SELECTING HERD SIRES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 73, 16 May 1944, Page 6

SELECTING HERD SIRES

NEED FOR EARLY THOUGHT

"The wise farmer, in setting out to buy a new herd sire, makes, up his! mind beforehand just what he expects of the bull. He generally makes his plans.well 'in advance of the mating season, so that he may have a wide selection and be able to inspect stock closely related to the animals under consideration at a time convenient for himself. Now, and not October, is> the time to decide on the qualities necessary 'in the sire," states Professor W. Riddet, of Massey Agricultural College, in an interview.

Professor Riddet, who is profes;sor of dairying at the College, and director of the Dairy Research Institute, said that on an annual replacement figure of 20 per cent, the average herd was ■completely turned over every five years. Assuming that this year's young bull was going to be the sire of all the future stock for say, the next three years, the importance of his qualities to be passed on could not.be over-em-phasised. All recent scientific and breeding research work showed that pedigree, while being important in the choice of a bull, could not be relied upon on its own. Sometimes bulls with the best of butterfat backing on paper gave disappoint-, ing results. . Therefore the dairj'farmer should go a step further and concentrate on blood lines which were known to give highproducing stock. The, best animal of all to choose was the sire who had been proved to leave high-pro-ducing stock, even though by that time, lie Avould lie not less than five years old.

Everyone could not buy a proven bull, because there were not enough of those in the country. The next best objective was the son of a good proven sire, preferably out of a proven cow which had already been the dam of at least one proven sire, or alternatively the dam of high-pro-ducing daughters. Fundamental to it all was that a farmer should buy a registered purebred bull of the same breed as the rest of his herd, because in general it paid better to keep to one breed than to be attempting to change from one to another,

Careful consideration should be given to such important points as wearing quality, ease in milking, capacity to milk clcan to the machines, resistance to common udder troubles, and those other desirable inherited features which the breeder described as type. In. making a study of these characters the prospective buyer of a young bull should inspect not only the sire and dam but also the family to which the dam belonged, as well as other offspring of the sire in Question, to ensure that the bull belonged to a line of animals of good strain. Once a farmer had bought a bull from a family which he found by experience brought good results, it was wise to continue with that lamily and so adopt a policy of line breeding.