FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 61 



periments of our Experiment Stations along this line lead to 

 the conclusion that the ability of the cow to produce milk — 

 the dairy temperament, as it is sometimes called, is almost 

 entirely a matter of inheritance. 



The high class or the inferior cow are born that way. 

 In fact, within the limits of ordinary practice, the manner 

 of feeding and management of the growing heifer has little, 

 if any, relation to the efficiency of the mature cow as a milk 

 producer. In other words, if a heifer that is well bred does 

 not receive the proper and the right amount of feed needed 

 for proper development, she will be slow in maturing, but 

 after she is fully matured she will have the capacity to pro- 

 duce milk as efficiently as she would if she had been fed to 

 mature more rapidly. On the other hand, a heifer born of 

 low producing parents cannot be made to produce a large 

 flow of milk, no matter how well she has been fed or how 

 rapidly she has matured. 



If the difference between a cow having a capacity of 

 10,000 pounds of milk in a year and another that will pro- 

 duce only 3,000 pounds is a question of parents, it certainly 

 becomes a matter of no small importance to see that the 

 proper parents are provided. 



We must depend on the selection of good cows to in- 

 sure a satisfactory herd and the problem of getting a better 

 herd for the future is a question of having good young stock 

 coming on and is a matter of breeding. 



The selection of breeding is primarily that of the selec- 

 tion of the right sire, because it has been a long recognized 

 fact that the sire is half the herd, since practically all the 

 improvement must come from the sire. 



One of the most striking demonstrations regarding the 

 value of a good bull as a means of improving the productive 

 capacity of a dairy herd is shown by results obtained at the 

 Iowa Experiment Station. A group of typical native cows 

 was brought from an isolated locality in the Ozark regions 

 in Arizona. After reaching the experiment station, these 

 cows received the same treatment as that given the regular 

 dairy herd. The cows were divided into three groups for 

 breeding purposes. The original cows were placed in group 



