Robert Jennings

Cow and Calf

The raising of cattle has now become a source of profit in many sections,—to a greater extent, at least, than formerly—and it becomes a matter of great practical importance to our farmers to take the proper steps to improve them. Indeed, the questions—what are the best breeds, and what are the best crosses, and how shall I improve my stock—are now asked almost daily; and their practical solution would add many thousand dollars to the aggregate wealth of the farmers of the country, if they would all study their own interests.

The time is gradually passing away when the intelligent practical farmer will be willing to put his cows to any bull, simply because his services may be had for twenty-five cents; for, even if the progeny is to go to the butcher, the calf sired by a pure-bred bull—particularly of a race distinguished for fineness of bone, symmetry of form, and early maturity—will bring a much higher price at the same age than a calf sired by a scrub. Blood has a money value, which will, sooner or later, be generally appreciated.

The first and most important object of the farmer is to get the greatest return in money for his labor and his produce; and it is for his interest to obtain an animal—a calf, for example—that will yield the largest profit on the outlay. If a calf, for which the original outlay was five dollars, will bring at the same age and on the same keep more real net profit than another, the original outlay for which was not twenty-five cents, it is certainly for the farmer's interest to make the heavier original outlay and thus secure the superior animal. Setting all fancy aside, it is merely a question of dollars and cents; but one thing is certain—and that is, that no farmer can afford to keep poor stock. It eats as much, and requires nearly the same amount of care and attention, as stock of the best quality; while it is equally certain that stock of ever so good a quality, whether grade, native, or thorough-bred, will be sure to deteriorate and sink to the level of poor stock by neglect and want of proper attention.

How, then, is our stock to be improved? Not, certainly, by that indiscriminate crossing, with a total disregard of all well-established principles, which has thus far marked our efforts with foreign stock, and which is one prominent reason why so little improvement has been made in our dairies; nor by leaving all the results to chance, when, by a careful and judicious selection, they may be within our own control.

We want cattle for distinct purposes, as for milk, beef, or labor. In a large majority of cases—especially in the dairy districts, at least, comprising the Eastern and Middle States—the farmer cares more for the milking qualities of his cows, especially for the quantity they give, than for their fitness for grazing, or aptness to fatten. These latter points become more important in the Western and some of the Southern States, where much greater attention is paid to breeding and to feeding, and where comparatively slight attention is given to the productions of the dairy. A stock of cattle which would suit one farmer might be wholly unsuited to another, and in such particular case the breeder should have some special object in view, and select his animals with reference to it.

There are, however, some well-defined general principles that apply to breeding everywhere, and which, in many cases, are not thoroughly understood. To these attention will now be directed.

The first and most important of the laws to be considered in this connection is that of similarity. It is by virtue of this law that the peculiar characters, properties, and qualities of the parents—whether external or internal, good or bad, healthy or diseased—are transmitted to their offspring. This is one of the plainest and most certain of the laws of nature. The lesson which it teaches may be stated in five words:—Breed only from the best.

Judicious selection is indispensable to success in breeding, and this should have regard to every particular—general appearance, length of limb, shape of carcass, development of chest; in cattle, to the size, shape, and position of the udder, thickness of skin, touch, length and texture of hair, docility, and all those points which go to make up the desirable animal.

Not only should care be exercised to avoid structural defects, but especially to secure freedom from hereditary diseases; as both defects and diseases appear to be more easily transmissible than desirable qualities. There is, oftentimes, no obvious peculiarity of structure or appearance which suggests the possession of diseases or defects which are transmissible; and for this reason, special care and continued acquaintance are requisite in order to be assured of their absence in breeding animals; but such a tendency, although invisible or inappreciable to careless observers, must still, judging from its effects, have as real and certain an existence as any peculiarity of form or color.

In neat cattle, hereditary diseases do not usually show themselves at birth; and sometimes the tendency remains latent for many years, perhaps through one or two generations, and afterward breaks out with all its former severity. The diseases which are found hereditary in cattle are scrofula, consumption, dysentery, diarrhoea, rheumatism, and malignant tumors. As these animals are less exposed to the exciting causes of disease, and less liable to be overtasked or subjected to violent changes of temperature, or otherwise put in jeopardy, their diseases are not so numerous as those of the horse, and what they have are less violent, and generally of a chronic character.

With regard to hereditary diseases, it is eminently true that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." As a general and almost invariable rule, animals possessing either defects or a tendency to disease, should not be employed for breeding. If, however, for special reasons it seems desirable to breed from one which has some slight defect of symmetry, or a faint tendency to disease—although for the latter it is doubtful whether the possession of any good qualities can fully compensate—it should be mated with one which excels in every respect in which it is itself deficient, and on no account with one which is near of kin to it.

