THE COMMON MISTAKE.

Shannon News, 9 December 1924, Page 4

THE COMMON MISTAKE.

• Experience has conclusively-proved \that the cheap bull is invariably a dear one in the end. Of a man, especially if he be the owner of a grade herd, cannot be expected to pay a fancy price eevn for a sire of 'outstanding individual merit and’o; ‘ great butter-fat backing. But the fact cannot be ignored that it pays ;well to back one’s judgment with money when it is necessary to pay a good price to secure the animal desired. It has been rightly declared that , ’parsimony is a most effective bar to progress in the breeding of : purebred stock. This, of course, does not mean that, money should ,be squandered without judgment but it does . mean that it is true economy to pay a good 'price for the right type of animal, an

animal which should have a definite, influence in raising the standard of a herd’s, production. The fact that should always -be remembered is that a bull of great constitution, and having a good pedigree of performance, will add ; considerably to the selling value of its progeny. We have heard it said that no man ever paid too much for a really good sire, a sire that made good as far as perpetuating the blood of his heavymilking female ancestors. The man who is purchasing a .sire for a crossbred herd with the object of increasing his money-making capacity, should keep two things steadily in view—butter-fat records of. hhe. bull’s immediate female ancestors, and the constitution of the bull always remembering .that coarseness is always to be preferred to effeminacy.; It may be taken as a sound general rule that; the one thing, in the business of milk' production .w'here economy is a mistake is in the purchase of a herd sire.