Part IV 

 DAIRY FARM PRACTICE 



CHAPTER XV 

 GOOD BREEDING PRACTICES 



There are two ways to build up a herd. One is by purchase of 

 all the cows and then keeping the numbers good by continued 

 buying. The other is by the use of a pure bred bull and the raising 

 of daughters to replace the cows that must be discarded. It seems 

 to us that this latter practice is the only good one for the solid, 

 successful farmer. To be sure, a man is pitting himself against 

 odds in selecting bulls to maintain the productivity of his herd. 

 But it is the most fascinating thing in the world to select animals 

 and mate them and watch for the development and improvement 

 in the offspring. 



207. The bull the main factor.— At the risk of some 

 repetition we are going to bring in here again the importance of the 

 sire. To bring about improvement the sire must be better than 

 the females to which he is bred. Therefore, the finer and the higher 

 the average of the females, the better must be the bull. How are 

 you going to know the value of the bull and to know that he is 

 better than the females in the herd? The answer must be given 

 in two ways. First, we can know that he is better than the females 

 if he has produced stock that have better records and are better 

 individuals than the females in the herd. The second way is to 

 judge from the uniformity of his ancestors through the study of 

 the pedigree. 



208. The value of a proven sire. — The above illustrates the 

 wonderful thing that is represented by a proven sire. If a bull 

 has daughters with records, either official records or cow testing- 

 association records, then we can actually compare the records of 

 these daughters with the records of the females in our herd and 



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