286 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Now if the sire, as an individual and in his pedigree is superior to 

 the cows — and this will be true where a pure bred sire is used on a grade 

 herd — characteristics he transmits to the calf will be of more value than 

 those that come from the mother, and in this sense also the bull will be 

 more than half the herd 



The sire is half the herd each year. Each year he starts out a gen- 

 eration of calves, more than half the qualities and strength of which 

 were transmitted by him. His successor, of similar type and breeding, 

 mated to those improved heifers, carries the improvement forward an- 

 other step, fixing the qualities and power to transmit them more surely 

 and strongly. From generation to generation the succession of well 

 selected sires goes on increasing and intensifying the improvement of the 

 herd. In this way the sire becomes three-fourths, seven-eighths, fifteen- 

 sixteenths, etc., of the herd. So the sire may be much more than half 

 the herd whether judged by the quantity, strength, quality or accumulated 

 effect cf the characteristics he transmits. It is literally true that the sire 

 may thus within a few years at slight expense completely transform a 

 dairy herd and more than double its profits. In fact in a few years the 

 sire practically is "the whole thing." 



A GOOD BUSINESS PROPOSITION. 



Say the sire cost $150, and a dairy sire of the highest quality can be 

 obtained for that. The forty grade cows at $45 each will cost $1,800. 

 A good bull costs only one-thirteenth the cost of the herd. Then one- 

 thirteenth of the investment is so placed as to exert more influence in 

 the improvement of the future herd than the other twelve-thirteenths of 

 the investment. Isn't that a good business proposition? Won't the extra 

 $100 put into a good sire be better spent than any other $100 invested in 

 the herd? Forty-one animals are purchased. The purchase of one animal 

 will influence the succeeding herd more than the purchase of the other 

 forty animals. Isn't it worth while then to give some extra time and 

 study to the selection of that one, the sire? 



THE SIRE AND THE MILK RECORD. 



The good dairy sire, the pure bred, is almost certain to have a line of 

 dams with a superior milk record; they have been bred for that very 

 thing. One of the very greatest things to secure for the heifer calf is the 

 inheritance of a large capacity for milk production, and this comes from 

 the mothers in both lines of ancestry. The calf will be much more cer- 

 tain of getting a high degree of this quality through an improved sire 

 than from a grade mother. A high milk record in the sire's female an- 

 cestry affects all his female progeny — all the next generation in a com- 

 mon sized herd 



ABSOLUTELY PROVED. 



Every man who has had extended experience or observation in this 

 matter will agree that the pure bred dairy sire from high-producing dams, 

 and which is also a good individual, is of peculiar value and great 

 economy in building up the herd. The records of dairy breeding have 



