CHAPTER XIV 



FEEDING, DEVELOPING AND EXERCISING THE 

 HERD BULL 



Much has been written about the feeding, care and manage- 

 ment of the dairy cow, but writers as a rule do not pay much 

 attention to the herd bull. He is rarely appreciated until he will 

 not get the cows in calf or until he has a daughter or two which 

 turn out exceptionally well. When this happens then he will be 

 looked after more carefully. Often it is the$i too late. 



199. Bull one-half the herd. — This is an old saying, probably 

 overworked, but it is one of the truths that we should really try 

 to learn and appreciate. He may be even more than half the herd 

 if he is found to be valuable and then is used on some of his own 

 daughters in inbreeding or used on relatives in line breeding. 

 Anyhow, it is certainly true that a bull contributes in the long 

 run one-half the makeup of a herd as his daughters come into the 

 herd. For example, if one herd is made up of 20 daughters of 

 one bull, that bull will have furnished one-half of the blood found 

 in that herd, whereas it has taken 20 dams to make up the 

 other half. Therefore, the contribution of any single dam has been 

 only one-twentieth of the blood of the present herd. Whether she 

 were a poor or good individual, she would have influenced only one 

 out of the 20, whereas the bull, good or poor, would have in- 

 fluenced each and every one of the 20. 



200. Bull the source of fastest improvement.— Therefore, 

 we easily see that the bull is always the source of the quickest 

 improvement. Again, the bull will have a great influence in making 

 the herd uniform, because his daughters should be more uniform 

 than their dams. For these reasons let us pay attention to the 

 selection and care and management of our bulls. 



201. Feeding the young bull. — For the first six months the 

 feeding and care of the bull calves will not be materially different 

 from the treatment of the heifer calves. (Chapter IV) The main 



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