340 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



producers 149 Ibs. thus consuming 46 per ct. more feed for the same 

 amount of product. 



Fraser of the Illinois Station 6 reports a cow in the Station herd 

 that in 12 years gave 87,102 Ibs. of milk, containing fat sufficient to 

 make 4,318 Ibs. of butter. During 3 years a certain cow gave 11,930 

 Ibs. of milk annually, containing 405 Ibs. of fat, and returned $42.60 per 

 year over cost of feed. Another with the same feed and care gave in the 

 same time only 3,380 Ibs. of milk annually, containing 138 Ibs. of fat, 

 and failed by $5.62 per year of paying for her feed. 



543. Building a herd from scrubs. An experiment has been carried on 

 for the past 13 years by the Iowa Station 7 to determine whether a good 

 producing and profitable herd could be built up from a foundation of 

 scrub cows, if the proper methods of breeding, feeding, and management 

 were used. Fourteen head of scrub cattle, including mature cows, heifers, 

 and a bull, were purchased in a district of the South where no pure, bred 

 bulls had ever been used and where no attention had been paid to the 

 proper breeding or feeding of dairy cattle. These animals were brought 

 to the Station farm and fed and cared for the same as the animals in the 

 pure-bred dairy herd. Most of the females were bred to pure-bred bulls 

 and later the half-blood heifer calves were likewise bred to pure-bred 

 bulls of the same breed. 



Kildee, McCandlish, and Gillette report that the average yearly pro- 

 duction of the original scrub cows with good feed and care at the Station 

 was only 3,847 Ibs. of milk, containing 182 Ibs. fat. The daughters of 

 these scrubs out of pure-bred bulls averaged 5,945 Ibs. of milk and 262 

 Ibs. fat, an increase of 55 per ct. in milk yield and 44 per ct. in yield of 

 fat. The grand-daughters of the scrub cows, carrying three-fourths of 

 dairy blood, averaged 8,311 Ibs. milk and 376 Ibs. fat, an increase of 

 116 per ct. in yield of milk and 106 per ct. in yield of fat over the scrubs. 

 The much greater production of the grades was due not only to a larger 

 yield when in milk but also to the fact that they were much more per- 

 sistent milkers than the scrubs, whose lactation periods were short. Even 

 more important than the greater yield of milk is the fact that the cost 

 of feed for 100 Ibs. milk was 13 per ct. less for the three-quarter bloods, 

 even tho they were only heifers, than for their scrub grand-dams. Not 

 only was the production rapidly improved by grading up, but also just 

 as striking improvements were made in the conformation of the animals. 

 The grades, especially of the second cross, were stamped plainly with 

 the breed characteristics of the pure-bred sire. 



Scrub heifers were also raised at the Station out of the scrub cows and 

 the scrub bull. They produced 10 per ct. more milk and 13 per ct. 

 more fat a year than their scrub dams. This small increase, which is 

 strikingly inferior to that produced by the use of pure-bred sires, is due 

 to the fact that the heifers were so fed and cared for as to develop fully 



111. Cir. 106. 



'Iowa Buls. 165, 188; Jour. Dairy Science, 4, 1921, pp. 12-23. 



