96 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



all the dairy cattle were purebred, and there was only 1 

 purebred bull to each 23 dairy farms. That is not a good 

 record for a great dairy country. To improve this con- 

 dition, the first step should be to eliminate all bulls except 

 the purebreds; the next, to prove all the purebred bulls 

 through the records of their daughters and to eliminate 

 all whose daughters are unsatisfactory . The bull associa- 

 tion is one of the means by which these results may be 

 brought about. 



How Bull Associations Have Grown in Number 



The growth of a movement does not always prove its 

 value; but in the case of dairy-bull associations, the con- 

 tinued and almost constant growth since the work began is 

 at least some indication of what the dairymen of this country 

 think of this method of cooperative breeding. 



The work began in Michigan in 1908. Before the end 

 of that year there were 3 bull associations, all in that State. 

 In 1910 there were 9 associations, 8 in Michigan and 1 in 

 Minnesota. In 1915 there were 15 associations in 7 States; 

 in 1920, 123 associations in 30 States; and on January 1, 

 1927, 248 associations in 33 States, Pennsylvania ranking 

 first with a total number of 43. Idaho was second with 31. 

 Minnesota was third with 20. 



On January 1, 1927, the membership of the 248 asso- 

 ciations was 6,057. These associations owned 1,117 bulls, 

 8,749 purebred cows, and 30,115 cows that were not pure- 

 bred. The total number of cows was 41,174, including 

 2,310 cows whose breeding was not reported. The growth 

 of these associations in number has not been especially 

 rapid but each year has showed a gain and the results have 

 been very satisfactory. 



What Bull Associations are Accomplishing 



The growing interest in bull-association work has come 

 largely because this is a practical and economical way of 

 building up better dairy herds. The appearance of the 

 daughters indicate the value of the sire, but their produc- 

 tion records prove his value. This is especially true when 



