THE ESCUTCHEON THEORY Guenon’s Hypothesis Is Now Dead—Even If Not Buried.

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 65, 18 March 1936, Page 12

THE ESCUTCHEON THEORY Guenon’s Hypothesis Is Now Dead —Even If Not Buried.

All dairy farmers know the escutcheon is that part of the udder and thighs of the cow (right up to the vulva) on which the hairs grow upwards instead of downwards. That Guenon, the eiaborator of the escutcheon theory, had seme reason for enthusiasm over his woik. there can be no doubt, but in these practical days we judge such theories from a practical standpoint with tflo result that Guenon’s tneor.v is almost dead if not buried. ■ Twenty years ago, breeders of dairycows (and skilful breeders, too) talked learnedly of “ilanddrines,” “buttock feathers,” “bastard feathers,’’ “thigh feathers,” etc., etc.; but nowadays not a few dairy breed associations, when allotting the various breed points entirely omit the escutcheon. For my own part I like to see a good wide strip, running from the udder right up to the vulva, and the great majority of beav.v milkers have that strip, states a writer in the “New Zealand Dairy Farmer.” I have no faith in the influence of any other type of escutcheon on the quality of milk or butterfat yielded by individual cows.

Guenon elaborated his theory very ably, but he confessed that experiments had shown that the escutcheon and feather marks are not invariably a correct indication of dairy capacities,

the reason being that difference of climate, feeding, and of the season, necessarily have more or less favourable influence. Not a very strong support lor his theory, i think. About S2O years ago when making some remarks in connection with this subject in the “Farmer,” I stated that my old bulldog had a splendid escutcheon, and that it' every farmer would examiuo the hinder part of his dogs, he would in every instance, find a plentiful supply of these up-side-down hairs. One reader was very- wrathful over this remark, but I think he was convinced in the end. Is it not a fact that all hair-covered animals have these special hair marks I would not be at all surprised to find that the feathers below the tail of a rooster do not grow quite in the same direction as those on his body, i he first time that my attention was called to the confusion of the up-side-down hairs on the udder of tbe dairy cow was during a visit to a very fine dairy herd on the East Coast of the North Island. There were some great producers in the herd, but their escruteheons would have confounded even Guenon ; aud I came to the conclusion that it was as easy to determine the contents of a safe by tho number of bolt, heads on the outside of it, as to determine the dairy capacities of a cow by the: escutcheon and feather marks. •