^^ Illinois State Dairymen s Association. 



do? She eliminates them, puts them out, and a floating rib 

 is nothing or less than a rib in the process of being rejected 

 because it is useless." He said, "Mr. Gregg, you may state 

 that before the best authorities and they will never dare question 

 you." 



Why We Observe Rib Spacing in Judging Blooded Dairy Cattle. 



Let me stand side by side with a dairy sire and I put my 

 hand on him and I note that he is wide spaced, and I know he 

 got that from dairy ancestry. Here is another one that is close 

 ribbed. What have I in him? I have a fellow that has inherited 

 some things that I do not want ; his ancestors did not eat largely 

 and if they did not they could not produce largely. Now how 

 long is it going to take me to go over to the first sire and say, 

 "Here I will look at you a little further." Notwithstanding I 

 have seen full blooded sires in the rings that received blue ribbons 

 that were as close ribbed as beef sire should be. I have studied 

 the score cards of Jersey and for generations they have been put- 

 ting a blue ribbon on a close ribbed bull. That change of course 

 comes after generations of dairy breeding. When I was in 

 Chicago a few years ago at one of the great fat stock shows I 

 met a prominent breeder of beef cattle, a man whose name I 

 cannot recall. He wanted me to look at his cattle. I was talk- 

 ing about some of these "things to which I now refer. I put my 

 hand on them. They were fine and I noticed that they were 

 wide spaced between hook point and floating rib which surprised 

 me a little. The man said, "We started in with stock that were 

 spaced and we could never restore the bone again but we have 

 filled up the space mighty well with flesh, have we not?" I 

 want you to keep that statement well in your minds. "Gentle- 

 men, I am willing to submit to you that when Nature has made 

 a mark like that that it is wise to take that testimony in place of 

 any book, whether it be a book of registry or anything else." 

 Some call that view of the case a heresy, but I say it is a truth. 



The Horn Will Show the Signs of Dairy Breeding. 



I will give you another point in the bony structures. I talk 

 ^bout these parts because they are the results of generations of 

 breeding along the line that I want to go. On this chart is a 

 picture of a great dairy sire. It is an excellent outline that was 

 drawn by one of my former associates, who was remarkable as 

 an animal artist. This outline was produced from a lifelike 



