Breeding stock

“ There are few that have hatfuls of money to expend upon the purchase of high-bred animals; nor is this necessary in order to secure a profitable return from a breeding stock.
I would recommend the following method: I shall suppose a farmer wishes to buy twenty cows to stock his farm (Aberdeen and Angus cattle) . His entry is, say, at Whitsunday. He must have a bull to serve his cows. He should be selected from an established herd and from a race of good milkers. The farmer must be a good judge, or employ one in whom he has implicit confidence to act in his behalf. ”

“ Under the chapter on Breeding there is a discussion as to the value of line-breeding and if one starts out with registered stock and practices line-breeding intelligently, there is no reason why the value of the stock should grow less with each generation. But a constant selection of the breeding stock must be kept up in order to make progress all the time. ”

“ Second, as to cattle and hogs, it was almost impossible to breed pure stock; for all animals were allowed to run at large, and the woods were full of “tramp males,” which would break through the fences and invade the fields where the improved stock was kept. Third, those engaged in breeding stock found that there was a limit which when reached brought barrenness to high-bred animals, and in many other cases reduced the vitality so as to invite disease. ”

“ This is still true of breeders who successfully introduce new varieties or who suddenly attain prominence with stock of their own breeding. But as the stock of a leading breeder becomes widely distributed among smaller breeders, the competition of his customers reduces his sales, and especially the sales of the cheaper grades of stock. The most troublesome problem that the best breeders have is to get rid of the lower grades of their stock at a fair profit. ”

“ Every young breeder of poultry should inform himself of these facts before he starts in, for no living man can afford to breed from inferior stock. I passed through experiences of this kind many years ago, and always found that the laws of primogeniture cannot be lightly set aside. I invariably select the choicest of my early hatched birds for breeding stock, and no matter how high the price in market, I cannot afford to sell them. A gentleman, who is a large breeder, said to me the past spring: "How is it that your ducks are so much larger than mine? ”

“ I can hardly speak with the same authority as a breeder, generally, that I can as a feeder; yet I have been a close observer now for many years, and devoted my earnest attention to the improvement of the Aberdeen and Angus polled breed of cattle, with respect to size, symmetry, fineness of bone, strength of constitution, and disposition to accumulate fat, sparing no expense in obtaining the finest animals from the purest stock.
Laying the foundation of a breeding stock will be the first matter under consideration. ”

“ Attention to the matter is imperative, and planters would be wise in their own interests to devote a little time and trouble to disseminating sound ideas about the selection of breeding stock, and the principles of rearing and raising stock among their ryots and dependants. Every factory should be able to breed its own cattle, and supply its own requirements for plough and cart-bullocks. ”

“ To keep up a breeding stock to a high point of excellence is very difficult. The breeder ought to be always buying and selling and incorporating different strains together. There will be many blanks, but there will be a prize; and when you hit, and the incorporation proves a lasting benefit and is stamped on the original herd, it is a great prize you have won. I therefore agree with Mr Berry that we must not depend alone upon the good blood of the bull. ”

“ Were I a judge at a cattle show, I certainly should disqualify every extremely fat animal entered for competition amongst the breeding stock. Unless parents are healthy and vigorous, their progeny are almost certain to be unhealthy and weakly; and it is inconceivable that an extremely obese bull and an unnaturally fat cow could be the progenitors of healthy offspring. We should by all means improve our live stock ”

“ Further the income from such a flock may be increased through the sale of eggs for hatching and of breeding stock at prices many times greater than those of table eggs and poultry.
RHODE ISLAND REDS
No matter what breed you select, the most important matter, the very foundation of success, is the securing of individual birds which are strong, sturdy, vigorous and healthy. Only stock of high vitality can be depended upon to give continuously good results. It is time and money wasted to keep fowls which are weak, sickly or "run-down," the result of improper breeding or management. ”

“ It has been well said that all good stock must be both bred with attention and well fed. It is necessary that these two essentials in this species of improvement should always accompany each other; for without good resources of keeping, it would be vain to attempt supporting a valuable stock. This is true with regard to the original stock. It is yet more evident when animals are absurdly brought from a better to a poorer soil. The original stock will deteriorate if neglected and half-starved, and the improved breed will lose ground even more rapidly, and to a far greater extent. ”

“ It has been declared that there is an equal amount of doubt as to the cause of a breeder of stock wishing to exhibit his animals. Surely this last assertion is at least of a doubtful character. What greater proof could a stock breeder give of his pride in his animals than a burning desire to expose their good qualities to the public gaze. ”

“ Furthermore, 24 productive females may wean from 1,000 to 1,250 young per year. Suppose you desire to sell 500 to 750 to laboratory use, 100 trios and 100 pairs for breeding stock and pets. That sells the 1,000 to 1,250. But, beginners who rush into that volume of production without looking to their markets, who expand without experience and business sense, play a losing game. Remember, that a large share of the current laboratory animal market is currently monopolized by the large commercials most anxious to sell you breeding stock. They are not creating markets for beginners. ”

“ For two-year-olds rising three, out of small cows, I have at Christmas got £40 from the butcher. Purity of blood in the male will be found highly to improve inferior races. A herd of breeding stock without the risk of haphazard will be secured at a moderate cost—one that will be profitable to the owner.
The following remarks apply partly to a show-yard herd, and partly to one for commercial purposes. In the original selection, as I have already observed, the breeder must have in his eye the model he wishes to propagate. ”

