Since the concept was first developed
by Senator Harry Hays of Calgary, the objective has been to produce
superior animals with the selection based only on performance.
Senator Hays considered the idea for a new
beef breed for a long time. Besides wanting to develop a leaner breed
of cow, he wanted one that gained weight as efficiently as possible.
He aimed at developing an animal that would reach the preferred market
weight at the earliest possible age.
The market demanded a steer in the range of
1100 pounds. His goal, for maximum economic benefit, was to breed
a beef animal that would reach this desirable market weight during
its first year of life
- when it could most efficiently convert feed
to meat. Senator Hays set out to develop beef cattle that would be
measured only on their performance as converters of feed to saleable
meat
- a cow with hardiness against Canadian winters,
fast fleshing ability and calving ease, growthiness, large milk production
for her calves and a trouble-free udder, high fertility, good feet
and legs, and an excellent carcass.
From his experience as a dairy farmer,
Senator Hays knew that a calf needed plenty of milk from its mother
to ensure maximum growth. Yet farm experience had shown him that the
average beef cow does not produce a sustained supply of milk for her
calf after the initial heavy flow at the beginning of lactation.
Aware that it required about nine pounds of
milk to produce one pound of meat in an average calf, he began the
evolution of his new beef animal by mixing dairy and beef cattle.
Senator Hays started his evolutionary
quest by carefully combining progeny from three outstanding animals,
each from a different existing breed. Spring Farm Fond Hope was a
Holstein bull weighing 3,120 pounds whose progeny were distinctive
for their large size, rugged constitution and excellent strong feet.
His daughters also had a high butterfat test,
good udders and average milk production of approximately 12,000 lbs.
Certified Meat Sire, Silver Prince 7P was a 2,640 pound Hereford bull
noted for his ability to transmit size, length, bone and fleshing
ability to his offspring.
Jane of Vernon was a 1,600 pound Brown Swiss
cow famous for having what was judged the world's most perfect udder
- she never had her feet trimmed and her milk production held up until
the end of lactation. Her progeny excelled in size, growth and had
excellent feet and legs.
Senator Hays selected eight sons of dairy
bull Fond Hope to mate in the autumn of 1957 with his neighboring
rancher J. Allen Baker's herd of large Hereford cows and arranged
to buy all the calves produced.
From them and successive generations, he would
select only those bulls that weighed at least 1,100 pounds at one
year of age; a bull's worth was also measured by the number of offspring
that stayed in the herd over the following years.
Cows too, were initially selected for their
growth performance. But once in the brood herd, their selection depended
on their ability to both produce offspring and survive.
Every one of them had to have a calf annually
to remain in the herd; each one had to become pregnant from the bull's
first service, and she had to have the calf unassisted in the open
pasture.
If she any trouble with the birth, or with
the nursing of her calf once safely born, or needed help in any other
way - hoof trimming, for example, or milking out - her tail was bobbed
to mark her, and she was shipped off to the slaughter-house come autumn.
The evolutionary law of survival of the
fittest was followed ruthlessly. Senator Hays insisted that each cow
produce a good supply of milk from the Holstein genes in her body
- that they supply plenty of milk to the calves near the end of lactation
when the calves need it most for growth.
He especially admired the qualities of Jane
of Vernon - in addition to having the most perfect udder, she never
ever had her feet trimmed. He chose her primarily because she peaked
in milk production in her eight month.
Two years after the original matings
of the sons of Fond Hope and the Hereford cows - the best females
born from these mating (granddaughters of Fond Hope were bred to Silver
Prince. Five of the best bulls from these matings (sons of Silver
Prince and great
-grandsons of Fond Hope were selected to mate
with their mothers Fond Hope's granddaughters produced by the original
matings with Baker's Herefords).
Having brought together the specially gifted
progeny of Fond Hope and Silver Prince, Senator Hays next introduced
the superior genetics of Jane of Vernon's offspring. He mated four
of her great-grandsons with one of the Hereford cows.
The female progeny from these matings were
then put into the breeding herd. Now that he had combined the genetic
materials he wanted, the herd was closed to all other outside breeding
influence.
By 1969 his own breed of cows had been bred
to his own breed of bulls regularly and exclusively for seven years,
and his work on improving nature's genetics was producing the results
he had anticipated.
In 1974 a committee appointed
by the Canadian Department of Agriculture inspected the herd. This committee
reviewed the breeding program, inspected and nominated "foundation"
animals and in December 1975 the first purebred Certificate of Registration
was issued for Hays Converters.
Canadian Hays Converter Association - Hays
Ranches, 550, 1207 - 11 Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta T3C 0M5, Phone:
(403) 245-6923, FAX (403) 244-3128
Photographs:
Canadian Hays Converter Association - Hays
Ranches, 550, 1207 - 11 Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta T3C 0M5, Phone:
(403) 245-6923, FAX (403) 244-3128
