A REALLY GOOD BULL.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 November 1936, Page 7 (Supplement)

A REALLY GOOD BULL.

The bull is the most important single factor in dairy herd improvements. Professor E. S. Harrison, of the New York State College of Agriculture, U.S.A., says that a good bull is a sound investment, and a poor one is expensive at any time. “Each cow has a definite inherited ability to produce milk, beyond which feeding and management cannot develop her,” he asserts. “In general, the sire and dam contribute equally cf, this inherited productive capacity. Therefore, if the bull can transmit higher production than the dam, the daughters will show an increase in production compared with the dam. If the bull transmits factors for low production the daughters may produce even less than the dams.”

Professor Harrison says he has met many dairy men who were willing to pay from five to 10 times as much for good, young cows as for the bull they place at the head of their herds. These dairymen, he notes, fail to appreciate that bulls in service to-day determine to a great extent the production of females in the herds five years from to-day. The true value of a bull can be determined only by careful comparison of his daughters with their dams. A proved bull should be used whenever possible. Since the number of such bulls is limited, the risk can be reduced by selecting a bull from a proved sire and dam. Special attention should be given the dam, though the rest of the family should not be neglected. When a bull is selected from a proved sire ahd dam whose ancestors are proven, the chances of disappointment are greatly reduced.