Historical articles

Kent Powell wrote:

What is this one Kent? Can I get semen, certificates?


I greatly admire your effort put forth.

the picture of the cow on the first page shows the progress made in 100 years...I`ve got a couple about like her
notice her switch?

MKeeney wrote:

the picture of the cow on the first page shows the progress made in 100 years...I`ve got a couple about like her
notice her switch?

I have a few as well Mike. Kent thanks for the reading.

tow and ttritt POLLED ANGUS CATTLE We condense the following from an article written for the North British Agriculturist by Mr Wn LiAM Watson who is well known to our readers from his exhaustive articles published last year on the subject of scab in sheep Mr Watson takes much pride in the fact that the breed of cattle referred to were brought to their present state of perfection by his father the late Wm Watson of Keillor Forfarshire lie began the breeding of polled cattle in 1808 previous to which his father had bred them for forty years The breed was then known as Angus Doddies and were the common breed along the Braes of Angus In color they were black brindled or belted On Mr Watson's entrance into the farm at Keillor he received from his father six of his best and blackest cows along with a bull as a nucleus for an Angus Doddle herd to commence his improving on Not being satisfied with their merits he started that same summer for the Tamity Mulr Market Brechin and purchased the ten best heifers and the best bull he could procure showing the greatest characteristics of the breed The heifers were black brindled and black with brown muzzles and brown streak along the back The bull was all black and all black my father stuc to thus working the other colors out of fashion The improvement of the Keillor Doddies therefore dates back to 1808 Among the many animals worthy of note in the Keillor herd none was more so than Old Granny she was the winner of many prizes never aid she in any showyard take a second place wherever exhibited She died during a thunderstorm in 1859 at thirty five years of age she was the dam of twenty five calves all winners She was descended from one of the 1808 cows and by Black Jock Another remarkable animal bred in the same way was a black heifer that failed to breed she was fed for show and exhibited all over the country much as Col ling's white heifer was Among the extraordinary animals was the Queen's celebrated black ox He was purchased at the request of Her Majesty by the late General Wemyss after winning the honors at Smlthficld in the Scotch class in 1843 He was from Granny sire Grey breasted Jock Notwithstanding this animal's great weight and forcing he lived to be twenty one years of age He was two and a half years old before he received any other food than grass turnips and straw The renowned sires at Keillor mostly all come under the name of Jocks each having some distinguishing feature to characterize htm such as grey breasted &c The first Jock Tamity Jock is the bull purchased in 1808 and used to the ten Tamity heifers and the six heifers bred by my grandfather Those seventeen animals were the nucleus the root and foundation of the now world wide improved Angus cattle The Becond bull known as Jock was got by the Tarnity bull and from one of the 1808 heifers got from grandfather Third came Black Jock the first prize bull at the Highland Society's meeting held in 1832 by Jock and from a sister of his own and fourth came the noble Grey Breasted Jock by Black Jock his dam closely bred in and in to himself Grey Breasted Jock was a noble specimen of an Angus bull of immense length short in his leg elegant in his gait and masculine looking He was grand and massive all over as well as a most kindly feeder The fifth Jock was the most invincible of the lot in the prize ring Wherever shown he was all conquering carrying off his honors easily This is the Old Jock of the Polled Herd Book He was sired by Grey Breasted Jock out of what was known at Keillor at the grey tailed cow and in the Polled Herd Book as lavorite 2 This cow was likewise his sister This grey tailed cow was the best breeder at Keillor out of the black herd of fifty cows that were annually kept as breeders She was out of Old Favorite the dam of Angus purchased by Mr Bowie of Mains of Kelly at one of the Keillor sales some twenty eight years ago Angus was purchased by Mr M Comble of Tillyfour after gaining first prize at Edinburgh Highland Society's Show in 1853 He was the bull which made the Tillyfour stock so famous His descendants through a pure Angus cow Queen Mother bought from Mr Fullarton Ardestie Forfarshire are now his celebrated Prides of Aberdeen On various occasions fresh blood was introduced Into the Keillor herd on every occasion it proved a total failure and a heavy loss sires and their progeny had always to be disposed of not always because they were inferior animals but because they were so totally unlike in character to the Keillor Doddies completely destroying the family likeness Mr Watson farther says As outside blood proved a failure I may say that the Keillor motto was Put the best to the best regardless of affinity or blood Breeding in and in must be done judiciously and cautiously You must understand your business thoroughly 282

