DAIRY BREEDS 35 



breed characteristics disappear. For these reasons 

 the Jersey is an excellent animal for cross and grade 

 breeding. 



The average production of the Jersey, in both 

 quantity of milk and butter, has been increased in the 

 last thirty years. Then the maximum production was 

 not much over two pounds of butter daily. More 

 than twice that amount has been produced from Jer- 

 sey cows in the same time within ten years. Three 

 hundred pounds of butter annually is not an unusual 

 yield from an average Jersey herd under reasonably 

 favorable conditions. A well-bred herd of Jerseys 

 can readily be brought to over 400 pounds annual 

 production of butter, and from 5,000 to 7,000 pounds 

 of milk in 365 days. Individual records of 600 to 800 

 pounds are not unusual, and as high as 1,000 pounds 

 and even more have been produced. They are heavy 

 feeders and have great assimilating powers, convert- 

 ing food into milk and butter at a moderate cost. 

 Without taking on flesh, they will convert more rich 

 food into milk and butter fat than most other breeds. 

 They do not fatten readily and are not valuable beef 

 producers. The owner must look to milk and butter 

 for the profit. 



It would be pleasant to pass by the weaknesses of 

 the several breeds; but the dairy student and breeder 

 desires to be informed of the weak as well as the 

 strong points of the breed into whose merits he is 

 inquiring, in order to determine the feasibility of their 

 modification. Like all other breeds, the Jersey has 

 its weak points. Bred in the warm climate of the 

 Channel Islands for centuries, it seems to be less 

 hardy than some of the more northern breeds, and 



