PRACTICAL HERD MANAGEMENT 1015 



"From the time our herd bulls are from twenty- 

 four to thirty months old, being practically matured, 

 they have a very light grain ration, usually once a 

 day, with alfalfa hay, prairie hay and cane fodder. 

 Each has a separate lot and an open shed, never 

 being kept in barns. They are not kept fat, but in 

 good thrifty condition. 



* ' My first purchase of purebred Heref ords was that 

 of an entire herd consisting of only fourteen females, 

 cows, heifers and heifer calves, and two bull calves. 

 One of the cows was by Stonemason by Beau Real 

 by Anxiety 4th. This cow was the dam of one of 

 the bull calves, his sire being Wild Beau by Beau 

 Eeal. Wild Beau was a full brother to the famous 

 Wild Tom. All the younger females in the little 

 herd were sired by Wild Beau. I retained this calf, 

 out of the Stonemason cow, and used him on all the 

 cows and heifers except his dam. I was without ex- 

 perience as a breeder at that time and knew practi- 

 cally nothing of different bloodlines or the different 

 families, but the results of this very conservative 

 close breeding were quite satisfactory and my young 

 bulls found ready sale at fair prices from the begin- 

 ning. I did not offer for sale any of the cows or 

 heifers. 



* ' To avoid breeding heifers to their own sire I 

 soon bought another bull, a very good individual 

 with a greater concentration of Anxiety 4th blood 

 than anything in my herd at that time, and the re- 

 sults from his use proved very satisfactory. In fact, 

 there is no doubt but that there was an improvement 

 in the produce of my herd from his use. Later, when 

 the heifers sired by this bull were coming of an 

 age to be bred, having the prevailing idea that too 

 close breeding was to be avoided I bought two young 

 bulls of different breeding from my cows and from 

 each other. One of them was a son of a famous show 



