South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-05-27
GOOD SIRE WORTH
MANY TIMES COST
Some Pure-Bred Cows Worth
Seven Grade Animals of
Low Producing Type.
BY T.. c. BIRD


St Joe County Agricultural Agent
An ordinary dairy COW in 81. Jo-
seph county Will produce less than
1900 pounds OF milk per year test
ing less than four percent and max
ing less than 175 pounds Of butter
fat A number Of COWS in this coun-
try will produce $4,000 pounds Of
milk per year with over 900 pounds
Of butterfat. In other words. il
would be possible 10 replace a herd
Of seven COWS with one OF these high
producing cows and get the same
amount OF milk with a decreased
amount OF labor and cost of hand
lins.
But 1t is out of the question to at
tempt 10 improve the herd in this
manner. The big producing Holsteiu
or Guernsey COW commands a price
above her milk producing ability. be
cause she also has the ability TO pro-
duce calves that will carry her high
production TENDENCIES TO her or
spring.
Old Methods Not Successful
So the short cut in increasing the
milk flow of herd is not the COM
mon method Of turning them onto
washy grass in the spring. but the
practice of long ago followed in Den
mark and real dairy sections in this
country. That practice is the i'm
provement Of herds through the
pure-bred sire. Where herds are
small and one sire can be used for
several herds there is a wonderful
chance to pool" interests and bring
IN some real breeding.
Right here in ST. Joseph county
an opportunity was given breeders,
/ on May 19. to secure some of the
/ best blood lines in the Holstein
/ breed for herd sires. on June /. the
Berrien county breeders will make
like offerings for their breed at their
| annual meeting at Berrien Springs
Must Have Good Ancestors.
The new breeder and the dairyman
is beginning to recognize the fact
! that the registration alone does not
| fill the bill. The animal must be an
/ individual but most important Of all
/ he must have the ancestry back OF
| him. The closeness Of this high pro-
( ducing ancestry is exceedingly i'm
J portant A high producing female
/ or sire in the second or third gener-
/ alton back is much more valuable
/ than II is three, four or FIVE genera
/ tons back. The nearer the high
/ production is 10 the sire in question
! the more cash IL is worth. Then too,
the more high producing ancestors
in the pedigree the greater the
! chance for the sire 10 transmit pro
| ductiOn" TO his offspring
The passing on of certain qualities
| from sire and dam 10 offspring, has
often been likened 10 placing a lot
of beans in the bag and drawing
/ them out blindfolded For instance
! if half the beans are white, and half
are black and they are well mixed
you will come very close to drawing
out half white and half black If
/ three-fOurths are white and one
/ fourth are black. three-quarters
| of the beans you draw should be
white In just the same way if three
/ quarters Of the ancestry of a sire are
I high producing dairy cows. the
/ chances are that the big majority of
]
If on the other hand he has no
ancestry on which were high pro-
/ ducers. his female progeny will un-
/ doubleday produce less than their
! mothers. Top notch high producing
/ sires are out of reach of the average
man. But some Of their descend
ants can be purchased, and quite
/ easily so. if several men would pool
their scrubs for one good sire.
Take for instance the leading bull
/ of the Holstein breed, Sir Pieterje
I Ormsby Mercedes (449S1). This sire
1 has "A daughters with records of
over 1000 pounds Of butter 500
! fat per year. 81 of his daughters
in the Advanced Register have rec
ords that average 17,S16.29 pounds
of milk per year, testing $3.50 con-
tanning 641.38 pounds Of fat. This
bull may be termed an "out cross"
sire, his parents being unrelated.
The geneology table shows very
clearly that this animal was not de-
veloped on the hit and miss plan,
but that his ability 10 transmit high
production is caused by the bringing
together of blood lines that are not
ed for their production and their
ability TO transmit production" One
of this line was recently sold al the
St. Joe Valley sale and went 10 the
farm OF Leo Cassidy near New Car
Isle. This breeding IS prodominat-
ing in the Weidler herd and was
originated in Minnesota Otner out
standing lines o. breeding are found
in other Holstein and Guernsey
herds The poirt is. THAI good
blood lines are available and good
sires can be purchased by the dairy
. man at nominal cost"