Kent,
I see where this is going....you`ll laying the background of why lucky boy is such a great bull....
no, no, that can`t be correct, for we would need to trace human geneology to understand that better

Constructive Breeding in Aberdeen Angus Pedigree Lines and Breeding Methods By JR Barclay Secretary Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society Scotland in Nor West Farmer Canada I irst Calf Herd at Dallas Texas owned by Ames Plantation HE improvement of cattle breeds has been one of the aims of the agriculturist since the earliest recorded age The pyramids of Egypt bear evidence of the fact that even in the hoary antiquity of which they speak cattle were esteemed for certain well defined peculiarities Thus we find early man adapting his cattle to his uses not merely by bringing them into subjection but by breeding them by selection In this process observant students learned certain information as to inherent qualities of the stock they were handling Knowledge ascertained passed into knowledge arranged and then followed the application of this knowledge into a definite system for the preservation and development of the discovered qualities Herein_lay the art of breeding for if the moulding of clay into lovely designs is art and the practice of ascertained knowledge a science how much more is art represented in the moulding of living organisms into uniformity This is what the pioneers of our different breeds accomplished guided only bv the laws of heredity and by such natural selection as the growing knowledge of their art commended I 4 Leaving it to naturalists and to scientists to unravel the_ tang U skein of the origin of British domestic cattle there may in these notes be brieflv traced the aims and objects which the founders of the Aberdeen Angus breed of cattle had in_ view the methods by which these aims were sought to be accomplished and the extent to which success crowned them Though Aberdeen Angus can be traced in the county of Aberdeen nearly four hundred years ago Iii 15_ not much more than a century since systematic ste s were taker oi the improvement of the_ breed and for the d_eve opment_of those qualities of early maturity and superior fleshing properties vthich were the aims the early improvei s set before them I_n 15 08 there was established the first herd of the breed where pedigree _ records were kept and it is interesting to no_te in passing the mating system which was followed in the establishment of the foundation material of this herd Mr Hugh Watson who was the pioneer breeder of pedigree Aberdeen Angus cattle had certain models in_ his eye in the building up of his herd and one broad general principle he applied in his work was to put the best to the best irrespective of affinity of blood From none but the choicest specimens did he breed and where he thought good would result he did not hesitate to mate animals closely related to each other practising in and in breeding to a considerable extent though his natural Judgment as a breeder led him also to give every consideration to selection The success of his svstem was shown by the great showyard successes he achieved earlv in his career as a breeder As early as 1829 he exhibited at Smithfield an ox which was greatly admired as a choice butcher's animal his fat a matter of more consequence than in these days weighing 240 lbs or about 84 lbs more than the fat of the famous Durham Ox which proved such a powerful stimulant in increasing interest in the Shorthorn breed _ The next era in the history of Aberdeen Angus cattle is marked by the work of Mr Wm McC0mbie and he also started on closely allied animals practicing inand in breeding to an extent that forms an interesting study for the present day breeder though it is a system that nee l not be followed nowadays The line breeding which was so skilfully carried on at Ballindalloch when the fortunes of that great herd were being formed by the late Sir George Macpherson Grant is also a marvel of the breeder's art _Each of these breeders Hugh Watson _in_founding the breed Wm McCombie in imparting to it properties of early maturity and in its emancipation and the late Sir George Macpherson Giant in contributing so largely to the refinement of the breed had each definite objects in view and they had perforce to use the materials at hand But all their systems of inbreeding and line breeding successful as showyard records prove them to have been in these particular cases and as the unrivalled record of the breed also goes to demonstrate were fraught with danger and present day circumstances do not justify the practice of any such systems This brings us to consider the question of fashion in breeding and the extent to which it is warranted First however there may be dealt with the point of the extent to which success attended the work of these early improvers Each of them had in view one general ideal and that was the production of the best type of butcher's animal The history of Aberdeen Angus cattle all along the line since that memorable day in 1878 when the breed at the French International Exhibition produced the world's champion beef producing group eloquently proclaims the brilliant record of the breed in every beef raising country of the glcbe Take Britain's greatest fat stock show that held at Smithfield London and we find that over a period of twenty one years the Aberdeen Angus has supplied the championship upon no fewer than eleven occasions or more frequent y than all the other breeds put together while as regards the carcass competition pure bred Aberdeen Angus and crosses of the breed are the only sorts that have come out supreme At Chicago eleven out of seventeen single steer championships thirteen out of a like number of carload championships twelve out of fifteen steer herd championships and sixteen out of seventeen carcass championships are sufficient proofs that the methods employed by the pioneers of the breed in its early stages worked on proper lines Calgary Edmonton Brandon Guelph and Toronto fat stock shows also combine in proclaiming the supremacy of the Aberdeen Angus and the success with which the breed was founded as a beef producer All this involves a great responsibility on present day breeders who must see to it that those utilitarian qualities which have proved so successful in the history of the breed up to the present are not impaired We have said that with the material at hand now for breeders to work upon there is no necessity or even justification for following the system of close breeding practised in the early stages of the breed's history successful as were the results of that system The danger is all the greater because of the extent to which fashion is allowed to dominate the systems of present day management Cattle history is not without its warnings of the evils attending upon too slavish an adherence to what is after all some passing fad or fancy and Aberdeen Angus breeders must see to it that they steer clear of this rock upon which brilliant reputations have already been broken When a breeder blindly follows a pedigree craze his work is not constructive but destructive There are some who would taboo all family distinctions and who would tell us that many of the successful breeders of old when they were buying an animal scarcely ever consulted a catalogue With neither of these schools do we agree The building up of definite Continued on page 21 Grand Junction Tennessee December 25 1919 Page 9 THE ABERDEEN ANGUS JOURNAL

