164 DAIRY CATTLE AND MILK PRODUCTION 



sive evidence. Next in importance to the dam's record come 

 the records of the sire's daughters. If this bull has sired 

 many high-testing daughters, the chances are his sons will also 

 transmit these characters. 



Each animal inherits 50 per cent of its blood from its 

 parents, 25 per cent from its grandparents, and 12J per cent 

 from the third generation back. The relative value of the 

 ancestors should be ranked according, and the common mis- 

 take avoided of attaching too much importance to an ancestor 

 found in the third or fourth generation. 



In studying records of production in the pedigree of a dairy 

 animal, care should be taken to make certain what the records 

 really mean. Official records mean more than private records, 

 especially if the latter be churn records of butter produced. 

 If butter records are given based upon a Babcock fat test, it 

 should be noted what factor is used to make such estimate. 

 The standard method of estimating butter from butter fat 

 is by the addition of one sixth to the fat to represent the 

 " overrun," that is the curd, salt, and water found with the 

 fat in commercial butter. In some cases the butter produc- 

 tion is expressed by adding one fourth to the fat, which gives 

 a figure which is really too high. The most satisfactory 

 method is to give pounds of milk and of fat. Records cover- 

 ing an entire year should receive much more attention than 

 those covering only seven days. When the record covers 

 only seven days and the fat test is abnormally high for the 

 breed it is not safe to assume that this is a fair index of the 

 richness of normal milk from the cow in question. The 

 following is an example of the method of tabulating a pedi- 

 gree. The records of production are usually written in 

 red. 



