CHAPTER XXXVIII 
METHODS OF CONDUCTING BREEDING INVESTIGATIONS 
Any livestock breeder who wishes to carry on breeding operations in 
an intelligent fashion, particularly if on a large scale, will find it necessary 
to adopt some definite system of keeping records. Whatever system is 
adopted it should fulfil at least three requirements: it should be simple; 
it should be concise, that is 1t should confine itself to the essential features 
of the breeding operations; and it should be adapted to the particular 
conditions of the individual livestock breeder. The last desideratum 
makes it impossible to outline here any specific plan for keeping written 
records, consequently certain features of this problem will be discussed 
so that some definite conception may be gained of the matters with which 
records should deal. 
Judging the Individual.—Of first importance in breeding operations 
is some method of determining individual worth. In certain cases, as 
for example, in beef cattle, this depends largely upon visible character- 
istics, and the breeder has only to build up in his mind by constant 
association with his livestock an ideal to which he desires to direct 
improvement in his herd. Whenever he can introduce objective tests, 
the breeder gains by doing so. The practical breeder has often felt the 
need of such objective standards of judgment, and from time to time he 
has attempted to introduce them. Sometimes such tests are very easy 
to apply, as for instance the speed test in race horse breeding. Some- 
times, however, they are more difficult of utilization, as for example, 
individual butter-fat production in dairy cattle or individual egg pro- 
duction in poultry. Nevertheless even such records may be obtained 
economically if everything be planned so as to expedite the work con- 
nected with them. Methods of keeping dairy records have been devised 
which enable the dairymen to obtain and record accurately the daily 
production of his cows by spending about 2 minutes per day per cow 
in doing it. In Fig. 228 is shown the equipment for carrying out such 
work and a convenient mode of arranging it. It will be noted that all 
the necessary equipment is at the hands of the operator, so that no time 
whatever is lost in obtaining and recording the data. For testing 
butter fat, composite samples are used and the actual test is often made 
by some central creamery or appointed milk tester, rather than by the 
dairyman himself, although the latter method is perfectly feasible. 
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