Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-12-07
(By CO. Agent o. E. Gibson)

(By Co. Agent ". H. dlUSOul
The pitfalls in the path of progress
so far as the dairy industry is concern
ed, are many; and perhaps the most
difficult one of all to satisfactorily
overcome is the selection OF the
dairy sire. There are many reasons
why this is true and it will be the.
purpose of this discussion to touch
briefly some of the more important
The possibilities which lie in future
generations of dairy cattle for increas-
ed production of dairy products is
almost unlimited, but to sound the
depths of those possibilities requires
the closest observation and best judge
ment which the American farmer can
hope to bring to bear While it is true
that proper care and feeding can never
be corrected by good feeding any more
than poor feeding can be corrected by
careful breeding. They go hand-in-
hand and one without the other spells
failure as surely as the two together
spell success.
So many times has it been demon
strated and so often have we been
told, that "the sire is half the herd,
most of us have reached the point
where we consciously or unconsciously
admit its truth, and yet, ina large num-
Der of cases we do not heed it. There
are two sides to every fence-if you
don't count the fence-straddlers-
single example will suffice to bring
before you, the characteristics COM
mon to each
Let us suppose that a dairyman has
a fairly good herd of 40 cows which
average 200 TBS. of butter-fat per year
He needs a bull. He makes his selec-
ton almost wholly from the stand
| point of cost and prides himself on
being shrewd when he places a bull
at the head of his herd, which,
although pure-bred, cost but little
and is worth less. He uses him two
years, or until his daughters come into
milk Now let us suppose SO per cent
of this bulls calves to be heifers. AL
lowing 10 per cent for death losses he
has sired So members of the new herd
Suppose these animals produce It's Tbs
Of butter-fat per year, or Is lbs. per
cow per year less than their dams pro
duced. At Csc per pound for butter-fat
this amounts to $8.75 per year for each
cow-or $4,000 per year, for the herd
less than the mothers of these cows
produced Not SO much, but keep
them in the herd for ten years, which
should be the working life of good
COW, and the total loss is $4,000
this measures the real value of this
bull-S3,1 10000 less than nothing.
Supposing he had secured bull
which increased the average product
ion of his So daughters by SO or 100
pounds of butter-fat? Figuring as be-
fore this would amount to an ADDED
income of between $4,000 and $4,000
dollars in a like period of time. The
bull need not cost a great price in the
beginning, but what is his real value
to a dairyman. These are by no means
exceptional cases but are typical of
what has been-and is being done
every day.
Probably no more complete and
significant data on the influence of
the sire is available than that obtain
ed by the Missouri College of Agri-
culture. Their experience covers a
period of 80 years during which time
accurate data was kept of all the fac
tors concerned. In 1884 this College
purchased four registered Jersey COWS
No females have been purchased since
and in order to compare the influence
of the sires used, all females were re,
tanned in the herd up to 1901. The first
bull purchased was Missouri Rioter
He was registered but his dam had no