Constructive Breeding in Aberdeen Angus continued from page 9 lines of breeding into separate recognized families has been of incalculable benefit in the classification arrangement and simplifying of methods of herd management and we consider it would be a distinctly retrograde step to lose sight of the family distinctions built up even as many of them are on the acievemonts of some far removed ancestr ss In pedigree also we recognize a factor of prime importance for the guidance of the breeder in the work of further developing his breed There is a value in pedigree which can never be set aside and we demur altogether at the idea that breeders may be indifferent on this point We hold subject to certain qualifications that in the selection of a sire for instance one of the prime considerations is the question of pedigree Such an authority as the late Dr Clement Stephenson one of England's most successful breeders of Aberdeen Angus cattle may be quoted If to a bull's personal qualities he adds descent from good parents and belongs to a prolific long lived sound family that is the bull to buy and to obtain him neither trouble nor money should be spared Observant breeders quickly realize the allpervading powers of heredity and atavism To breed good animals we must start with good parents and to prevent any ill results from atavism we must as far as possible make sure that the ancestors of the animals we breed from were good ones I have great faith in a good pedigree and I would not buy any animal unless the pedigree pleased me The pedigree is the title deed by which we know whether or not its possessor is a good and safe investment The so called fashionable pedigree or the long pedigree is no guarantee of excellence and both may be rendered objectionable by the inclusion of some inferior animal in them Neither is the ordinary pedigree where simply the direct sires and dams are given to be implicitly relied upon To establish a good pedigree it should be possible to trace every animal to its foundation and in none of the collateral branches must there be a stain At the same time individual merit must be our first consideration and the pedigree comes afterwards The last sentence contains a truism that will be denied by none and yet we are not sure that its teaching is very rigidly applied in present day breeding methods There is a very evident tendcncy among many breeders of the present day both in Great Britain and in America to attach far too much iniportance to the merepaper pedigree This is not in the best interests of any breed of cattle and it is not constructive breeding too often it proves the very reverse Taking the registrations in recent volumes of the Abcrdcen Angus herd book it will be found that there are somewhere between two hundred and three hundred distinct recognized families of Aberdeen Angus cattlesurely one would think a wide enough field from which to make selections And yet a good many of these families are through sheer neglect being almost entirely lost to the breed in the senseless rush after so called fashion There is _no doubt but that this fashion has some Justification in the past achievements of representatives of the breed but it is an unwise policy to say that an animal because it belonged to some wellrecognized fashionable family is bound to be good enough to breed from while by the same ruling there are set aside undoubted claims by representatives of other lines of breeding or families whose only fault may be that popular fancy relegates them to the ranks of the plebeians The most numerously represented families in Great Britain at present are Ericas and Prides of Aberdeen of the latter of which there are of course several distinct branches the favorite branches being descended through Pride of_ Mulben which gave so many valuable animals to the Ballindalloch herd and K Prides which come through Kindness of Ballindalloch For a long time Ericas were very scarce and for this very reason they were always in great demand on the rare occasions upon which they came on the market At the same time it has to be said that no family has greater showyard honors to its credit and even yet it can more than hold its own in this respect though it has now got so numerous and into so many hands that the same amount of care is not bestowed upon it as when it was in comparatively few hands There may be taken for instance the latest sale at Perth which is the principal event of the Aberdeen Angus year in Britain and the four hundred entries at which constitute as representative a collection in point of different families as it would be possible to bring together Over eight classes at the show in connection with this sale forty four places in the prize list were indicated and of these twenty one or practically one half fell to the lot of the Erica family while seven fell to the representatives of the Pride of Aberdeen family four to the representatives of the Blackbird branch of the Lady Idas and three each to the Jilts and the Miss Burgesses Now it so happens that these five families are with the very sparsely represented family of Georgians of Burnside the most nopular strains of breeding in t_he Aberdeen Angus world Of the Ericas it has further to be noted that in six classes for bulls the leader in five of them was of that family and the judges verdict therefore was in keeping with public estimation which put their value at an average of 1,711 the three top prices being 2,800 guineas 2,800 guineas and 2,100 guineas There is therefore on the face of these facts some justification for the special favor shown for this family There is danger too however for because a few representatives of a family prove their superiority over all others it must not as is too frequently the case be taken for granted that all Ericas are good The same has to be said of those other families which enjoy the greatest popularity Equally true is it that not all the so called plain bred animals are bad Some are good some are b ad just as the recognized aristrocrats of thebreed are and ituis here that far seein breeders are breaking off from the crow and using a wise discretion in selecting the stock for their herds It will not do to whittle down the breed to some half dozen families and to neglect the other three hundred families And this is what is being done by far too many with the result that some good old families are even already almost entirely lost to the breed while others are following fast A reaction must set in and the sooner it is taken up by the leading breeders the better for the interests of the breed as a whole Why is not more patronage bestowed on those families plebeian though they may be but valuable nevertheless which are included in a common rank with the Lucys of Drumin and the Miss Coplands Both these are v_ery old established families and we mention them specially because they are now held in s_o little repute and at the same time because in the United States of America they have by the results of the International proved two of _the most successful show families On their merits as individuals therefore_these_ old fashioned families deserve consideration and _the appeal is made to all who have a true interest in the AberdeenAngu_s breed to help to break down this growing conservatism and to give merit its due however lowly be the blood which the black coat encases There is no breed of cattle with a reputation to uphold of such brilliancy as the Aberdeen Angus Smithfield and all the great fat stock shows and cattle markets of Britain_ ring with its praises as a beef producer Chicago and the shows of the Canadian West have a similar tale to relate of how these sable beauties the output of broad minded pioneers of the _breed have earned more fame in the leading beef tests than all the other breeds of beef cattle New countries such as Argentina Brazil Australia _New Zealan_d and greatest of all _South Africa are takin up the breed and it is for those in the ol established centres of the breed to see that they remain true to its best and widest interests bestowing patronage_ where merit claims it refusing to cast aside even the common clay but fashioning it with the artist's skill into a thing of value and assigning it its appropriate place in that great structure of AberdeenAngus breeding which every breeder whether he be conscious of the fact or not is by Bus methods either building up or pulling own __o_




