IDEAL DAIRY COWS

Shannon News, 28 March 1929, Page 4

IDEAL DAIRY COWS

MEANING OF CONSTITUTION.

FARMERS HEAR OPINION OF WELL KNOWN JUDGE,

Farmers who assembled at Glen Oroua yesterday were given the:opportunity of hearing the opinion of Mr. H. B. Green, Kairanga, the well known cattle judge, on what was meant by constitution in a dairy cow. Mr. Green explained that both beef and dairy cattle had constitution but in the former it meant flesh whereas in dairy cattle constitution meant ability to produce for long periods. The head of an animal gave a good indication of its constitution and he liked to see prominent veining, eyes well placed, a broad muzzle with strong lower jaw, open nostrils and sprung sides with deep ribs giving plenty of lung room and well able to support the stomach and abdomen; He didn’t like pendulous abdomen which some judges mistook for depth of body. In fact he would rather see a pendulous udder. Other desirable points were a fine backbone, width in the loins, an udder with capacity yet not fleshy and well placed teats. Mr Green considered that big mammary veins were apt to be misleading. A high producing animal was invariably one of a definite type anci so was the non-producer but eacn type was as am tinct as chalk from cheese. He had often noticed too that high producing cows were animals with manners —they invariably wore contented and took up their position in the milking yard to get on with the business of cud chewing while the non-producing was busy poking other cows about. A cow with pleasing lines was not necessarily a tvpey beast. Some of them were like men in Sunday clothes —one got no work from them. The speaker urged his audience not to bdy a bull just beterday when Mr. Hudson, of the Fields cause it had a pedigree. There was no doubt a lot of pedigree bulls-that were sold should have been knocked on-the head when calves. Mr. Green had the assistance of one or two of Messrs Cpnlan Bros.’ herd to demonstrate his remarks. He was unaware of their butterfat production but a comparison at the end of the address showed that the two animals he had picked out as typical dairy cows had produced 4111bs. and 4331bs of fat, the first cow in 190 days and the latter in 180 days. The cow to illustrate the beefy type ,of animal only produced 2361bs of fat in 198 days.