SELECTING DAIRY HEIFERS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 46, 31 March 1914, Page 11

SELECTING DAIRY HEIFERS.

To get the best dairy cowb is every dairyman's; desire, but few of thejn kno# how to get them, either by breeding or purchase, for the reason that they do not know how to select the best for milk or breeding. In breeding for the dairy it is important to know how to select calves that promise to be the best milkers, which also makes them the best breeders with which to improve the herd. "I db not pose as an authority, but will venture to name a few points to use as guides in selecting a good dairy while, is yet a calf. I would not choose a "weakling of the flock'' to keep, but at the same time it is not always the biggest and fattest calf that makes, the best dairy eow. The boneframe—if the term is allowable—is the surest guide to the quality of the future dairy cow. Get in front of calf for first view. The forehead should be broad, with a shar.p decline just below the eyes; mouth broad and nostrils far apart. Then look further back to see if the ribs spring diagonally from the. backbone just behind the shoulders, not slanting abruptly downward, making calf look like a 2 x 10 plank. Then place fingers between the ribs, to see if there is a generous space between them. Properly shaped and placed Tibs indicate the feeding capacity that a good dairy cow must have. Across the loins the calf should be well proportioned, with tail bone 3 inclined rather to point downward than up. The joints of feet should be large when viewed from the front, and the bones between joints should be well shaped. 1 Neck should be long and Avell shaped. A very deep' breast and ribs, I have described, seldom go together, therefore I would choose a roundish breast rather than a deep narrow one. There is much more to be said on this subject, but I guess I have said enough for once.—lver Anderson, in. ''Farm and Koine."