Ontario Breeders Meet The Ontario Aberdeen Angus Breeders Association met at Guelph Ontario on the evening of December_8th with AW McEwing Blythe presiding Secretary James Bowman's report of the Association's activities for the past year gave encouragement to the breeders present An audit of the books showed appropriations of over $800 to the various provincial shows an expenditure that has added new interest in Aberdeen Angus affairs in Canada A campaign for new members is to be instituted at once and it is hoped the membership will be increased threefold by spring The Association is doing splendid work in the province of Ontario and is deserving of the hearty co operation of every Aberdeen Angus breeder in the district Co operation indeed is the keynote of the industry's success and the possibilities of an Association working in harmony are limitless compared to the work of breeders working individually An invitation is extended to every Aberdeen Angus breeder in Ontario to send the nominal fee of $1.00 to secretary James Bowman Guelph Ontario and become an active member It was decided at this meeting to hold a sale in the pavilion at Guelph on Tuesday February 3d and the annual meeting of the Association will be called for that date Some fifty head will be offered and breeders were requested to enter _their best representations A quality offering such as is pledged for this sale should attract buyers from far and near and add much to the promotion of Aberdeen Angus interests throughout the Dominion By a unanimous vote the officers and representatives _were reelected after which the meeting adjourned December 25 1919 THE ABERDEEN ANGUS JOURNAL pa e 17

MKeeney wrote:

Kent,
I see where this is going....you`ll laying the background of why lucky boy is such a great bull....
no, no, that can`t be correct, for we would need to trace human geneology to understand that better