HOW TO DETERMINE THE AGE OF HORNFD CATTLE.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 75, 16 December 1875, Page 7

HOW TO DETERMINE THE AGE OF HORNFD CATTLE.

As horned stock are managed in this colony, the utility of determining the ages of animal is practically of less importance than in the case of horses and sheep ; yet the knowledge is requisite in dealing with stock for stud, dairy, op labor purposes, and therefore should be acquired by those engaged in any of those branches of husbandry or by general dealers in such stock. The criteria cf age are derived chiefly From the horns, though inthe case of polled or hornless," arid very young cattle, it is necessary to have recourse to the teeth. It cannot be said that cattle, in a literal sense, actually shed their horns ; but there is no doubt that the outer skin or surface is cast off and renewed by a continuous or gradual process, and it is by the marks left by this change and annual renewal that the age, after three. years, can bo determined. The manner of this casting' •off is not uniform, nor is the growth equal. Sometimes the surface falls ■away in granular dust, and sometimes it exfoliates, or falls in small flakes or fragments, and without close observation unobserved. After passing the age of three years, two small pointed horns make their appearance. These are neatly formed, smooth, and towards the head terminated by a kind of button. The following, or fifth year of the animal's age, this button mows from the head, being pushed forward by a horny cylinder, which, lengthening in the same manner, is also terminated by Janother button, and so on annually ; for the growth continues to the end of the animal's life. These buttons become

•annual joints or rings easily distinguishable towards the base of the horn. By these rings the age of the animal may be easily known. Allowing three years for the clear point of the horn and one year for each ring we have the 'required information. It may be mentioned that, even in this colony, dishonest cow-dealers not unfrequently obliterate a portion or the whole of these rings by rasping or shaving them out, and thus pass off an aged animal Tor a young one. In purchasing milch cows it is, therefore, necessary to examine the horns closely to see that they have not been tampered with j and ■also to take note of the countenance, which give unmistakeable indications of age when far advanced ; the face, bo to speak, becomes wrinkled, and there is a hollowness about the nostrils and eyes. f l he mouth should also be examined when there is any ground for suspicion, as the teeth will probably be much worse — almost stumps — when the animal's age is such. as to tempt to the attempt at deception.

With regard to polled stock, the teeth alone can furnish criteria of age. At the end of about two years, the first four teeth are shed and replaced by others, larger, but not so white ; and before five years all the incisive teeth are ranewed. These teeth are. at first equal, long, and pretty while, but, as the animalsadvancein years, they wear down, become unusual of irregular surface, and grow block.