FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 95 



BULL ASSOCIATION OR COMMUNITY BREEDING 



Joel G. Winkjer, Dairy Husbandman, U. S. Dept, of 

 Agriculture, Washington, D. C. . 



''We have heard statements by everyone who has addressed 

 us to-day about the importance of dairying, and I assure you 

 this importance has not been overstated. Take as an illus- 

 tration the talk made on alfalfa and see how that crop is con- 

 nected with farm work, think of the process of sowing, harvest- 

 ing and sale in such a way as to make it profitable. There are 

 sections of the country raising lots of alfalfa and it sells for a 

 low price. By adding the right amount of dairying to their farm 

 operations, there is no more question about a market at a profit- 

 able price. 



It is not only for the farmer to go into dairying, but to go 

 into it in such a way that it will pay. The cow is a machine 

 that takes farm crops and transforms them into food for the 

 human beings. There are all kinds of cows. A dairyman has not 

 only got to give his attention to the raising of crops, but to many 

 difi:erent lines connected with farming, and one of the most im- 

 portant things is getting good cows, and selecting those that will 

 give him profitable returns. 



There is probably something like 22 million dairy cows in 

 the United States supplying milk to the consumers. Out of 

 these 22 millions, from estimates recently made, I am advised that 

 there is about 2 per cent of pure-bred, that will leave something 

 like 20 millions of dairy cows that are not pure-bred. The rea- 

 son for so few pure-breds are many, chief among them probably, 

 and the one that stands out most prominently, and the one men- 

 tioned the most often, is that of indifference or carelessness 

 among the farmers. Whether that is true, I am not going to 

 discuss. Another is the cost of providing pure-bred cattle to 

 build up a herd. 



We find a great number of farmers who are holding back 

 on raising pure-bred stock because it costs so much to buy pure- 

 bred sires and cows. In order to overcome this difficulty breed- 

 ing organizations were resorted to. The first kind of an organ- 



