FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 195 



Guernseys at the age of 17-19 months. 

 Jerseys at the age of 15-17 months. 



Value of a Good Sire 



The question of getting for immediate use a herd that 

 may be kept at a profit is a question of the selection of the 

 individual cow. 



It is generally conceded that, taking all dairy cattle 

 into account, about one-third of those raised are unsatis- 

 factory and have to be culled out as unprofitable where 

 records are kept. This results in an enormous loss of food 

 in the aggregate, not only in raising unprofitable animals 

 but in keeping them until their worthlessness is proven. 



In this connection one of the first questions to arise 

 is whether these inferior animals which must be culled are 

 the result of inheritance or of environment. In other words 

 is a good or an inferior cow born what she is, or is she 

 made what she is by feed and management when young? 

 The results of experiments 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 some- 

 times called — is almost entirely a matter of inheritance. 

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

 not made so by special treatment when young. In fact, 

 within the limits of ordinary practice the manner of feed- 

 ing and management of the growing heifer has little if any 

 relation to the efficiency of the mature cow as a milk pro- 

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

 not receive the proper and the right amount of feed needed 

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

 but after she is fully matured she will have the capacity 

 to produce 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 a year and another that will pro- 

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



