Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 203 



on this loss of a valuable sire, J. C. McDowell points out^ that a cow- 

 testing association tests the dams and daughters, and the cooperative 

 bull association makes it possible to keep a bull until his daughters 

 are tested. As he states, "These associations would have saved that 

 bull." 



The pedigree with performance. — Most of the trade in purebred 

 dairy bulls is in bull calves, for only rarely will a successful bull, as 

 shown by actual trial, be offered for sale. The best indication of the 

 future breeding value of a dairy bull calf is furnished by the milk and 

 butter-fat records of his dam. If any of her female offspring have 

 records of production, these also furnish valuable evidence. Next, the 

 records of the cows sired by his sire should be studied, if such records 

 are available. After that, the performance of the paternal and ma- 

 ternal grandams should be noted, together with the performance of 

 their female offspring. The grandsires' lists of performers should be 

 studied also, and, if possible, similar studies should be made of the great- 

 grandams and great-grandsires. The fundamental principle under- 

 lying breeding is that "like begets hke," and if the bull has a high- 

 producing ancestry, high-producing sisters, and the other female mem- 

 bers of his family are high producers, we are reasonably certain that 

 he has inherited true dairy qualities of a high order which he will trans- 

 mit to his offspring. 



As a fine example of a pedigree with performance, the pedigree of 

 the Guernsey bull, May King of Ingleside 12558, is herewith presented. 

 Such a bull commands too high a price to permit using him on grade 

 cows, and the average dairyman seeking a sire cannot expect to obtain 

 a bull with a pedigree equal to this one, although he may be able to 

 secure a son or grandson of such a bull at the price he can afford to 

 pay. This son or grandson preferably should be from a tested dam 

 with a butter-fat record of not less than 400 pounds, and she should be 

 descended from high-producing ancestors. 



A New England dairyman writing to the U. S. Bureau of Animal 

 Industry ^ regarding his experience with a cheap, untried, purebred sire, 

 stated that he had purchased a bull of creditable breeding on the sire's 

 side, but out of a dam that was "just a purebred cow," with no produc- 

 tion records. He writes, "I had a herd of grades, 30 in number, that 

 milked from 5,000 to 8,000 pounds of milk a year and which had taken 

 a lot of time and money to get together. I raised 22 heifers from this 

 bull before the first one freshened. Not one of them gave 25 pounds 

 of milk a day with the first calf. I stopped using the bull and kept 



lU. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook, 1920, p. 410. 



2D. S. Burch: Utility Value of Purebred Live Stock, U. S. Dept. Agr. Circ. 

 235, pp. 10, 11. 



