled for the
Guernsey bulls who have advanced regis
try offspring. Since 1t often comes up,
as In the case of this $4,000 calf, that
the prospective buyer wants to deter.
mine bulls potency for high milk and
butter-fat transmission 1t may be we'll to
point how bulletin 274 may be used for
this purpose using this two months old
bull calf, Florham Leader, for illustra-
ton.
Two conclusions previously derived
from milk studies will also be considered
as measurably true. high milk produc-
tion is dominant to low and high butter
fat per cent il reoessive to low butter.fat
per cent. Tracing the sire's side of
Florhsm Leaders pedigree for milk pro-
duotion, etc., we have King Of the May
bred to COWS of q rather high average
production and butter-fat percentage
raising the milk production of his dsugh-
ters over that of their dams 1847 pounds,
the butter.fst percentage .006 per cent
and making . net gain of 93 pounds Of
butter.fat. This animal bred to the
high milk producing cow but on the
whole only medium butter-fat test cow,
Dolly Dimple, produced the bull Dolly
Dimple's May King of Langwater. This
bull raised his daughters production
461 pounds, raised their fat per cent .781
and made net gain of butter-fst of 103
pounds. This bull clearly had the in
herited stuff for medium to high milk
production and high butter-fst per
cent. Bred to the cow Imp. Itchen
Daisy Sd q COW Of rather high milk
(14945) and rather high butter.fst per-
centage produced the bull Ne Plus Ultra.
This bull bred to COWS of medium milk
production and only mediocre bItter-fst
percentage raised the milk production
of bis offspring 2145 pounds, butter-fat
percentage .152 per cent and the net
butter.fat 121 pounds. This bull, the
sire OF Florham Leader, had the heredity
material for high butter-fat per cent and
high and medium heredIty stuff for milk.
Florhsm Leader, from his sire would,
therefore, be expected to get, bred to
high test COWS, high test ofispring. he
may have either high producing factor
or medium producing one for milk.
On the dams side, It is clearly shown
above that the dam of Florham Leader
would receive high milk production and.
rather high test from her sire Dolly
Dimple's May King Of Langwater.
From her dam, Early Rose of Raritan,
she received only mediocre milk produc-
tion and . rather high test for the but
ter-fst percentage.
With the law of dominance In mind
Florham Leader has . good chance to
carry in their complete purity high milk
producing stuff that will make all his
daughters high milk producing, q slight
ly better chance to carry these factors
80 that part of his daughters should be
high producers and part medium pro-
ducers and some chance to have the
medium factors only. In butter-fat per-
centage he carries the factors for high
percentage 90 that II be is bred to high
test COWS oil his offspring would be
expected to be high butter-fat testers.
This illustration briefly indicates what
may be done with bulletin 274 for deter
mining the worth of Guernsey bull
Chss. D. Woods, Director.