Page:The story of milk.djvu/30

 But, alas! too many herds of dairy cattle average less than 5,000 lbs. of milk per cow per year and do not pay for their feed.

Red Danish

Ayrshire

Many native cows respond, however, to good care and feed and with a thoroughbred bull a satisfactory herd can readily be built up from carefully selected native stock. Such continued cross-breeding is more apt to succeed than attempts to cross two thorough-bred breeds because the characteristic features in full blooded animals are so strong as to invariably predominate in the progeny over the less pronounced forms and tendencies inherent in native cows. But where two full-blooded animals are mated and the strong characteristics in each are fighting for predominance the result is apt to be a poor, ill-proportioned offspring as the result of atavism.

Shorthorn, beef-strain

Beef-Cattle.—Cattle bred and developed for the purpose of producing beef rather than