CHAPTER V 

 Tracing a Pedigree 



At the bottom of most practical breeding operations is the pedi - 

 gree. The successful breeder must know how to trace a pedigree 

 correctly and to interpret it properly after it is traced. If the pedi- 

 gree is so important to the breeder it is equally important to the 

 student of cattle breeding. 



In view of what is to follow the whole class should trace pedigrees 

 of animals in the same breed. It is suggested that each student 

 trace for four complete generations the pedigrees of four animals, 

 two bulls and two cows. One bull and one cow to be noted Ad- 

 vanced Registry animals, the other bull and cow to be chosen en- 

 tirely at random 1 but to have neither Advanced Registry offspring 

 nor records of their own. 



Each student is furnished with pedigree blanks in which he will 

 fill in the pedigrees of the animals chosen. These are found on 



1 A good way to choose the animals at random is to place in a hat 10 slips of 

 paper numbered from to 9 and have the student draw from the hat. Suppose 

 the student's first draw is 1, or the number in the 100,000 column would be 1. 

 The student's second draw gives the 10,000 number, say the draw is 5; the third 

 the 1000 number, say, is 9; the fourth, the 100, let us say is 2: the fifth, the tens, 

 is 3; the sixth, the units, is 4. The number chosen is, consequently, 159,234, 

 which would be the number of the animal that the student is to pedigree, pro- 

 viding of course it has no Advanced Registry record. The slip is returned to 

 the hat at each draw so there are always 10 slips from which to draw. In case 

 the animal drawn has Advanced Registry records choose the next nearest ani- 

 mal which has no such records. The bulls and cows that a given student 

 pedigrees should if possible be chosen from the same volume of the herd book 

 so as to eliminate the influence of more cows than bulls being recorded. Other- 

 wise the animals pedigreed will be many years apart in dates of birth and 

 consequently the younger one will have less chance of having the same ances- 

 tors in a given generation than the animal of early birth. It is also important 

 to have the random sample numbers approximately the same as those of the 

 Advanced Registry. This may be done by allowing the two Advanced Regis- 

 try animals already pedigreed to determine the first three places and drawing 

 as above for the hundreds, tens, and units. 



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