“ In filling a breeding stock order, unless otherwise requested, an honest shipper selects males not immediately related to each other or to females shipped; females likewise. Thus, pedigrees on commercial breeding stock purchases are unecessary. ”

“ He ought to select the best heifers or cows (duly informing himself as to their breeding) from the different districts I have named. The produce, after a first-class bull, will be astonishing. The cows that throw the best calves should be retained, while those that "cry back" should be dismissed, and their places filled up with a new selection. By careful breeding for two years there will be a most useful profitable breeding stock established, and there is no doubt that even some good races may be secured. ”

“ Individual breeders here and there have pursued an enlightened course in endeavouring to improve their herds; and it is natural that their choice of breeding stock should have been determined largely by the nature of the commercial demand. They have thus been led to concentrate their attention mainly on the production of animals with the weight of body and strength of bone which have been demanded by British and foreign buyers. ”

“ To the novice, a few such larger operators may appear to be specializing in breeding stock of highly superior grade, but to the laboratories each such is just another source of laboratory animal supply.
Much of the finest breeding stock in the country is produced in hobby and small commercial hamsteries operated by those who really enjoy small stock and have thoroughly informed themselves in the field of genetics. ”

“ A last word as regards the numbers you should retain as a breeding stock. This largely depends on the size of the piece of water you own and the amount of food it can supply to your birds. If your stock is too large, your birds will do a lot of harm to the meadows adjoining the water, and you must bear in mind that the possession of the goodwill of the farmers round is the second secret of success. Ensure this, and you don't get eggs stolen, and, better still, you are informed of the whereabouts of any truant ducks that may be nesting away from home. ”

“ This may be still another cause for a beginner in stock breeding exercising extreme care in the selection of his original stock. Even if the prime cost be higher than that of ordinary market stock the extra outlay expended on animals from well-known breeders, and out of old established herds, is certain to prove a good investment. ”

“ On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the exhibition of our improved specimens of stock has been of untold benefit to both home and foreign stock breeders. Further, the exportation of our pedigree stock has actually saved us from semi-starvation during this most fearful of all wars, as without our improved stock the native stock of foreign countries could not possibly have furnished the enormous quantities of meat which we have had to import. ”

“ The most successful stock breeders are those who make a special study of their animals and take a great interest in them and those who do not are almost certain to fail and really deserve failure. If so much care is necessary in breeding domestic animals, how much more important the care in handling the wild creatures, knowing so little of them as the average man does. But even handicapped by lack of knowledge the experimenters have been fairly successful from the start if they were right men for the business. ”

“ High prices are paid for noted winners and for other stock of the same breeding, as much for the advertising value of ownership of fine stock as for the actual value of the birds to breed from or to exhibit again. A breeder who wins at some very small show may find it hard to sell either stock or eggs for hatching except at a slight advance over market prices. Some breeders who have made remarkable records in winning at the best shows can get very high prices for their prize-winning stock and for the eggs from it. Fowls sometimes sell as high as $500 each, and eggs at $2 each. ”

“ The export trade in cattle, sheep and pigs is practically restricted to pedigree animals required for breeding purposes, and though its aggregate value is not large it is of considerable importance to stock-breeders, as it is a frequent occurrence for buyers for export—to Argentina, Australasia, Canada, the United States and elsewhere—to bid freely at the sale rings, and often to pay the highest prices, thus stimulating the sales and encouraging the breeding of the best types of native stock. ”

“ It needs no penetration to see that, by an exact knowledge of the processes of maturation and fertilization, a vigorous stock is being reared, upon which some day the experience of the breeder will be firmly grafted, to our mutual profit. We, who are engaged in experimental breeding, are watching with keenest interest the researches of Strasburger, Boveri, Wilson, Farmer and their many fellow-workers and associates in this difficult field, sure that in the near future we shall be operating in common. ”

“ In the year 1825, the Highland Society of Scotland, proposed as the subject of prize essays, the solution of the question, "whether the breed of live stock connected with agriculture be susceptible of the greatest improvement from the qualities conspicuous in the male or from those conspicuous in the female parent?" ”

“ The only way in which the continued exhibition of these old stagers was made profitable was the securing of customers for breeding stock from the exhibitors, who in far too many cases were not the breeders of the winning animals. ”

“ Many breeders have a high reputation for their stock as layers, and derive large profit from selling stock or eggs to other farms. There are many immense duck-farms or “ranches,” as mentioned below, which sell nothing except stock ducks or market ducklings. A great many combine the breeding and sale of exhibition poultry with some or all of these objects, fancy points being on the whole less distinct from useful qualities than in England, and the farmer and exhibitor far more commonly combined. ”

“ This bull should be of the same breed, and pure, coming from a similar pasturage and climate, but possessing no relationship—or, at most, a very distant one—to the stock to which he is introduced. He should bring with him every good point which the breeder has labored to produce in his stock, and if possible, some improvement, and especially in the points where the old stock may have been somewhat deficient, and most certainly he should have no manifest defect of form; and that most essential of all qualifications, a hardy constitution, should not be wanting. ”