300 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Too much stress can not be laid upon this point, and money and time 

 spent in finding an excellent sire will prove a remunerative investment even 

 to the average dairyma^n if he will stick to one breed. One of the chief mis- 

 sions of breeders of pure-bred dairy cattle should be to supply our dairy 

 farmers with sires for grading, and thus greatly improve their herds at but 

 comparatively slight expense. 



What is the cost of furnishing every calf that is born with one good par- 

 ent? Suppose a man has a herd of forty common cows and pays one hun- 

 dred dollars more for a pure bred bull than he would for a scrub. It will cost 

 no more to keep the one than the other and he can retain .him for at least 

 two and a half years, which will make it cost just one dollar per herd extra 

 to have each calf in the herd, at least a half-blood or better. If we consider 

 the male calves of no more value it would raise the price of having the 

 heifers half-bloods to two dollars apiece. Surely this is a nominal sum and 

 I do not know where money could be better invested if it cost many times 

 this amount. 



VALUE OF TRIED SIRES- 



In breeding dairy cattle we should abide by the same practice as in breed- 

 ing horses, and use young untried sires only to a very limited extent. Many 

 breeders of dairy cattle seem to have overlooked this fact entirely, and fre- 

 quently much damage is done by using a young untried bull to head a val- 

 uable herd when he does not prove to be the kind of a sire he should. As 

 soon as another bull is needed to prevent inbreeding, the old one is sold to 

 the butcher and a bull calf is purchased in his place. This is certainly a 

 great mistake, for frequently a valuable sire is destroyed before his real 

 worth is known. How often do we hear men remark that they would pay a 

 big price if they could only get one of their old herd bulls back again, and 

 that they never realized his value until his ofiEspring came to maturity, which 

 was after he was killed. Exceptionally good sires are very rare, and when 

 they are found they should by all means be allowed to live and beget their 

 kind as long as possible, not simply for the remuneration to the owner but 

 for the good of the dairy interests in general. 



Two years ago I visited a large number of herds in search of an old tried 

 Holstein-Friesian bull that had proved his worth, to head our University 

 herd and I was surprised to find that so many of our best breeders were using 

 young untried sires. The few old herd bulls that I did find which had 

 headed some of our best herds and were for sale did not seem to be much 

 sought after by other breeders and were usually not held at a high figure. 

 There is something wrong when a good old bull of merit that has proved 

 himself to be an excellent sire is sold to the butcher while he is strong and 

 vigorous. It is true that some of our best breeders have awakened to the 

 importance of this fact, yet many of the smaller ones are still disregarding 

 it and few indeed seem to see its full significance. I have known of pure- 

 bred herds where as high as three hundred dollars and four hundred dollars 

 were paid for individual cows yet the owners did not expect to pay more 

 than two hundred dollars for a sire to head this same herd. If a breeder 

 can aflford to pay such high prices for females he should certainly spare no 

 pains or money to get the best sire obtainable. 



