JERSEY CATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 April 1922, Page 3

JERSEY CATTLE.

INGLEWOOD CLUB. PAPER ON LINE BREEDING. A general meeting of memiers of the Inglewood Jersey Cattle Club was held at Mr. Messenger’s office on >Sa,turday, when an interesting paper on line breeding, written by Mr. W. H. Booth, of Carterton, was read by Mr. Vaughan Harkness. Mr. A. W. Yeates (president of the club) presided. Mr. Booth’s paper was as follows:I may say that fifteen years or so of line breeding Jersey cattle is not sulTicient time to get enough experience to write or speak with authority on the subject of breeding, but 1 can give the members some concise idea of the way that I am endeavoring to improve my own herd by not going too far away from the old parent stock. I cannot claim much originality in this paper; for years past breeders have studied the many ways, by cross breeding, line, and in-breeding, to improve their stock. Without doubt in-breeding has been used in the improvement of all our domestic breeds, though now there may not be the necessity as in the past. And from this system o-f in-breeding certain modifications have arisen. Possibly Darwin’s theory that in-breeding had a tendency to produce infertility and lack of constitution made breeders chary of going too deeply in this direction. Although his theory is often doubted still, line breeding is more often advocated and used in a number of progressive herds as being safer in the long run. Taken as a general rule any animal that has over 50 per cent, of a particular blood may be considered in-bred in that strain—so per cent, and under should constitute a line-bred animal.

A veteran Scotch Shorthorn breeder wrote this following paragraph:— “Straight breeding with a limited range of pedigrees—striving steadily to improve the stock descended from the ■foundation herd —making deeper rather than wider the life stream—checking instead of producing the tendency towards variation —gaining hereditary power by intensifying a few instead of combining many lines.” This is an explanation of line breeding. To put it another way, it is continually breeding from ana a>ong the lines of a particular family. Here the tendency of the strain would seem to run over the 50 per cent, in a few years, but in the past our crosses have been used so that in my own case I find that 12.25 per cent, is about the maximum that I can keep in my breeding. To explain the system of line breeding more definitely and taking my own experience, I would recommend anyone starting in a small way to purchase one good cow with as few *faults as possible", but if he desires more let him buy good ones of the same family breeding. Having secured the foundation stock there comes the question of sire. If the foundation stock is satisfactory, go to the foundation herd for the sire, using one of the same family that measures up closely to the standard of the breed. Then breed from that sire and go back to the foundation herd for a second one o-f similar blood, even using one of his own breeding when ! satisfied that his own system is pro--5 during as good and better female as the original stock. But if the foundation stock does not produca a sire up to the best standard, then necessity gives us an option of two things, either to look around the country arid see if a superior sire cannot be got of somewhat similar breeding to our own stock. This climatic out-cross should suit any breeder who may be chary of too close breeding, and it would follow that the dissimilarity of climate and feeding should put a little extra amount of constitution on the sire if the conditions under which they are bred are more servere. Or if the best sire can lonly be got from an outside herd bred on different lines, then of necessity use him, as my experience does not give me sufficient knowledge to advocate using any sire on his own stock. I would recommend that the breeder go back and procure another sire from the same best herd, and so go on using similar sires until the time comes when the good points of the other herd are incorporated in his own, then he may consider the possibility of occasionally using a sire of his own breeding.

It would be difficult in the above twocases to advise a breeder w r hat percentage of inferiority can be allowed between a sire of the original foundation stock as against a perfect outsider, but some points could be allowed in favor of the former. Of course, the breeder must understand that constitution is the first aim in all breeding operations, and by getting sires and sometimes a cow of similar breeding lines, from a distance has made me believe that this climatic out-cross is one of the best ways of line breeding. If the breeder is doubtful of too close line breeding, there are two other methods of line breeding, but the blood is not so accentuated, but gains may be made in improvement in type. The one way is to introduce a superior cow into the and by crossing with your own brea sire, produce a sire or daughter that can be used or bred from again, and so carry on the original system. The first outside cross may bring the blood lines down 50 per cent., but the second and future crosses increase the proportion of the old blood. In the same way the best cow or heifer may be sent out to breed and their progeny used to carry on. There is this one weakness in line breeding—that you perpetuate faults as well as good qualities. Good methods of selection are then necessary to improve or cut out the inferior qualities. One can be confident that the good points (and there should be many to start- with) are handed down, and though there may be sometimes a throw-back to something inferior, yet the chances are great that the next generation from this inferior animal will return to the average of the herd. I have noticed that a bull that nas shown weakness in the progeny in another herd of mixed lines, has, when crossed with a strain of similar blood lines, shown excellent results. And as to the weak points, in all breeding the. intelligence of the breeder must play a great part in correction. So he must decide for himself how far he can go piling up the good points at the expense of a few weak ones. For the purpose of this article I have thoroughly examined the thirty line bred Monopoly yearlings left to us last year, and find that there is no evidence o-f want of constitution amongst them, the smaller ones in the lot being from the two-year-olds of the last season that were brought in a- little later than >the cows. Two yearlings that we consider the best in the bunrii are by Ironmaster, and are line bred closely toria sth, Queen of Rewa Freesia, with the out-cross to Silverlock’s Duke. Of the two sires used this season, both are Ly Ironmaster; one, a dark fawn from

Oakland’s PatchlesS (brought in as an out-cross dow), is used in one or two cases to correct a too light color and keep up quality and udder conformation. This is a concrete example of an out-cross to the Majesty Fox strain. The other young sire (by Ironmaster) is from a good daughter of the Owl’s Victor Rewa Naiad, whose dam, bred by us, was by Ironmaster. This is an example of a line bred Ironmaster and Monopoly with an out-cross to the Owl’s Victor. This bull of show’ quality is expected to keep up the size of udder and improve appearance; and looking forward to the coming season’s calves it follows that in them the quantity of out-cross blood is diminished and that of the original strain increased. Whether all the good points of out-cross will be retained remains to be seen; some should be. I am looking forward to the results from these young Ironmaster bulls on two good Ironmaster yearling heifers before mentioned. If bulls of good quality and constitution, they will be used in the herd; if heifers, they may be sent out to mate with some sire that, has a strain of Monopoly blood, like your Taranaki bull, Maori Boy; and so the system may be carried on —an out-cross occasionally, the use of good sires W’ithin the herd, and the getting of a sire from another breeder who has the same strain.

In conclusion, I have tried to combine theory and example. I did not like mentioning names, but the few I have drawn attention to were necessary, I found, in making the points clearer to understand. At the close of the paper there was a short discussion, and Mr. Booth was accorded a very cordial vote of thanks, members remarking that they were greatly indebted to Mr. Booth for a lot of really valuable information.