S

EVERAL BREEDS of cattle in the United States

are recognized as dairy breeds. Although much alike in what is known as general dairy conformation, these breeds differ to some extent in certain characteristics. What these characteristics are, the factors to consider in selecting a breed, and the history of the origin and development of the breeds are questions of interest to both the beginner and the established breeder of dairy cattle. These are the topics discussed in this bulletin.

This bulletin supersedes Farmers' Bulletin 893, Breeds of Dairy Cattle.

Washington, D. C.

II

Issued February 1925
Revised November 1938

DAIRY CATTLE BREEDS

By AMER B. NYSTROM, senior dairy husbandman, Administrative Division,
Bureau of Dairy Industry

According to estimates made by the United States Department of

Agriculture, about 36,000,000 cattle of all ages were being kept for

dairy purposes in the United States in 1938. About two-thirds of

these, or approximately 24,000,000, were cattle of six dairy breeds,

namely: Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Dutch Belted, Guernsey, Holstein-

Friesian, and Jersey. Of the other one-third, about 8,000,000, or

22 percent, were cattle of dual-purpose and beef breeds used for

milk production, and about 4,000,000, or 11 percent, were cattle of

no particular breed.

Of the 24,000,000 cattle of the dairy breeds, about 4.5 percent, or

1,088,000, are registered. Much of the improvement in our dairy

cattle will continue to come from increasing the number of good

registered animals and through the use of good registered bulls in

grade dairy herds. The development of good grade dairy herds

from herds of no particular breed can be accomplished in a few

generations by the use of good registered bulls. For these reasons,

registered dairy cattle have played in the past and will play in the

future a very important role in the dairy industry of the Nation.

NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF BREEDS

Table 1 shows the estimated total number of grades and regis-

tered dairy cattle of each dairy breed in the United States and dif-

ferent parts of the country on January 1, 1932. The relative per-

centages of each breed in the different sections are based on in-

formation obtained from the Bureau of Agricultural Economics

from an inquiry sent to over 21.000 crop correspondents in Feb-

ruary 1932. Grades were listed with the breeds to which they seemed

to belong. The number of cattle of each breed on January 1, 1932,

was determined from the total cattle kept for dairy purposes in each

section and the relative numbers that were of these breeds in the

herds of crop correspondents. There were about 23,700,000 dairy

cattle in the United States (including possibly 650,000 dairy bulls

in use) at that time.

1

TABLE 1.-Approximate number and distribution of cattle of dairy breeds, including registered and grades, by sections, in the United States, Jan. 1, 1932

The numbers and percentages for distribution of each breed in 1938 are believed to be not far from those shown in table 1 for 1932. There have been some minor changes, but little information is available as to the direction of these changes.

Dutch Belted cattle, though comparatively few in number, are widely distributed in the United States.

Of the large numbers of cattle of dual-purpose breeds kept for milk, cattle of the Shorthorn breed are the most numerous, and are widely distributed in all States. Those breeds most commonly used for milk are indicated in table 4.

Table 2 shows the number of registered cattle of the dairy breeds on January 1, 1930, as enumerated by the census, by sections and by States.

TABLE 2.-Purebred (registered) cattle of the dairy breeds on farms in 1930, by States and sections, as shown by the census