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Show WHAT IT MEANS IN LONG RUN TO USE PUREBRED SIRES INSTEAD OF GRADES I Purebred MOlA 4 if) nczj pzr I Purebred nO"" i Ml l zzr I Willi Pun-breA I Than in Five.with I lhe Grade Bulls I I jfuBloottr I Regress In Five Generations Using Regress In Five Generations Using Purebred Bulls and Native Con's Grade Bulls and Native Cow See Hov Rapidly tne Proportion of Scrub Blooo (BlacK Portion) Diminishes Dimin-ishes When a Purebred Sire Is Used. (Prepared the United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture.) Tom Jones and John Brown live on adjoining farms. Each of thein owns o scrub cow. The county agent gave them a United States department of agriculture bulletin on grading up by the use of better sires, and they have decided to try it. Joe Smith, who lives a mile down the road, owns a three-quarters grade Shorthorn bull. The nearest purebred pure-bred Shorthorn bull is a herd header at the Ellendale farm, seven miles away. Now, there isn't a great deal of difference on the outside between a three-quarters blood and a purebred. pure-bred. Tom Jones, being busy, patronizes pat-ronizes Joe Smith's three-quarters Shorthorn bull. John Brown, remembering remem-bering a copy-book maxim that whatever what-ever Is worth doing is worth doing well, takes the trouble and the time to patronize the pure-bred bull at the Ellendale farm. Short Cut to Good Blood. Tuere would not seem to be very much difference in the offspring. But, in actual fact, John Brown accomplishes accom-plishes in two crosses a result that is a little better than Tom Jones gets in five crosses. In about four years John Brown has an animal of a fraction higher grade than" Tom Jones can get in about 15 years. There may be no way to show it mathematically, but every reasonable man knows that the difference between four years and 15 years is greater 'ban the difference between a mile and seven miles. Or, put it in somewhat different form. Say that both Tom Jones and John Brown own a number of scrub cows and desire to buy bulls. Jones, being penny-wise, buys a three-quarters Shorthorn for $150. Brown pays $400 for a pure-bred Shorthorn. Most men will agree that the difference between be-tween 4 years and 15 years is greater than the difference between 150 and ?400. The thing needs a little diagramming to make the differences stand out. Here is what John Brown did by breeding breed-ing his scrub cow to the purebred bull : 1 plus 0 equals 1 ; divided by 2, equals . John Brown's calf was half Shorthorn Short-horn and half scrub. Here is what Tom Jones did by breeding his scrub cow to the three-quarters three-quarters bull : plus 0 equals ; divided by 2, equals . Tom Jones' calf was three-eighths Shorthorn and five-eighths scrub. Not much difference in the first generation but wait. Using those heifer calves as breeding stock and mating them with the same kind of bulls, here is what happens : John Brown gets 1 plus which equals 1; divided by 2, equals . Tom Jones gets plus , equals 98; divided by 2 equals 916. John Brown's calf In the second generation outgrades Tom Jones' calf in the second generation by Shorthorn Short-horn blood. It Pays to Start Right. And Tom Jones has to breed three other generations of cattle (using the same kind of sire) to bring his cattle up to approximately the same grade as John Brown's second generation of offspring. In the meantime, using the same kind of bull, John Brown has graded his cattle up till the offspring of the original scrub cows contain 3132 Shorthorn blood and only 132 scrub blood. Tom Jones' cattle, in the same generation, contain 93123 Shorthorn idood and 35128 scrub blood. Jones' herd, after 15 years of work, still retains 35 times as much I scrub blood as John Brown's cattle; ! all because, 15 years ago, John Brown took the time and the trouble to travel seven miles instead of a mile, or saw his way clear to spend $400 instead in-stead of $150. The cost of bulls varies greatly, of course, according to quality of breeding, age, and other factors. The moral of the story, as the breeding breed-ing experts of the United States department de-partment of agriculture tell it, is to use pure-bred sires for herd improvement. Replace the scrub sires and the grade sires with good pure-breds. Join the "Better-Sines Better-Stock" campaign. And consult your county agent, your agricultural college or the United States department of agriculture from time to time for whatever information you may need. |