CHAPTER XXXVIII 

 METHODS OF CONDUCTING BREEDING INVESTIGATIONS 



Any livestock breeder who wishes to carry on breeding operations in 

 an intelligent fashion, particularly if on a large scale, will find it necessary 

 to adopt some definite system of keeping records. Whatever system is 

 adopted it should fulfil at least three requirements: it should be simple; 

 it should be concise, that is it should confine itself to the essential features 

 of the breeding operations; and it should be adapted to the particular 

 conditions of the individual livestock breeder. The last desideratum 

 makes it impossible to outline here any specific plan for keeping written 

 records, consequently certain features of this problem will be discussed 

 so that some definite conception may be gained of the matters with which 

 records should deal. 



Judging the Individual. Of first importance in breeding operations 

 is some method of determining individual worth. In certain cases, as 

 for example, in beef cattle, this depends largely upon visible character- 

 istics, and the breeder has only to build up in his mind by constant 

 association with his livestock an ideal to which he desires to direct 

 improvement in his herd. Whenever he can introduce objective tests, 

 the breeder gains by doing so. The practical breeder has often felt the 

 need of such objective standards of judgment, and from time to time he 

 has attempted to introduce them. Sometimes such tests are very easy 

 to apply, as for instance the speed test in race horse breeding. Some- 

 times, however, they are more difficult of utilization, as for example, 

 individual butter-fat production in dairy cattle or individual egg pro- 

 duction in poultry. Nevertheless even such records may be obtained 

 economically if everything be planned so as to expedite the work con- 

 nected with them. Methods of keeping dairy records have been devised 

 which enable the dairymen to obtain and record accurately the daily 

 production of his cows by spending about 2 minutes per day per cow 

 in doing it. In Fig. 228 is shown the equipment for carrying out such 

 work and a convenient mode of arranging it. It will be noted that all 

 the necessary equipment is at the hands of the operator, so that no time 

 whatever is lost in obtaining and recording the data. For testing 

 butter fat, composite samples are used and the actual test is often made 

 by some central creamery or appointed milk tester, rather than by the 

 dairyman himself, although the latter method is perfectly feasible. 



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