THE POINTS OF A GOOD BUTTER COW.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1671, 5 March 1890, Page 3

THE POINTS OF A GOOD BUTTER COW.

A good butter cow should have a long face, wide between the eyes, the eye alert and expressive, and placed a long way below the horns. A cow with eyes near the top of the head does not know any more than a man with eyes so placed. She should have a large muzzle, a slim neck and a yellow skin, especially inside the ears ; the breathing should be regular, the baok and abdomen strong, the udder wide where it connects *ith the body, the teats squarely placed and the tail slim. Over and above all these points, she must have the dairy form, The points at best are only indications. The dairy form is inseparably con- 1 nected with a good butter cow. The desirable form is always seen in the best types of Jerseys, Guernseys, Ayrahires and Holsteins. The best beef form is presented in the Shorthorns, Herefords and most of thepolled breeds. The intelligent dairyman, with a knowledge born of experience desire and capacity for the business, never makes the mistake of choosing his cow of a beef form.

While it is not difficult for a dairyman with a knowledge of his business, to select a oow that will make ten pounds of butter a week, provided always that such cow is within the drove or herd be is inspecting, cowsj that will make fourteen pounds of

butter a week are not to be found id! the drove! that are driven about for ■ ■ale. Such cows are seldom for «1* except at breeders' prices. A novior might by chance select a cow that wits making ten pounds of butter a wetk under the right treatment, yet if ha kept her in a cold stable and gave he* ice-water to drink and fed her on timothy hay and ground barter inbV corn meal, all of which are laming in J proteine, the cow would soon Mii down J to three and a half pounds &9*fek • n^| stay there, or make less tW lessll Another man who knew his DtnuftMyy might have selected the same cow an<n kept her in a warm stable, given warm I ensilage, made from sweet corn well] matured, two or three pounds of clover] hay ( and a plentiful supply of wheat I bran and middlings, ground oats and I peas, or £ little oil meal or any other food containing proteine in liberal proportion, and the cow would probably' have increased to twelve pounds a week\ if her limit permitted.— "American, Agriculturist."