There is another law, by which that of similarity is greatly modified—the law of Variation or divergence.

All animals possess a certain flexibility or pliancy of organization, which renders them capable of change to a greater or less extent. When in a state of nature, variations are comparatively slow and infrequent; but when in a state of domestication they occur much oftener and to a much greater extent. The greater variability in the latter case is doubtless owing, in some measure, to our domestic productions' being reared under conditions of life not so uniform as, and different from, those to which the parent species was exposed in a state of nature.

Among what are usually reckoned the more active causes of variation may be named climate, food, and habit. Animals in a cold climate are provided with a thicker covering of hair than in warmer ones. Indeed, it is said that in some of the tropical provinces of South America, there are cattle which have an extremely rare and fine fur, in place of the ordinary pile of hair. The supply of food, whether abundant or scanty, is one of the most efficient causes of variation known to be within the control of man. A due consideration of the natural effects of climate and food is a point worthy the careful attention of the stock-husbandman. If the breeds employed be well adapted to the situation, and the capacity of the soil be such as to feed them fully, profit may be safely anticipated. Animals are to be regarded as machines for converting herbage into money.

The bestowal of food sufficient, both in amount and quality, to enable animals to develop all the excellencies inherent in them, and yield all the profit of which they are capable, is something quite distinct from undue forcing of pampering. The latter process may produce wonderful animals to look at, but neither useful nor profitable ones, and there is danger of thus producing a most undesirable variation, since in animals the process may be carried far enough to produce barrenness. Instances are not wanting, particularly among the more recent improved short-horns, of impotency among the males and of barrenness among the females; and in some cases where the latter have borne calves, they have failed to secrete sufficient milk for their nourishment. Impotency in bulls of various breeds has, in many instances, occurred from too high feeding, especially when connected with a lack of sufficient exercise. A working bull, though perhaps not so pleasing to the eye as a fat one, is a surer stock-getter; and his progeny is more likely to inherit full health and vigor.

Habit has a decided influence toward producing variations. We find in domestic animals that use—or the demand created by habit—is met by a development or change in the organization adapted to the requirement. For instance, with cows in a state of nature, or where required only to suckle their young, the supply of milk is barely fitted to the requirement. If more is desired, and the milk is drawn completely and regularly, the yield is increased and continued longer. By keeping up the demand there is induced, in the next generation, a greater development of the secreting organs, and more milk is given. By continuing the practice, by furnishing the needful conditions of suitable food and the like, and by selecting in each generation those animals showing the greatest tendency toward milk, a breed specially adapted for the dairy may be established. It is just by this mode that the Ayrshires have, within the past century, been brought to be what they are—a breed giving more good milk upon a certain amount of food than any other.

READY FOR ACTION.

It is a fact too well established to be controverted, that the first male produces impressions upon subsequent progeny by other males. To what extent this principle holds, it is impossible to say. Although the instances in which it is known to be of a very marked and obvious character may be comparatively few, yet there is ample reason to believe that, although in a majority of cases the effect may be less noticeable, it is not less real; and it therefore demands the special attention of breeders. The knowledge of this law furnishes a clue to the cause of many of the disappointments of which practical breeders often complain, and of many variations otherwise unaccountable, and it suggests particular caution as to the first male employed in the coupling of animals—a matter which has often been deemed of little consequence in regard to cattle, inasmuch as fewer heifers' first calves are reared, than those are which are borne subsequently.

The phenomenon—or law, as it is sometimes called—of atavism, or ancestral influence, is one of considerable practical importance, and well deserves the careful attention of the breeder of farm stock.

Every one is aware that it is by no means unusual for a child to resemble its grandfather, or grandmother, or even some ancestor still more remote, more than it does either its own father or mother. The same occurrence is found among our domestic animals, and oftener in proportion as the breeds are crossed or mixed up. Among our common stock of neat cattle, or natives—originating, as they did, from animals brought from England, Scotland, Denmark, France, and Spain, each possessing different characteristics of form, color, and use, and bred, as our common stock has usually been, indiscriminately together, with no special object in view, with no attempt to obtain any particular type or form, or to secure adaptation for any particular purpose—frequent opportunities are afforded of witnessing the results of this law of hereditary transmission. So common, indeed, is its occurrence, that the remark is often made, that, however good a cow may be, there is no telling beforehand what sort of a calf she may have. The fact is sufficiently obvious, that certain peculiarities often lie dormant for a generation or two and then reappear in subsequent progeny. Stockmen often speak of it as "breeding back," or "crying back."

