CHAPTER XXII. 



STERILITY OF COWS. 



Sterility is one of the biggest economic prob- 

 lems that the dairymen and large breeders have 

 to solve. This condition is steadily on the in- 

 crease and is found in the dairy districts and 

 especially where contagious abortion is preva- 

 lent. 



Sterility produces losses to dairymen and 

 breeders in a number of ways. The dairy man 

 who has cows that are sterile suffers greatly 

 from a lessened production as he is unable to 

 get the cows with calf and the result is a greatly 

 reduced milk flow. The dairyman that has 

 good, pure-bred animals suffers another serious 

 loss in as much as he secures no offspring from 

 his well-bred cows. The calves from many cows 

 are worth very much more than all the butter 

 and milk that they would produce in one year, 

 which is the usual length of time between suc- 

 cessive freshening. 



The percentage of sterility in the cows of the 

 United States cannot be very closely estimated, 

 but it would probably be somewhere in the neigh- 

 borhood of ten per cent. 



Not all animals that we class as sterile are 

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