G40 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



calves that are affected but with an inferior sire the whole calf crop must 

 suffer. Then as for there not being enough for us all to get one that is 

 undoubtedly true and will be so for a long time to come. But we could 

 make more and better use of those we have got. In the first place we 

 could use them longer than is generally done and out of every ten go to 

 the slaughter house just when their usefulness for breeding purposes be- 

 gins. Then there should also be more company sires. It would often be 

 less trouble and expense to take your cows to a neighbor than to have a 

 sire of your own breaking fences and getting in with your neighbors' cattle 

 and with your own young heifers that you do not yet want bred. There 

 are a few cases in Scott county that our secretary asked me to speak about. 

 In these cases farmers have invested in improved stock and did not re- 

 ceive the benefit that they had expected. These cases all have about the 

 same cause and require the same cure. The people get excited and think 

 that by buying one or two pure bred sires they will in four or five years 

 have a whole yard full of high grade cows and eight or ten pure bred 

 heifers. When they get their first sire, which is always a calf about six 

 months old, they put him to work as fast as they can. Then when their 

 first crop of calves comes they all have the color and marking of their 

 daddy and their owner is simply delighted and when they are about six 

 months or a year old it would be a dangerous thing for any one to tell the 

 owner that the breed he had selected was not the right one. This is about 

 the time when the excitement is at its fever heat and they can not wait 

 for their calves to mature but they want to raise three-fourths and they 

 will get their second sire which in turn is" also a six months calf. Then 

 they mate their immature heifers with this immature calf. Then when 

 these calves that are sired by a calf have calves from a calf they have 

 three-fourths bred calves that will always be calves and when they find 

 it out they get disgusted with the breed and say it is too small and peaked 

 or fine boned or something and they try some other color with exactly the 

 same result. Do not expect to raise big, strong cows from calves. You 

 never see a breeder try to do it. Their herd headers are always from 

 three to twelve or fourteen years old and their cows are kept as long as 

 they will breed and often five or six years after they have quit 

 breeding which accounts for the lean, poor looking cows that you often see 

 in a breeder's herd. 



Now to conclude, I want to say that the cattle of Scott county are en- 

 titled to at least three things that the majoriy do not get. First, that their 

 owners study and learn how to feed, breed and take care of them. Then 

 second, I say that every animal of the bovine family in Scott county is 

 entitled to be sired by a good pure bred or high grade male. And third, 

 that the cows that have the honor of having such a sire are entitled to be 

 mated to a sire of the same breed so that they will have a chance to do 

 lor their offspring what nature intended them to. 



