Cattle breeder

“ The analogy with the breeder of cattle is a very misleading one. He has a very simple ideal, to which he directs the entire pairing of his stock. He breeds for beef, he breeds for calves and milk, he breeds for homogeneous docile herd. ”

“ Apart from the breeding of sheep on the Hauts Plateaux and in the Sahara, we also find cattle-raising in the Tell and in the coast hills of the department of Oran, while horse-breeding is carried on all along the southern slopes of the Atlas. The cattle are not very big, and would compare sadly with any European breed, but they bring in a comfortable little revenue to the breeder and suffice for the needs of the country. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Although by carefully selecting the best animals (as Nature effectually does by the law of battle) close interbreeding may be long carried on with cattle, yet the good effects of a cross between almost any two breeds is at once shown by the greater size and vigour of the offspring; as Mr. Spooner writes to me, "crossing distinct breeds certainly improves cattle for the butcher." Such crossed animals are of course of no value to the breeder ”

“ The various breeds of cattle have been produced by man, not by any new method of ventilating the cow-sheds, or by [42] some freshly discovered patent fodder, but simply by selecting for breeding purposes those individuals that most suited the breeder’s purpose. ”

“ In England the problem to be solved by the breeder of neat cattle and sheep is how "to produce an animal or a living machine which with a certain quantity and quality of food, and under certain given circumstances, [9] shall yield in the shortest time the largest quantity and best quality of beef, mutton or milk, with the largest profit to the producer and at least cost to the consumer." But this is not precisely the problem for American farmers to solve, because our circumstances are different. ”

“ The general farmer is now taking the place of the range men as the breeder and feeder of cattle. Better methods are producing more and better cattle and, despite the trustification of the slaughtering business by the packing interests, the raising and finishing of "block" cattle is a most attractive side of modern farming. ”

“ There is probably not one in Parana, where, if you suggest it, the breeder will answer that an excess of water will promote the growth of worthless plants. The condition of the cattle might be improved, and the return from them increased, by dividing the enormous droves, which may now count from four to thirty thousand head, into herds of from five hundred to a thousand head. ”

“ As breeders of domestic animals, when they choose certain varieties in preference to others to breed from, speak technically of their method as that of 'selecting,' Mr. Darwin calls the combination of natural causes, which may enable certain varieties of wild animals or plants to prevail over others of the same species, 'natural selection.'
A breeder finds that a new race of cattle with short horns or without horns may be formed, in the course of several generations, by choosing varieties having the most stunted horns as his stock from which to breed; ”

“ I think, too, that in every possible way you should encourage the breeders of full-blood cattle in all of these breeds, and that you give them every encouragement in purchasing their progeny.
The introduction of good bulls is a comparatively simple matter, because they can be purchased, but a great cow herd can only be produced by accumulation, probably by a culling of at least ten per cent of all females every year during the process of up-grading. The yearling heifers should not be bred. We always cull them when about eighteen months old, cutting them ten per cent. ”

“ If the calf takes after the sire and the sire is a pure bred of strong type, the calf may be nearly as strong in producing ability as the pure bred ancestors. On the other hand, even pure bred cattle may breed back at times, and their offspring resemble some distant scrub member in the ancestry. Breeders are well aware of this fact and try very hard to keep all inferior cattle entirely eliminated from [Pg 24] their line of breeding. It is important that they should for their line should breed as true as possible, and really poor calves with them are rare. ”

“ These three breeds comprise practically all the pure-blooded cattle in the United States used for breeding and for grading up native cattle for beef purposes. In feeding and breeding beef cattle it has been the aim in recent years to reduce the time necessary to prepare the animal for market. ”

“ It must be remembered that other factors interfere with milking capacity as such alone. The cow's size, age, and health might be mentioned, for instance. If these other factors can be eliminated, then, if the hybrids are intermediates, there will be three grades of cows, viz. high grade, medium, and low grade. The cows' grade being manifest by their yield of milk, the difficult part of the problem is to determine the grade of the bull; and for this there is only one test, the test of breeding. He is either high grade, middle, or low grade. ”

“ Having done my best to explain how I think the foundation of a breeding stock should be laid, I shall now give my opinion and experience how the herd should be treated, and how it should be kept up. The cows, heifers, and bulls should be kept fresh, not fat, nor too lean. The calves should have a different treatment. All breeding cattle tied to the stall should be let out every day for two or three hours, or at least every second day, unless the weather be very wet or stormy. The finer the quality of the stock the less rich will be the food they require. ”

“ The native cattle, like the horses, are small and wild, but are hardy and make good rustlers. The native stock has been greatly improved in recent years by cross breeding with thoroughbred Durham and Hereford bulls. Grade cattle are better suited for the open range than are pure bred animals, which are more tender and fare better in fenced pastures. By cross breeding the quality of range cattle has steadily improved until the scrub element has been almost bred out. ”

