Putnam patriot., 1930-08-28
TIM ELY FARM TOPICS
 bv thc County Agricultural Agent
 Proven Bulls Pay"

Proven Bulls Pay"
 "A consideration of the kinds of bulls we have owned Is proof enough of the value of the Connecticut Proven Dairy Sire Progrsm" said Mir. Edward r. Rowland Of Oxford when was on the farm of Philip Rowland and son recently "Our first pure bred Holstein bull cost us S40.0O when eight months old and all we knew about him was that his mother gave a little more than 10000 lbs. of milk year. We bred him to some ordinary grade Jerseys and he doubled the production of the herd with the first cross and still main tsined good fat test. Our milk sheets showed that his daughters milked 10000 to 12.000 lbs. year right along.
 "Ns selected our next bull with some care, getting one from 31- ID. COW that had mixed over 100 lbs. day. We expected his daughters to flood us with milk but we had only one good COW out O. thirteen that We raised. Some of his daugh ters mixed less than the grade Jers- eys and tested below 3He.
 "Our third bull had only fair pedigree. He helped us some but his daughters were not as good as those from the first bull. either for milk production or fat test. We then bought a we'll bred youngster from the Bridgeport City Farm and found that all of his daughters were heavy milkers. He added a lot to the size of our cheek.
 Now we come to our last bull He has some good daughters but on the whole he has hurt the herd produe- tion as these milk sheets here show right away. His dam made 565 lbs. of butterfat in year on twice a day milking, and his sire had good pedi- gree. but pedigree and proof too of ten disagree. Hereafter We are go- ing to look for all the proof We can get before we are convinced bull is jusut what we want. ]"
 What do you think of Guern- sey bull whose first calf heifers average $500 lbs of milk?" Mir Al ling Beisiegel of Woodbridge asked me a few days ago. "Some of them are out of grade Holstein cows it is true but quite few were dropped by grade Guernseys.
 Here are a pair of good daugh tens from that bull. This one on the right made 1l,i20 and the other one 10,990 lbs. of milk in their first lactation periods. They breed reg ularly, are easy miIkers and test well enough for herd making Grade A milk. I wish we had lot more daughters from him. It is because the Connecticut Proven Dairy Sire Program will help us find and keep such bulls that we have gone into it. It was certainly a mistake to let that old bull 20 to the butcher. We got him from Hilltop Farm at Suffield, Connecticut. when he was ready for tervice. They did not sell him out right at that time as they thought that they might want to use him later They decided on other blood lines though and do not delieve they ever used him at all.
 "The bull we now have had a bunch of daughters coming in milk when we bought him. That first bulls daughters are too good to breed to an untried sire but it will be practically impossible for us to use proven sires much except through some plan like the Proven Dairy Sire Program.
 The material in these articles was prepared by Mir. J. A. Simms, Ex- tension Dairyman at the Connecticut Agricultural College, Storrs. Con- nectieut.
 RAYMOND F. WING.
 County Agricultural Agent