TOG 



Dairy Cattle in Denmark. 



[Nov., 



following records conceiTiing members of a bull family of the 

 Eed Danish Dairy Cattle.* The " Birk " Bulls, with the years 

 of their birth, are arranged in the following genealogical table : — 



1. Birk, 1899. 



2. Hermod, 1903. 3. Birk Nakke, 1904. 4. Birkfiis, 1904. 

 * I 



5. Jason, 1906. 6. Thjalfe, 1906. 7. Kretbeus, 1907. 



The following table gives for each of these bulls the number 

 of progeny by various dams, also the average yield of milk, per- 

 centage of fat, and calculated yield of butter, for both dams and 

 their progeny. These averages are calculated for corresponding 

 years, taking the yields of the dam only for as many years, 

 beginning with the year of first calving, as the years for which 

 the yields of her progeny are known. 



Bull 



Progeny. 



Dams. 



No. 



Xurnher 



Yield of 

 Milk 



Fat per 

 cent. 



Yield of 

 Buttei 



Yield of 

 Milk 



Fat per 

 cent. 



Yield of 

 Butter 



1 



2 



4 



6 

 7 



59 

 21 

 30 

 10 

 33 

 34 

 27 



lb. 



8.424 



9,302 

 9,053 

 9,214 

 9,229 

 8.582 

 9,427 



3- 94 



4- 35 

 3-83 



3- 91 



4- 25 

 ,3-91 

 4-05 



11). 

 372 

 453 

 387 

 403 

 440 

 374 

 427 



lb. 

 7,9G2 

 9,731 

 8,639 

 9,000 

 8,884 

 8,793 

 8,534 



3-70 

 3-81 

 3-38 

 3-4 6 

 373 

 3 56 

 3 65 



lb. 



330 



414 



326 



345 



367 



350 



348 



Averages : 



9,033 



4-03 



408 ^ 8.792 



1 



3-61 



354 



The average influence of these seven bulls on the yields of 

 their offspring has been to increase the yield of milk slightly, 

 by •2.T per cent, above that of their dams, and to increase the 

 percentage of fat in the milk by 0.42, the effect being to increase 

 the average yield of butter of the offspring by 54 lb. per annum 

 (or 15 per cent.) above that of their dams. 



It will be noticed that while for tico of the bulls, Nos, 2 and 6, 

 the average yield of milk of the offspring was loiccr than that 

 of their dams, the average percentage of fat in the milk was 

 increased in the case of every hull, the increase ranging from 

 0.24 to 0.54 per cent. 



This development of the work of the milk recording societies 



* These records are from reports by J. Fr. Pedersen, Odense, 1915, and 

 by J. Fisker, Copenhagen, 1921, to the Provincial Agricultural Federations 

 in Funen and Sealand respectively. 



