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Dairy Cattle in Denmark. 



[Oct., 



In the 'nineties Danish farmers used to speak of '* butter 

 cows," at shows special classes were reserved for " butter 

 cows,'* and certain herds or strains were spoken of as " butter 

 strains." These terms are no longer in use, development 

 having rendered them unsuitable. From the more elementary- 

 question as to the amount of milk and butter produced by a 

 cow, attention was directed to the more important but also 

 more difficult question whether the cow was able to transmit 

 her high-yielding capacity to her progeny. 



Prizes for Herds. — One way in which a solution was sought 

 was by means of competitions heticeen entire herds. Certain 

 competitions had already been carried out in Funen in the 

 'eighties for one year at a time. Their object was to find 

 herds which not only contained prominent animals but con- 

 sisted of families of such, and from w^hich a supply of good 

 breeding animals could be obtained for the improvement of 

 other herds. 



When, in 1894, the Gerber method of estimating the per- 

 centage of fat in milk w- as introduced the leading cattle breeders 

 in Funen wanted this item included in the judging, and they 

 wanted the competitions carried on for two whole years. A 

 new series of competitions betw^een entire herds in Funen w^as 

 therefore begun in 1894 and another similar series began in 

 1897 in Sealand. Each of these competitions was carried on 

 for two whole years, during which time the competing herds 

 w^ere visited about six times each by a Committee of Judges, 

 while young men were engaged to assist the judges by visiting 

 each of the farms every twentieth day throughout the 

 period, w^eighing and analysing the milk, weighing the fodder 

 given to each cow, ^nd making the requisite entries in the 

 family herdbook. The family herdbooks in their fully developed 

 form may be said to date from these biennial competitions. 

 All the herds entered for the seven competitions in Funen and 

 in other provinces had such family herdbooks made for them. 



The first competition in Funen w^as in 1894-96, the seventh 

 was held 1913-15. The herds were judged according to yield 

 of milk, both by quantity and quality, and yield of butter 

 (calculated from the yield of milk and percentage of fat\ to- 

 gether with records of amount of fodder consumed and records 

 of descent of and relationship between the animals. The 

 best herds were awarded prizes and were officially recognised 

 as " Breeding Centres.** 



The recording of yield of milk and butter and of fodder con- 



