BABY BEEF

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 484, 13 October 1928, Page 29

BABY BEEF

WORKING TOWARD A TYPE AN AMERICAN VIEW George K. Martin, discussing in the American “Shorthorn World,” pres-ent-day tendencies in the matter of type, says that the undisputed qualities of the Shorhorn as compared with other beef breeds may be enumerated as follows: (1) She is by inheritance a producer of beef and milk—two leading elements of human diet. (2) Her calf, due to a plentiful supply of milk, will attain to a greater growth at a given age than will those from mothers not so endowed by inheritance to produce the required milk for the sustenance of their calves. (3) Most of her tribe may, when conditions justify it, be profitably hand-milked, and her calf grown out for prime beef. It has been stated, the writer goes on, that beef production is the most important branch of a mixed agricultural programme. Be that as it may, the Shorthorn cow fits into this scheme more acceptably than will the cow of the other breeds, because she will raise a good calf and bring it to breeding age with more growth, more weight, and of more value as a feeder because of these two points in its favour. The point, however, to keep in mind in beef production is this: Can we by breeding from bulls of medium or small type, the kind that sire the baby

beef types, continue to produce the type of cows that do give sufficient milk to give the breed the more growtliy and best-weighing calves at weaning time? As the cows of a breed tend toward shortness of leg. fullness of rib, width of front and heavy flesh, the natural tendency is to lessen the flow of milk, and it quite logically follows that any decrease in the mother’s milk means a less growthy and less thrifty calf. Can we afford to sacrifice this all-saving quality on the part of the Shorthorn cow simply to produce a type which at the present may be in demand on the commercial markets and in the show ring?