The lesson taught by this law is very plain. It shows the importance of seeking thorough-bred or well-bred animals; and by these terms are simply meant such as are descended from a line of ancestors in which for many generations the desirable forms, qualities, and characteristics have been uniformly shown. In such a case, even if ancestral influence does come in play, no material difference appears in the offspring, the ancestors being all essentially alike. From this standpoint we best perceive in what consists the money value of a good "pedigree." This is valuable, in proportion as it shows an animal to be descended, not only from such as are purely of its own race or breed, but also from such individuals of that breed as were specially noted for the excellencies for which that particular breed is esteemed.

Probably the most distinctly marked evidence of ancestral influence among us, is to be found in the ill-begotten, round-headed calves, not infrequently dropped by cows of the common mixed kind, which, if killed early, make very blue veal, and if allowed to grow up, become exceedingly profitless and unsatisfactory beasts; the heifers being often barren, the cows poor milkers, the oxen dull, mulish beasts, yielding flesh of very dark color, of ill flavor and destitute of fat.

The relative influence of the male and female parents upon the characteristics of progeny has long been a fruitful subject of discussion among breeders. It is found in experience that progeny sometimes resembles one parent more than the other—sometimes there is an apparent blending of the characteristics of both—sometimes a noticeable dissimilarity to either, though always more or less resemblance somewhere—and sometimes the impress of one may be seen upon a portion of the organization of the offspring, and that of the other parent upon another portion; yet we are not authorized from such discrepancies to conclude that it is a matter of chance; for all of nature's operations are conducted in accordance with fixed laws, whether we be able fully to discover them or not. The same causes always produce the same results. In this case, not less than in others, there are, beyond all doubt, certain fixed laws; and the varying results which we see are easily and sufficiently accounted for by the existence of conditions or modifying influences not fully open to our observation.

It may be stated, on the whole—as a result of the varied investigations to which this question has given rise—that the evidence, both from observation and the testimony of the best practical breeders, goes to show that each parent usually contributes certain portions of the organization to the offspring, and that each has a modifying influence upon the other. Facts also show that the same parent does not always contribute the same portions, but that the order is at times, and not rarely, reversed. Where animals are of distinct species or breeds, transmission is usually found to be in harmony with the principle, that the male gives mostly the outward form and locomotive system, and the female chiefly the interior system, constitution and the like. Where the parents are of the same breed, it appears that the proportions contributed by each are governed, in a large measure, by the condition of each in regard to age and vigor, or by virtue of individual potency or superiority of physical endowment. This potency or power of transmission, seems to be legitimately connected with high breeding, or the concentration of fixed qualities, obtained by continued descent for many generations from such only as possess in the highest degree the qualities desired.

Practically, the knowledge obtained dictates in a most emphatic manner that every stock-grower use his utmost endeavor to obtain the services of the best sires; that is, the best for the ends and purposes in view—that he depend chiefly on the sire for outward form and symmetry—and that he select dams best calculated to develop the good qualities of the male, depending chiefly upon these for freedom, from internal disease, for hardihood and constitution, and, generally, for all qualities dependent upon the vital or nutritive system. The neglect of the qualities of the dam, which is far too common—miserably old and inferior animals being often employed—cannot be too strongly censured.

With regard to the laws which regulate the sex of the progeny very little is known. Many and extensive observations have been made, without reaching any definite conclusion. Nature seems to have provided that the number of each sex; produced, shall be nearly equal; but by what means this result is attained, has not as yet been discovered.

It has long been a disputed point, whether the system of breeding in-and-in, or the opposite one of frequent crossing, has the greater tendency to improve the character of stock This term, in-and-in, is often very loosely used and as variously understood. Some confine the phrase to the coupling of those of exactly the same blood, as brothers and sisters, while others include in it breeding from parents and offsprings; and others still employ it to embrace those of a more distant relationship. For the last, the term breeding-in, or close breeding, is generally deemed more suitable.

The current opinion is decidedly against the practice of breeding from any near relatives; it being usually found that degeneracy follows, and often to a serious degree; but it is not proved that this degeneracy, although very common and even usual, is yet a necessary consequence. That ill effects follow, in a majority of cases, is not to be doubted; but this is easily and sufficiently accounted for upon quite other grounds. Perhaps, however, the following propositions may be safely stated: That in general practice, with the grades and mixed animals common in the country, close-breeding should be scrupulously avoided as highly detrimental. It is better always to avoid breeding from near relatives whenever stock-getters of the same breed and of equal merit can be obtained which are not related. Yet, where this is not possible, or where there is some desirable and clearly defined purpose in view—as the fixing and perpetuating of some valuable quality in a particular animal not common to the breed—and the breeder possesses the knowledge and skill needful to accomplish his purpose, and the animals are perfect in health and development, close breeding may be practised with advantage.

