TO SOLVE A SHORTHORN PARADOX 



CHAMPION vShorthorn bulls have 

 onbreeding power; they com- 

 monly transmit their good quali- 

 ties to their progeny. But if 

 all the champion Shorthorn cows for 

 many years back are examined, it is 

 found that only one of them is the 

 daughter of a prize winner. In other 

 words, prize Shorthorn cows seem as a rule 

 to produce no prize winning offspring. 

 This situation, which seems almost 

 paradoxical to a student of heredity, 

 might be easily explained by supposing 

 that the qualifications demanded of a 

 prize winning Shorthorn cow are such 

 as are incompatible with the produc- 

 tion of the best calves. And inves- 

 tigation suggests that this explanation 

 is correct. In America the Scotch or 

 beef type of Shorthorn has for many 

 years been fashionable, and judges 

 demand that both bulls and cows show 

 as beefy a comformation as possible. 

 Now a cow cannot excel as a beef 

 animal and a milk animal at the same 

 time, and as the judges demand beef, 

 they consistently penalize any cow of 

 the milking type that appears in the 

 show ring. But a cow with little 

 milk might be expected to have in- 

 ferior calves, and investigation of a 

 number of herds showed that, as a fact 

 all the best calves came from heavy 

 milking cows. 



It appears, then, that Shorthorn 

 judges are insisting upon a type of cow 



which is not the best producer, from a 

 breeder's standpoint. 



If heavy milking cows of beef strains 

 were selected, it ought to be possible 

 to have the breed producing not only 

 good beef steers, but also milking cows 

 ■ — at least with more than enough milk 

 to nourish their calves properly. 



To test this pro])osition, a 20-year 

 breeding experiment has been started 

 at Manhattan, Kansas, by cooiJeration 

 of the Kansas State Agricultural Col- 

 lege and the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry. Twenty cows which had pro- 

 duced one or more outstanding beef 

 calves, far above the average of the 

 breed, but which also showed pro- 

 nounced milking tendencies, were se- 

 lected, and will be mated with bulls of 

 pronounced show-ring or beef type. 

 Any cows which fail to produce good 

 calves will be eliminated and others 

 substituted, and it is hoped after some 

 years to be able to form an exact 

 opinion as to what type of female is 

 best qualified to produce winning calves 

 in a beef breed. 



Many experienced breeders are op- 

 posed to the extent to which demand 

 for the Scotch or exclusively beef type 

 of Shorthorn has been carried, and it 

 seems likely that this experiment will 

 aid in the return toward a standard 

 of breed in which the cows will, at 

 least, not be required to sacrifice milk- 

 ing function. 



A Non-Broody Strain of Rhode Island Red Fowls 



It is well known that some races of 

 fowl, e.g., the Leghorns, rarely become 

 broody, while the Asiatic breeds have 

 a strong tendency to incubate as soon 

 as they have laid a number of eggs. 

 For the modern breeder, supplied with 

 artificial incubators, broodiness in hens 

 means considerable loss, and it is there- 

 fore desirable to eliminate broodiness 

 from all breeds as far as possible. 

 H. D. Goodale, of the Massachusetts 



Experiment Station, who presented a 

 paper on the subject at the last meeting 

 of the American Society of Zoologists, 

 stated that a non-broody strain of 

 Rhode Island Red, one of the most 

 popular of the general purpose breeds, 

 has probably already been established. 

 What a change this means will be 

 realized from the fact that 95% of the 

 hens go broody before July 1 in their 

 pullet year. 



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