CHAPTER XIV 

 DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE 



Dual-purpose cattle are all-purpose or general-purpose cattle. 

 They occupy a position midway between the beef and the dairy types, 

 the aim being to combine the good points of both beef and dairy cattle 

 as nearly as possible. The dual-purpose cow, however, does not give 

 as much milk as the dairy cow, nor does she make as much beef as the 

 beef cow. At present the demand for dual-purpose cattle is compara- 

 tively limited, although it has been predicted that many farms will 

 eventually adopt the dual-purpose type as the one most profitable. 

 It is also believed that those who maintain beef breeding herds will in 

 the future pay more attention to the milking qualities of their cows. 



Perhaps no subject relating to cattle has aroused so much discus- 

 sion as has the type, economic importance, and probable future of the 

 dual-purpose cow. It has been argued that the day of general-purpose 

 animals is past. It is said that this is a day of specialization in all 

 things, and that better results and more profit are obtained from 

 animals which do one thing and do it well, than are obtained from 

 animals which do two or three things in a mediocre way. While it is 

 true that the tendency in the live-stock world is more and more toward 

 highly specialized types of animals, it is also true that there are good 

 arguments in favor of a dual-purpose type of cattle. Of these argu- 

 ments, the best one is that there is need of a farmer's cow; that is, a 

 cow for the farmer who is neither a beef producer nor a dairyman, but 

 who wants to produce enough meat and milk for his own use. Such 

 a man wants a cow that gives a good flow of milk, and yet one that 

 has a strong enough beef tendency to produce a calf that will feed out 

 well and make a good carcass; in other words, this man wants a dual- 

 purpose cow. There can be no doubting this argument and it was this 

 demand which made the old-time Shorthorn the popular cow with 

 farmers 50 or 60 years ago. 



Another argument frequently advanced in behalf of dual-purpose 

 cattle is that beef production on high-priced land must, in the future, 

 come from a dual-purpose type of cattle. On western ranches where 

 land is cheap, a calf is all the return a cow need give in order to make 

 her profitable, but the corn-belt farmer on $100 and $200 land cannot 

 conduct a business on the same basis as the western ranchman. It is 

 argued that a farmer on high-priced land cannot afford to keep a cow 

 that produces calves suitable for feeding into beef unless she pays for 



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