The practice of crossing, like that of close breeding, has its strong and its weak side. Judiciously practised, it offers a means of providing animals for the butcher, often superior to, and more profitable than, those of any pure breed. It is also admissible as the foundation of a systematic and well-considered attempt to establish a new breed. But when crossing is practised injudiciously and indiscriminately, and especially when so done for the purpose of procuring breeding animals, it is scarcely less objectionable than careless in-and-in breeding.

The profitable style of breeding for the great majority of farmers to adopt, is neither to cross nor to breed from close affinities—except in rare instances, and for some specific and clearly understood purpose—but to breed in the line; that is, to select the breed or race best adapted to fulfil the requirement demanded, whether it be for the dairy, for labor, or for such combination of these as can be had without too great a sacrifice of the principal requisite, and then to procure a pure-bred male of the kind determined upon, and breed him to the females of the herd; and if these be not such as are calculated to develop his qualities, endeavor by purchase or exchange to procure such as will. Let the progeny of these be bred to another pure-bred male of the same breed, but as distantly related to the first as may be. Let this plan be faithfully pursued, and, although we cannot, without the intervention of well-bred females, procure stock purely of the kind desired, yet in several generations—if proper care be given to the selection of males, that each one be such as to retain and improve upon the points gained by his predecessor—the stock, for most practical purposes, will be as good as if thorough-bred. If this plan were generally adopted, and a system of letting or exchanging males established, the cost might be brought within the means of most persons, and the advantages which would accrue would be almost beyond belief.

A brief summing-up of the foregoing principles may not be inappropriate here.

The law of similarity teaches us to select animals for breeding which possess the desired forms and qualities in the greatest perfection and best combination.

Regard should be had, not only to the more obvious characteristics, but also to such hereditary traits and tendencies as may be hidden from cursory observation and demand careful and thorough investigation.

From the hereditary nature of all characteristics, whether good or bad, we learn the importance of having all desirable qualities thoroughly inbred; or, in other words, so firmly in each generation that the next is warrantably certain to present nothing worse—that no ill results follow from breeding back to some inferior ancestor—that all undesirable traits or points be, so far as possible, bred-out.

So important is this consideration, that, in practice, it is decidedly preferable to employ a male of ordinary external appearance—provided his ancestry be all which is desired—rather than a grade, or cross-bred animal, although the latter be greatly his superior in personal beauty.

A knowledge of the law of variation teaches us to avoid, for breeding purposes, such animals as exhibit variations unfavorable to the purpose in view; to endeavor to perpetuate every real improvement gained; as well as to secure, as far as practicable, the conditions necessary to induce or continue any improvement, such as general treatment, food, climate, habits, and the like.

Where the parents do not possess the perfections desired, selections for coupling should be made with critical reference to correcting the faults or deficiencies of one by corresponding excellencies in the other.

To correct defects, too much must not be attempted at once. Pairing those very unlike oftener results in loss than gain. Avoid all extremes, and endeavor by moderate degrees to attain the end desired.

Crossing, between different breeds, for the purpose of obtaining animals for the shambles, may be advantageously practised to a considerable extent, but not for the production of breeding animals. As a general rule, cross-bred males should not be employed for propagation, and cross-bred females should be served by thorough-bred males.

In ordinary practice, breeding from near relatives is to be scrupulously avoided. For certain purposes, under certain conditions and circumstances, and in the hands of a skillful breeder, it may be practised with advantage—but not otherwise.

In a large majority of cases—other things being equal—we may expect in progeny the outward form and general structure of the sire, together with the internal qualities, constitution, and nutritive system of the dam; each, however, modified by the other.

Particular care should always be taken that the male by which the dam first becomes pregnant is the best which can be obtained; also, that at the time of sexual congress both are in vigorous health.

Breeding animals should not be allowed to become fat, but always kept in thrifty condition; and such as are intended for the butcher should never be fat but once.

In deciding with what breeds to stock a farm, endeavor to select those best adapted to its surface, climate, and degree of fertility; also, with reference to probable demand and proximity to markets.

No expense incurred in procuring choice animals for propagation, no amount of skill in breeding, can supersede, or compensate for, a lack of liberal feeding and good treatment. The better the stock, the better care they deserve.

