EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 293 



GRADE DAIRY HERD. 



BY A. C. ANDERSON. 



Bulletin No. 264. 



The present Grade Dairy Herd which is maintained at the college was in- 

 stalled in the fall of 1904 by Director R. S. Shaw then Professor of Animal 

 Husbandry. About a 3'ear later the WTiter was placed in charge of the work 

 and is still continuing in that capacity. 



In 1906 the first report was published in bulletin 238. As the edition of 

 bulletin 238 is nearly exhausted, and as some of the data contained therein 

 is necessary to a proper understanding of this report a portion of the ma- 

 terial of the former report appears again in this. 



In maintaining a grade dairy herd at this institution two chief ends are 

 sought. First and foremost to show objectively how the common dairy 

 stocks of this state can be improved as to quantity and quality of milk pro- 

 duction by a rational and continued system of up-grading; and second to 

 show the effect of careful feeding and management upon average, common, 

 or even inferior dairy animals. While the stocking of farms with pure- 

 bred dairy animals is desirable and strongly advised, it is generally recog- 

 nized that the great mass of improvement among dairy cattle must come 

 from intelligent up-grading. In selecting the foundation stock for a grade 

 dairy herd attention was given first to the health and general physical char- 

 acteristics of each indi\ddual selected. Care was also taken to secure animals 

 which should be fairly uniform. To accomplish the desired ends with the 

 material available in the Michigan markets it was thought best to purchase 

 twenty Shorthorn grade cows. While none of these cows possessed a large 

 percentage of Shorthorn blood, they all had enough to give the evenness 

 and uniformity sought in the foundation herd. For breeding purposes the 

 herd was divided into four groups or sub-herds of five animals each. One 

 of these groups is being bred continuously to Jersey bulls, and the female 

 progeny bred in the same line. Another of the groups is being bred con- 

 tinuously to Holstein bulls and the female progeny bred in the same line. 

 The third group being bred in the same way to Guernsey bulls and the fourth 

 to Shorthorn bulls. 



The heifers which have come to maturity have been retained in the herd 

 and at the present time have replaced all the original animals, but while 

 the records of these grade heifers are being kept they form no part of this 

 report. 



The execution of the plans is requiring time and results are accumulating 

 slowly, even more slowly than was at first anticipated. Some of the best 

 animals in the herd left no female progeny, while two or three of the poorest 

 left female progeny only. Along with the usual handicaps that every dairy- 

 man must endure came contagious abortion, a disease while less to be dreaded 

 than tuberculosis still is capable of even more serious results in reducing 

 the milk product and consequent profit as well as the number of progeny 

 of a herd. In an attempt to stamp out this disease some drastic measures 

 were adopted by the veterinarians in charge which not only failed to ac- 



