The Breeding of Dual Purpose Cattle

Extract

Though this paper is on the subject of Dual Purpose Cattle it is in no sense a defence of them, not because I am not a devout believer in them myself, but because I am certain that before a learned body such as this they need no defence. Still less is it necessary for me to prove to you that such cattle really exist, though even this has been questioned. But though I do not think it necessary to defend them, I should like first of all to say something about their place in the general economy of our English farming. (I say English advisedly, for there have never been many dual purpose cattle in Scotland, perhaps because the conditions are not suitable.)

It is a fact often overlooked that only a small proportion of our milk producing farmers are dairy farmers in the true sense of the term. A dairy farmer is surely one who draws the major part of his farm income, if not the whole of it, from his dairy herd. In other words, he is a specialist. If this definition of a dairy farmer is accepted then I submit that dairy farmers form a small minority of those farmers who keep milch cattle, and by all means let them keep pure dairy breeds.