DEFINITION OF HEIFER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 September 1939, Page 3

DEFINITION OF HEIFER

SOLUTION OF A PUZZLE. SHOW-RING PURPOSES. The Suffolk Agricultural Association’s Council, which met at Saxmundham to make final arrangements for the show there, were somewhat puzzled about the correct definition of a heifer. There is no definition of what is a heifer in the Society’s rules and regulations. The view was expressed and accepted by several members that a heifer loses her status as such if she has bred more than one calf. An animal, it was urged, that has bred two calves, was definitely a cow. The question was then asked, to which no answer was forthcoming, whether a heifer could be so described that had reached the age of four years or more, and had bred only one calf. The chairman, Mr 1 Clement Smith, who took the view that a heifer was decided by age, said everything depended upon the word “heifer.” Finally, the dictionaries were consulted; but did not help in the solution of the problem, since three out of four dictionaries described a heifer as a young cow. The Council eventually adopted the view that a heifer could not be described as such if it had bred two calves.