196 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



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 

 insure 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 se- 

 lection of the right sire, because it has been a long-recog- 

 nized 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 Experi- 

 ment 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 pur- 

 poses. The original cows in group one and their descend- 

 ants were bred to Holstein bulls, another group to Guenr- 

 seys and the third to Jerseys. 



The thirteen original cows with a total of 74 lactation 

 periods averaging 3,991 pounds of milk and 187 pounds of 

 fat. Thirteen daughters of these cows by pure-bred bulls 

 representing the three breeds for a total of 40 lactation \ 

 periods averaged 5,556 pounds of milk and 253 pounds of \ 

 fat, an increase in milk of 39 per cent. Five cows of the '[ 

 second generation of grades carrying 75 per cent of im- 

 proved blood, including a total of six lactation periods, , 

 averaged 8,401 pounds of milk and 358 pounds of fat, an 

 increase of 130 per cent in milk yield and 109 per cent in ' 

 fat production. The improved blood resulted in a decided 

 increase in persistency of milk flow. 



A member in one of the Illinois Cow Test Associations 

 increased the average production of the herd from 5,760 ^ 

 pounds of milk and 193 pounds butter fat to 11,195 pounds 

 of milk and 377 pounds of butter fat in eight years. This 

 improvement was made possible by the use of well-bred 

 bulls and by keeping a record of production of each cow 