PREGNANCY

The symptoms of pregnancy in its early stage were formerly deemed exceedingly unsatisfactory. The period of being in season—which commonly lasts three or four days, and then ceases for a while, and returns in about three weeks—might entirely pass over; and, although it was then probable that conception had taken place, yet in a great many instances the hopes of the breeder were disappointed. It was not until between the third and fourth month, when the belly began to enlarge—or, in many cases, considerably later—and when the motions of the foetus might be seen, or, at all events, felt by pressing on the right flank, that the farmer could be assured that his cow was in calf.

That greatest of improvements in veterinary practice, the application of the ear to the chest and belly of various animals, in order to detect by the different sounds—which after a short time, will be easily recognized—the state of the circulation through most of the organs, and consequently, the precise seat and degree of inflammation and danger, has now enabled the breeder to ascertain the existence of pregnancy at as early a stage as six or eight weeks. The beating of the heart of the calf may then be distinctly heard, twice, or more than twice, as frequent as that of the mother; and each pulsation will betray the singular double beating of the foetal heart. This will also be accompanied by the audible rushing of the blood through the vessels of the placenta. The ear should be applied to the right flank, beginning on the higher part of it, and gradually shifting downward and backward. These sounds will thus soon be heard, and cannot be mistaken.

TREATMENT BEFORE CALVING.

Little alteration needs to be made in the management of the cow for the first seven months of pregnancy; except that, as she has not only to yield milk for the profit of the farmer, but to nourish the growing foetus within, she should be well, yet not too luxuriantly, fed. The half-starved cow will not adequately discharge this double duty, nor provide sufficient nutriment for the calf when it has dropped; while the cow in high condition will be dangerously disposed to inflammation and fever, when, at the time of parturition, she is otherwise so susceptible of the power of every stimulus. If the season and the convenience of the farmer will allow, she will be better at pasture, at least for some hours each day than when confined altogether to the cow-house.

At a somewhat uncertain period before she calves, there will be a new secretion of milk for the expected little one; and under the notion of somewhat recruiting her strength, in order better to enable her to discharge her new duty—but more from the uniform testimony of experience that there is danger of local inflammation, general fever, garget in the udder, and puerperal fever, if the new milk descends while the old milk continues to flow—it has been usual to let the cow go dry for some period before parturition. Farmers and breeders have been strangely divided as to the length of this period. It must be decided by circumstances. A cow in good condition may be milked for a much longer period than a poor one. Her abundance of food renders a period of respite almost unnecessary; and all that needs to be taken care of, is that the old milk should be fairly gone before the new milk springs. In such a cow, while there is danger of inflammation from the sudden rush of new milk into a bag already occupied, there is almost always considerable danger of indurations and tumors in the teats from the habit of secretion being too long suspended. The emaciated and over-milked beast, however, must rest a while before she can again advantageously discharge the duties of a mother.

If the period of pregnancy were of equal length at all times and in all cows, the one that has been well fed might be milked until within a fortnight or three weeks of parturition, while a holiday of two months should be granted to the poorer beast; but as there is much irregularity about the time of gestation, it may be prudent to take a month or five Weeks, as the average period.

The process of parturition is necessarily one that is accompanied with a great deal of febrile excitement; and, therefore, when it nearly approaches, not only should a little care be taken to lessen the quantity of food, and to remove that which is of a stimulating action, but a mild dose of physic, and a bleeding regulated by the condition of the animal, will be very proper precautionary measures.

A moderately open state of the bowels is necessary at the period of parturition in the cow. During the whole time of pregnancy her enormous stomach sufficiently presses upon and confines the womb; and that pressure may be productive of injurious and fatal consequences, if at this period the rumen is suffered to be distended by innutritious food, or the manyplus takes on that hardened state to which it is occasionally subject. Breeders have been sadly negligent in this respect.

The springing of the udder, or the rapid enlargement of it from the renewed secretion of milk—the enlargement of the external parts of the bearing (the former, as has been said by some, in old cows, and the latter in young ones)—the appearance of a glaring discharge from the bearing—the evident dropping of the belly, with the appearance of leanness and narrowness between the shape and the udder—a degree of uneasiness and fidgetiness—moaning occasionally—accelerated respiration—all these symptoms will announce that the time of calving is not far off. The cow should be brought near home, and put in some quiet, sheltered place. In cold or stormy weather she should be housed. Her uneasiness will rapidly increase—she will be continually getting up and lying down—her tail will begin to be elevated and the commencement of the labor-pains will soon be evident.

In most cases the parturition will be natural and easy, and the less the cow is disturbed or meddled with, the better. She will do better without help than with it; but she should be watched, in order to see that no difficulty occurs which may require aid and attention. In cases of difficult parturition the aid of a skillful veterinary surgeon may be required.