Live Stock Breeders' Association. 137 



tively high development of the beef qualities. In short, this cow- 

 has neither the beef nor the dairy quality very highly developed, 

 and she will stand to have her capacity in one or the other of these 

 directions practically doubled without affecting adversely her pres- 

 ent capacity in the other direction. A cow may be excused for 

 lack of high beef qualities if she possess superior dairy qualities. 

 Or, we may overlook a reasonable deficiency in her capacity to give 

 milk or produce butter if she have the form of a beef animal to 

 a very marked degree, and if her calves possess the qualities re- 

 quired to top the market. But a cow poor in both of these direc- 

 tions has nothing to commend her and does not deserve a place on 

 our farms. 



The first step would be to eliminate perhaps one-third of the 

 poorest cows, and to eliminate perhaps a large majority of the 

 bulls now in use, and to establish the fixed policy of using as sires 

 none but registered animals of one of the standard beef breeds, 

 such as the Shorthorn, the Angus, the Hereford, or the Galloway, 

 and to stick to one breed rather than to follow the haphazard and 

 miscellaneous crossing that is now so common. 



The day has long since passed when any man can afford to 

 use an unregistered sire of any class of farm animals. Not only 

 should the sire be registered, but it should have a good pedigree 

 and should be withal a good individual. This means that to head 

 our grade herds even something better than the culls from our 

 pure bred herds are required. The cattle raiser must be willing to 

 pay for real quality in his sire. The truth is, the culls from these 

 pure bred herds should be slaughtered for butcher stuff instead of 

 being allowed to perpetuate their deficiencies and weaknesses. 



A really good pure bred sire is indispensable to success and 

 profit in raising grade cattle, just as it is in raising registered ani- 

 mals. This point cannot be too strongly emphasized. 



In short, let the farmer make a systematic effort toward the 

 improvement of his herd, and in five years' time his steer calves 

 will bring an average of $25.00 per head, where they now bring an 

 average of less than $15.00. As stated before, there is no one step 

 that is so important to make, and that is so fundamental to the 

 whole beef industry as this one. Upon it depends the entire sub- 

 sequent profits of the handling of cattle. From such herds would 

 be bred steers worth on the market, 6 cents or 8 cents a pound, in 

 comparison with the average of 4 cents or 5 cents a pound for the 

 plainer sorts. 



It is self-evident that it costs no more to make this high class 



