HIGH CUSS STOCK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1776, 14 June 1913, Page 21

HIGH CUSS STOCK.

QUESTION OF BUYING AND SELLING. I' i' !' WHERE MISTAKES ARE MADE. Bujers are sometimes disappointed witl the youuff stock tliey purchase, becaus they do not mature so well as they an ticipated. A writer in the "Breeders Gazette" says:—"There are many factor entering into the business of breedinf and selling purebred live stock, whicl make for the success or failure of thosi *• engaged in it. Likewise thero are mnnj oircumstances arising which do not ad< £ to the pleasure of tho busiuess. Amonf these are some of the shortcomings of ai occasional customer, who blames th< i breeder for his own faults. Many oi I your readers buy purebred stock souk I time during the year, and I would etvli i their attention to a few things that thej I owe to the breeder, to the stock thej i buy, and to themselves. Probably the , most important factor in handling purebred stock is the caro and feed, and tc the lack of proper care and intelligent feeding is due much of the dissatisfaction of buyers. The judgment, or rather lack of it, that is displayed iu handling good animals after they are bought is surely amazring. An illustration may show this more clearly. A few years since w« sold a very good yearling Tain, one, that had been fitted some for show • purposes. The ram had been given very good care, plenty of feed, including grain !and hay, and had been protected from all storms during the summer. We sold him in the fall just before breeding season. As soon as he got the ram home, the buyer sheared him, turned- him in a back lot with a flock of ewes, exposed him to all 'the oold fall rains, and gave him neither hay nor grain. The natural result would have been for the ram to die.' r He did not do- this, neither did he get a crop of lambs, and the buyer was very much dissatisfied and complained ■ that the ram was not a breeder, in spite ' of tho fact that he did get a few lambs, 1 and thought he should be furnished with 1 another ram. "Will any reasonable man tell us how he could have expected results far different from -those pbtained, and how he could blame anyone but himself for his own ignoranco or negligence, or both? An Important Consideration. "In this connection comes another consideration, which is tho desire of many to buy the' fattest and most highly-fitted tfnimals regardless of the conditions under which thoy aro handling their stock; and when they get such animals they do not know how or fail to care for them as their condition demands, Times out ol" number we have heard men say, 'I do not want a fat ,or fitted ram,' and we have seen these same men go "into a flock and'pick out the very fattest and most highly fitted ram as their choice. If they buy, they take tho ram home and turn him out, and then the ram goes to pieces, and the buyer blames the scllor, for what? For not making the buyer take care of his ram? lam not opposed to fitting and a reasonable amount of llesh on rams. In fact, I know of no other way to show the real value of tho possibilities of an animal, but I do believe that the man who buys such animals should take good care of tliem after he buys thorn, or he should leave them alone. I know that he must take care of them if he secures satisfactory results. The man who has neither time nor inclination to care for a fitted animal should buy one that has been handled under average conditions, and is able to go to the buyer and do well without extra care, demanding only good feed, tho same as anything else that breathes, . Buyer Must Take Riski. "With live stock of any kind there is always much chance at any time during its life, and the owner must take that chance. Certainly r.o breeder can afford to carry that risk after an animal leaves his possession. And in this connection comes tho over use of an immature animal, especially a sire. Many men buy a young immature sire, and then turn "him biit'to run with tho flock or herd, take his chances with tho rest, grow and develop himself, and air the time be in service- as a sire. Tho results aro an animal that is stunted, or at best fails by much of his full nnd best development, and a weak, inferior lot of produce, of small percentage. Then tho buyer finds fault with the seller because the animal did not develop properly, and his got were not what they should have been. This applies to all classes of live stock. Here is an illustration from experience. A man bought a boar about six months old, a good pig, well bred, and well grown for his age. The buyer turned tho pig in with a bunch of eight to ten old sows, following a drove of cattle, gave him no extra care nor feed except what he could get with the sows, bred all his own and his neighbours' sows, and then the next summer complained that his pig crop was short, and that his boar was small for his age, and not good for service. What could you oxpect? When buyers learn that good pure-bred stock needs caTe and feed as much an any animal, that there is always a large element of chance in handling any live stock, and when sellers realise tho danger to their business of tho misrepresentation of the stock they have to sell, then a large source of the. dissatisfaction arising from the business will have been removed."