Arizona republican., 1920-01-23
PAGE TWO
DAIRY MEN SEEK
 BETTER HERDS

For reasons of economy most dairy men look to bettering their herds by the natural increase. but if the sire is no better than thed am there is no hkelihood Of improvement.
 It has been frequently said, and we'll said, that the bull is half the herd. The better the COW the better will be me heifer. for like begets like" is the strongest law that breeders know. put if the bull is inferior to the COW then the heifer will be likely to be inferior also- But if the COW is in ferior and the bull is from a long llne or heavy milking cows. there is a strong likelihood that the resulting progeny will be several degrees better than her mother
 Few dafrymen can afford to own a pure bred herd, and it is just as well that it is so for there are many who nave neither the time nor incuna ton Tor a systematic study of the laws of results.
 There are few dairymen. however. that can afford not to own a pure pred pull, though we don't have far to so no matter which way we travel to ma dstrymen using a scrub or grade "uIt. that IS quite often selected be- cause he is pretty to look at, and sell uom because that he has come from n long line of ancestors bred for milk or butter production.
 The trouble with too many dairymen IS that they do not stop to give the matter sthought-suppose you have 20 cows that are fairly good. you head them with bull from your neighbor's s Herd- The bull is out Of a cow that has been good miliIer. so he said: ms sire was a pure bred bull. Ali right; that is good as far as it goes but you don't know about the ances- try of his COW. It may be that she had some ancestors that were not of the best milking stock: it may be that she is n sport" or mutation as the breeders say nowadays. and that her progeny will take back to some of her non -producin< ancestors. Now we said d moment ago that like begets like" k the strongest law of the breeder and so dt is. but the next highest law is that pf atavism. which is the tend ency ot an animal to take back 10 some ancestor beyond the first, and of course the proba biIity of its resem- bling an ancestor is proportionately smallersthe farther back you go nevertheless. there is always that pos sioility.s and the law is strong enough 70 that there is the probability that at least one e-fourth of the progeny may take back beyond the first generation. With the COW who will not be likely 10 drop more than six heifer calves in her lifetime We can well afford to take this chance. but with the bull whose progeny may be ten to twenty heifers in single year we cannot afford to take any chance.
 In selecting d bull it should be re- membered that there are scrubs among he pure breds. some animals that are not producers are only allowed to live because they are pure bred and regis tered. and with the hope of selling the progeny to some sucker such animals are kept in the herd. The point is don't be a sucker 1T you pay for good bull you are entitled to know something Of the stock from which he sprung. Find out whether or not his mother was q heavy milker of rich milk. then his grandmother on both sides should be known 10 be good pro ducers-
 IT the owner k evasive or has 10 record Of those ancestors you can per haps form an opinion by carefully studying the form of the mother and grandmother. but if impossible to do this it is better to buy Of q breeder who has records of the production Of his cows. IL may cost more. but it will pay.
 Now the question may come up. what can l afford to pay for a bull for a herd Of grade cows. Well, let's use a little more arithmetic. You have 70 cows; you will use the bull three sea- sons for the herd though at the end of the second season you will purchase another for the heifers of the first season that are to be bred, but in the