THE FARM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 116, 17 May 1901, Page 3

THE FARM.

THE MODEL DAIRY COW.

The Melbourne "Leader" extracts the following from a paper read before the Ontario Live Stock Association by J. S. Woodward:—

Dirty breeds are Jank in form and o f a nervous, sanguine temperament, nervous, excitable, quick-motioned, an( | disturbed by everything strangeThe famous Jersey cow, Ida Marigold, when her owner was trying to get an official test, would shrink several pounds in yield, and more than one per cent, in quality, just by having a stranger, the official tester, present when she was being milked, and the only vvay it was possible to get a fair leS t was for the official to come and care for her until .she had become used to having him about. No matter to what breed they belong all A No. 1 dairy cows will be found to be very much alike both in form and temperament. So markedly is this true, that there are certain points sure tb appear, and by knowing what they are and closely observing1 them, we can be reasonably sure of selecting a good cow. These developments of points of excellence in any breed do not come" by chance or caprice, but are the result of a high degree of skill in feeding and intelligence and ability in "selecting1 those animals showing the greatest production. The cow's, ability to make milk depends largely npon her ability to eat, digest and assimilate food- If we begin at the head to describe the dairy cow, we want her wide between the horns, with horns rather small and tapering, and would prefer them to turn slightly inward and upward. The eyes should be large, bright, prominent, and wide apart; face a little dished, with a broad' nose, large nostrils, and very wide, capacious mouth. This is the "entry port" for the whole system. Her jaws should be large and muscular, as they will have' a large amount of work to perform in eating so much food. In short, this end of our model cow is the important end, and should E how the ability to gather and ruminate an abundance of. food to furnish the material from which to elaborate Fo much milk. Her neck should be long and slim; in fact, a regular, even ueck comes very near the model. A large chest, wide and well clown, will be needed to contain a large, well developed set of lungs, as she needs to Lave her blood kept pure and well filled with the red corpuscles and kept in rapid circulation. Her back should be long, with the vertebrae well apart, so that the ends of the lingers ea'n be dropped well down between them. If she is a little hollow Lacked it will be all the more desirable. Her abdomen should be very large, so large that when standing squarely behind her you can scarcely see her chest or fore shoulders. It is very necessary that this should be large, because it is her storehouse or hay mow, into which her food is first to be put 'and mixed together and soaked preparatory to being eaten. She should be wide and high in the pelvic arch, so as to render parturition safe and easy. Her tail should be long and slim,'with the breast down to or below the gambrel point. The thighs should bo slim and stand well apart, bow-legged, so as to give ample room for large, capacious udder. This is a very important organ in the model cow. It is the laboratory in which the milk is in some way evolved from the blood. There are many styles of udders, and each in turn has been the fashionable one, but one fully filling the space between wide and open •thighs and extending well up behind and well out in front of the legs is much to be desired. Ido not like a low down, swinging udder. It betokens a weakness of constitution, and is liable to be injured by the legs in walking, and to get soiled when p-oing in dirty places. It is much better to have it held up with g-ood, strong udder cords. When the udder is milked out it should be soft and flabby, and feel a good deal like a sack partially filled with soft, flabby cotton. A fleshy, hard udder is a poor indication and should be avoided. The teats should not be too large, but of a size large enough to be easily grasped by the hand when milking, and they should be set well apart on the udder. What I despise most is a cow -with teats so small and close together that they can be milked only ■with the thumb and one finger. The milk veins are also of great importance, and should be well developed. The larger and more tortuous and more branched they are the better. It is a fine indication to have one branch run up well between the fore legs. The opening where these milk veins enter the abdomen—milk wells— should also be large. If so large that the ends of the fingers can be run well into them so much the better. Ido not place too much reliance on the escutcheon, or milk mirror, though I do like to see a well defined one, running well up and broad, with soft, fine hair. The legs should be slender, with solid hones, and not too long. I like the cow to be pretty low down, so as to easily reach the ground for feeding. In the shoulders, just on the point in front, there should be found a depression, or "pit," and the larger,these are the better the indication, even if the ends of the forefingers can be placed in them as far as the second joint. Similar "pits" can be found just on the inside near the front angle. These, with open vertebrae, and long, slender tail, all indicate an open_ or loose organisation, favourable indication, of the cow's ability to convert f°oditito milk. The more open and loose the better. I would again urge the importance of a capacious abdomen °r stomach for the model dairy cow. T£e fact should not be lost sight of tJfttis her storeroom into which her food is taken, to be commmsrled °r mixed and soaked ready for eating, and were she to stop here she would starve, even with this stomach full of food. E u t when she has what she considers sufficient for a good square tteal she gets into some quiet^ corner a nd commences to eat, chewing the CBd. Rumination is really eating, so B° matter whether we give her food two or three times a day she really c»ts nearly all the time. Hence the feat importance of an ample storeloom, "or abdomen.