100 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



association was formed every one of the farmers tested and 

 cleaned out those that re-acted in that community. They are 

 going to repeat that as often as necessary. If they can do that 

 with tuberculosis, is it not reasonable to believe that contagious 

 abortion can be handled comparatively as successfully? At least 

 they can circulate information when they come together, under- 

 stand what is necessary to do, and by organized effort overcome 

 the difficulties. If any member withholds information of that 

 kind from the organization he is let out, that is one of the rules 

 of the organization laid down in the by-laws, and if he does not 

 live up to the conditions that are necessary to clean out a disease 

 after it has been determined, he is not allowed to be an active 

 member. A veterinary told me that this was a quick way for 

 spreading contagious abortion. That is true if careless methods 

 are used, but on the contrary if proper methods are used the or- 

 ganization is effective in combating abortion. They should 

 handle it in such a way as to minimize the danger by disinfect^ 

 ing the bull which is a very effective way of checking the spread- 

 ing of the disease. The disinfecting of the bull is very effective 

 and leaves a very small chance, if it is done carefully. Contagi- 

 '^us abortion is not a serious thing for the life of the association 

 There are other little things that come up, for instance, having 

 a poor secretary. He has the interest of the organization to look 

 after, the planning and carrying out of the breeding so as to pro- 

 duce the best results. 



Q : What age bulls do you recommend ? 



A: Buy the bull at about one year, that is what is gener- 

 ally done, but if you have enough money the other way is to buy 

 old tried bulls. The best thing you can do is to buy bulls with 

 known backing in the way of records and pedigree. 



The conditions in different parts of the country is that sires 

 are done away with when they reach an average age of about 

 31^ years, that is a very bad condition. If you are going to pro- 

 gress in breeding you have got to have bulls that will produce 

 the results that we are looking for. We have no other basis of 

 doing this than that of selection. The next thing is to use tried 

 bulls only. When you come to that you come to prices that run 

 high, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000, running up as high as $50,000. 



