INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT AND BREEDING 

 IN INCREASING DAIRY PRODUCTION* 



By H. H. Kildee and A. C. McCandlish 



Data secured in an investigation which has now been under 

 way for eight years at the Iowa Agricultural Experiment station 

 give direct support to the belief that a good paying dairy herd 

 can be built up from a foundation of common cows thru proper 

 methods of feeding and management and thru the use of a good 

 purebred dairy sire. The results of this work are presented in a 

 preliminary way in this bulletin and will be given in more com- 

 plete form when the investigation has been carried further. 



Investigations of this kind are fundamental to the task of in- 

 creasing dairy production to meet increasing demands for dairy 

 products because they seek to find ways of getting more 

 milk and butterfat from the overwhelming majority of com- 

 mon cows. Ther are in the United States, according to gov- 

 ernment reports, more than 20,000,000 so-called dairy animals 

 whose average production is not half as much as it might be if 

 proper methods of selection, breeding, feeding and management 

 were followed by all dairy farmers. Any information that will 

 help to build up better and more productive dairy herds from 

 these animals is consequently of large value. 



The first year's work of any cooperative cow testing associa- 

 tion clearly demonstrates that the low average production is due 

 both to poor feeding and inferior cows. However, it is hard to 

 determine the relative importance of improved feeding and man- 

 agement compared with the influence derived from the intro- 

 duction of "dairy blood" through the use of purebred dairy 

 sires. Then, too, data from the experiment stations showing the 

 influence of these factors are very limited. 



With a herd that had been previously poorly fed, Wing l found 

 that an abundant ration easily digestible and rather nitrogenous 

 in character and continued thru two years resulted in an average 

 increase of about 50% in total yield of milk and butter fat com- 

 pared to the production of these cows on the owner's farm the 

 year preceding and the year following the time at the station. 



At the Maryland station 2 ten cows of not over average pro- 

 duction were kept under good conditions for several years. The 



* This work was started under the direction of Prof. H. G. Van Pelt in 1907 and 

 continued under his direction until his resignation in 1909, then for one year under 

 the direction of Prof. A. Leitch. Since September, 1910, it has been under the direc- 

 tion of the senior author. This is only a preliminary report. 



1 Wing, H. and J. A. Foord. Record of an Attempt to Increase the Fat in Milk "by 

 means of Liberal Feeding. Bull. Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta. 222. 1904. 



2 Doane. C. F. The Influence of Feed and Care on the Individuality of Coivs. Bull. 

 Md. Ag. Exp. Sta. 69. 1900. 



