Dairy Breeds of Cattle 1773 



or can make greater gains in body weight than the Ilolstein calf. 

 Calves may weigh up to 125 pounds at l)irth and as veals, reach 

 astonishing weights at four or six weeks. Mature animals while 

 growing and fattening readily, give too large a proportion of offal 

 to be desirable for butcher stock. 



As a producer of market milk of medium grade, the Ilolstein 

 cow has no rival. Unfortunately the percentage of fat is too low 

 to suit discriminating markets, but her wonderful milk flow, her 

 vigor and feeding capacity, together with the too general practice 

 at shipping stations of receiving at one price all milk that will pass 

 the state standard for fat, has made her by far the most popular 

 cow in the great milk shipping districts. Then too, more than 

 most other breeds, she has always been the working farmer's cow. 

 The Guernsey, especially, and to a less extent the Jersey, has been 

 largely in the hands of wealthy men, but the Holstein is today 

 mainly handled by men who are keeping her strictly as a commer- 

 cial proposition and she is getting an amount of skillful handling 

 and feeding and advertising such as no other l)reed receives. 



The IIolstein-Friesian Association has a highly developed Ad- 

 vanced Registry record; most records, however, being made for 

 periods of seven days or thirty days rather than a full year — a 

 method not well calculated to determine the true dairy capabilities 

 of a cow. Some wonderful milk and fat records have been made. 

 The world record for seven, thirty and sixty days was recently 

 made by Spring Farm Pontiac Lass who in seven days gave 585 

 pounds of milk containing 3-4.31 pounds of fat equivalent to 44.15 

 pounds of butter. Holstein records are usually spoken of as so 

 many pounds of butter, this butter being calculated as 80 per cent, 

 fat — an incorrect method that makes the results a little too high. 

 There is one daily record of 127 pounds of milk; while yearly rec- 

 ords of from 12,000 to 18,000 are not uncommon. It should be 

 remembered that these milk records are made by large animals 

 highly fed and skillfully cared for and that the percentage of fat 

 is relatively low. The Holstein will always be most at home in 

 regions of abundant food supply and deep pastures. She is ad- 

 mittedly at a disadvantage with the smaller breeds on scanty graz- 

 ing or very hilly lands. 



