Date of Award:

5-1930

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences

Committee Chair(s)

George B. Caine

Committee

George B. Caine

Abstract

"A cooperative bull association", according to the United States Department of Agri culture, is "a farmers' organization formed for the purpose of joint ownership, use, and exchange of high class, purebred dairy bulls."

The members of the association are divided into three or more groups of neighboring farmers, each group being known as a block. A block may consist of one herd or several herds and contains from 40 to 60 cows. One bull is used in each block, and in order to prevent inbreeding, each bull is moved to another block every two years. If all the bulls live and are kept until each has made one complete circuit, no new bulls need to be purchased for six or more years, or as long as these bulls continue to be serviceable. During this time, each member will have had the use of a high class, purebred bull.

A similar organization to this has been known in Europe for a number of years. The first bull association was started in the United States by the Michigan Agri cultural College in 1908 and since that time the movement has spread throughout our whole country, and in 1925 the United States Department of Agri culture reported 220 associations containing 1003 bulls. Each association had an average of 31.1 members, 4.6 bulls, 40.9 purebred cows, and 157.7 grade cows. There was an average of 6.8 members and 43 cows per bull.

Of the 39 states reporting associations a t that time, Idaho ranked first with 32 associations and Utah fifth, with 14.

From the "Summary of Bull Associations in United States, January 1, 1929," we find that there has been some increase over 1925. The report gives 339 active associations with 6353 members owning 1569 bulls. Texas, instead of Idaho, is now on lead wi th 57 associations and Utah is reported as having 18 associations wi th 77 bulls.

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