Abstract
IT can be safely stated that the majority of the great ‘improvers’ of our breeds of live-stock were familiar with the criterion of judging the value of a sire by his progeny. In recent years, particularly as regards the breeders of dairy cattle, there has been an increasing appreciation of the value of the progeny test. To assist breeders in this matter, the Hertfordshire Institute of Agriculture held on November 20 an auction sale, the catalogue of which is before us, of a number of young bulls, sons of “proven sires”: this term connotes a bull whose unselected daughters are considered to have given a satisfactory yield. This enterprise is to be commended, though it is legitimate to wonder whether, in view of recent research, too much emphasis is not being laid upon the paternal grandsire of the heifers which the purchasers of these young bulls hope to breed. Greater value would be attached to the sale if daughters of proven sires were also on offer. Inevitably it has not been found possible to set a high standard, and critics of the catalogue should lay less emphasis on the fact that the average yields of the daughters of these seven proven sires have in no case reached 1,000 gallons, and rather be content with the fact that there has been made available an array of not only interesting but also reliable facts. There would, however, appear to be no excuse for describing as a proven sire a bull whose daughter's average yield was only 800 gallons and some 15 per cent less than that of their dams. Some officially recorded pigs were also sold. While this was not the first sale of this nature, the venture is likewise to be commended since it demonstrates a resolve on the part of some breeders to work, not by eye alone, but by scientific methods based principally on the rate of live-weight increase and carcass measurement. In view of the reorganisation of the pig industry in Great Britain, the movement is a timely one.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Progeny Records at Live-Stock Sales. Nature 132, 814–815 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132814c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132814c0