CHOOSING A SIRE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1483, 4 July 1912, Page 8

CHOOSING A SIRE.

Tlffi BLOOD THAT COVXTS. • In soldting a sii - d for the dairy herd, a great: many breeders make only one ■!«.-- mimil—tliat the sire bo purebred or registered. One should go liirther than this, and dcnuiiul that the ancestors of the animal in question be Leasts nf merit, large producers, and typical nf the breed. A great many of the bulls in use to-day ns herd headers arc no better than scrubs. For the best results wo should demand that the female ancestors be large producers of milk and bntter-tal. instead of being satisfied, with knowing that the sire or dam or some other animal in the pedigree carried off the ring, prize at a certain slio.v. The dairyman is primarily interested in how much mill; and butterfa f he can obtain from his herd. This is the basis of income and profit. The immediate ancestors of the herd bull are I he ones that should concern us most. It is more important that his dam and grandams be high producers than for him to be related to some great and wonderful cow that appears in his pedigree five or six generations back. J r.o much attention is paid to individual animals or families thnt niaj be represented or appear in the pedigree. In selecting the Herd bull there are two courses open to the breeder. The one is to -elect a voting bull, and the other is to select ail old bull that hns been tried and proved to In; ft prepotent animal. • , ~ The advantage in selecting a young bill for tin- herd is (says an American writer) that it is cheaper, and less risk is attended toward getting a mean and ugy bull as well as bringing any di-ease into the herd. In selecting a young bull one mas "rearer risk in getting one that will Iransmif the characteristics desired thanin -cMing an old bull that has been tried. The performance and records in the nuc-trv are about the only guide that, ran'he used, in '"',* I ™'. w , When one elects an old bull that has been tried lie has .sums certainly that this animal will raise the proe.notion ot his herd. When this ran be done it is probal.lv the best method to use, but where one knows the value of a bull the price asked for him is oitomimes prohibitive.'