“ In the matter of the cows, there has been no culling, added to which there has been in-breeding, and on both the sire and dam side following out the law that evil qualities intensify in posterity, the tendency has been down instead of up in the breeding of native cattle for forty years, to which the only relief has been a very limited introduction of the beef strains. ”

“ The breeding cow must carry a calf every year, and this notwithstanding that she is at the same time suckling another large, growing calf. The dairy cow must breed every year, and at the same time must furnish a generous flow of milk from nine to eleven months yearly. ”

“ Among stock-breeders generally there is a very strong aversion to in-breeding, although it was the method of the great pioneers and is still the method in a modified form, called line breeding, among breeders of the highest class. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Few men are to be found willing to undertake the herculean task of building up a new breed in this way from grade stock. An objection meets us at the very outset, which is that it would require a long series of years to arrive at any satisfactory results, from the fact that no two animals, made up, as our “native” cattle are, of such a variety of elements and crosses, could be found sufficiently alike to produce their kind. ”

“ In much of the West and South, beef alone is the principal object; while the dairy is neglected, and the work of the ox is seldom relied on, except for occasional drudgery.
Sheep may be wanted almost exclusively for the fleece, or for the fleece and heavy mutton, or in the neighborhood of markets, for large early lambs. The pastures and winter food, climate, and other conditions, present additional circumstances, which should be well considered before determining on the particular breed, either of cattle or sheep, that will best promote the interest of the farmer. ”

“ The various breeds continue to have their advocates and admirers, and each breed has some points of advantage. The pure bred stock, however, comprise only a very small fraction of the dairy cows of the United States and Canada. The larger part of the cows are grades, i.e. crosses of natives or ordinary cows with pure breeds. Among these are many excellent animals, rivaling the thoroughbreds in amount and economy of milk-production. ”

“ With entire adaptedness to the soil, climate, and wants of the farmer, an originally good stock has, in frequent instances, been carefully fostered, and the breeding animals selected with a strict reference to their fitness for perpetuating the most desirable qualities. As a consequence of this intelligent and persevering policy, widely, but not universally pursued, they have a race of cattle, though possessing considerable diversity of size and color, yet coinciding in a remarkable degree in the possession of those utilitarian features, which so justly commend them to our admiration. ”

“ Upland pastures and particularly the tracts covered with alfa-grass offer opportunity for modern cattle-production on an extensive scale. Cattle-breeding is now badly neglected by the natives, as is also the breeding of the fine strains of Berber, Arab and Syrian horses. ”

“ For fear of in-and-in breeding, three years was the limit of use of any bulls among the improved cattle, the first importation going to the main stock, and a second consignment supplanting them at the head of the herd. ”

“ It controls the value and beauty of grown cattle. Stint the growth of a calf, and when he is old he will not recover from it. Much attention has been paid to the breed of cattle, and some are very highly recommended. It is true that the breed of stock has much to do with its excellence. It is equally true that the care taken with calves and young cattle, has quite as much to do with it. We can take any common breed, and by great care in raising, have quite as good cattle, for market or use, as can another, who has the best breed in the world, but keeps them indifferently. ”

“ Until, however, certain mooted questions connected with breeding are definitively settled, it is the safest plan, in breeding for the dairy, to adhere to the rule of selecting only animals whose progenitors on both sides have been distinguished for their milking qualities. ”

“ Such novelties of type abound in the vegetable world, are seen more rarely in the animal circle, and perhaps are least frequent of occurrence in our own race. There is a noted instance in the production, on a New England farm, of a variety of sheep with unusually short legs, which was kept up by breeding, on account of the convenience in that country of having sheep which are unable to jump over low fences. The starting and main taming a breed of cattle, that is, a variety marked by some desirable peculiarity, are familiar to a large class of persons. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Their young cannot so soon shift for themselves and require more milk, and the dams yield it. Each generation in its turn becomes more completely and fully adapted to the circumstances amid which they are reared, and if bred indiscriminately with any thing and every thing else, we by and by have the common mixed cattle of New England, miscalled natives; or if kept more distinct, we have something approaching the Devon, the Ayrshire, or the Jersey breeds.
A due consideration of the natural effect of climate and food is a point worthy the special attention of the stock-husbandman. ”

“ The problem of tracing the ancestry of the whole was thus narrowed down to tracing that of a very few, and not only from their very picturesqueness, and the fact that they had never been tamed, but also because they had been referred to more than once in early writings, the wild white cattle afforded the most attractive clue. ”

“ They have increased to double their former size, and they yield about four and some of them five times as much milk as formerly. By greater attention to breeding and feeding, they have been changed from an ill-shaped, puny, mongrel race of cattle to a fixed and specific breed of excellent color and quality. ”

“ The treatment I adopt with yearling heifers intended for breeding purposes is the following—and I have seldom or never failed in getting them in calf: They are not starved to interfere with their growth, but through the summer, when rising two years old, they are kept on the very worst grass on the farm, and on the refuse of the grass rejected by the other cattle, which are removed to fresh pastures. In winter and spring, up to the time of serving with the bull, they get an average barrowful of turnips amongst every three, and no more. ”