NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 281 
THE SELECTION OP THE DAIRY SIRE. 
PROF, C. II. ECKLES, COLUMBIA, MO. 
I come here today to speak concerning t&e selection of the sire and I 
believe this is a topic that is of great importance to the dairymen of Iowa. 
In my opinion one of the greatest mistakes being made today by most 
of the Iowa milk producers is the failure to select cattle adapted to their 
purposes. They have not yet got to the point of comprehending that the 
calf is not necessarily the most valuable product of the cow. Iowa ought to 
have five hundred dairy cattle today where there is one. It is most aston- 
ishing to find in a state making the most butter of any in the union that 
most of it is made from the milk of cows not especially bred for this pur- 
pose. In this respect this state is far behind Missouri. I believe there are 
more dairy bred cattle in four counties I can name in Missouri than in all 
Iowa. It is no wonder that the typical Iowa creamery, while getting all 
the cream it can handle in the summer, scarcely gets any in the winter. 
No wonder the average production of butter per cow is low in Iowa. 
Don't understand me to say that the use of a dairy bred animal is the 
only thing needed to improve the condition. But it is one of the most 
urgent needs of the dairymen of this state today. We all recognize 
the importance of the selection of the individual cow. We all un- 
derstand that not all dairy bred cows are good; some of the worst failures 
we find as milk producers are among the dairy breeds, even among the 
pure breds. But the chances of drawing a blank are less. Milk pro- 
duction has been bred into the dairy breeds generation after generation 
until its is a characteristic that is transmited fairly well. 
What is the use in attempting to build up a profitable herd by select- 
ing milkers from cattle bred like most of our Iowa cattle are bred, 
when only a few are more than ordinary and even when we do find 
a good one she will not transmit her milking characteristics to her 
offspring with any regularity. If we are going to milk cows, why 
not take advantage of what has been done in the past by way of de- 
veloping milking qualities and breed to dairy bred sires that can be 
counted on to transmit dairy qualities? 
It does not make so much difference what choice a man makes 
among the dairy breeds, so he sticks to it, but by all means select 
a dairy bred sire and breed up in that direction. 
The second point which I wish to emphasize especially is this of se- 
lecting a dairy breed and then sticking to it. The crossing of breed? 
is one of the worst practices common to cattle breeders. The man who 
has Jerseys sees his neighbor's Holsteins producing much more milk 
and bigger calves and he conceives what he thinks is a very clever 
idea; he will cross the two and get the rich yellow milk of the Jersey 
and the enormous quantity of the Holstein and the big vigorous calves. 
What is the result? 
Now, it is a well known fact that the most artificial characteristics 
of an animal are the ones most easily lost in breeding. The rich milk 
of the Jerseys is the most artificial thing about them; the enormous 
quantity of milk is the most artificial thing about the Holsteins. The 
cross-bred Jersey Holstein is most likely to combine the small quantity 
