How to Select Cows: or, The Guenon system simplified, explained, and practically appliedHazard, Willis P. (Willis Pope)
Science
How to Select Cows: or, The Guenon system simplified, explained, and practically applied
Hazard, Willis P. (Willis Pope)
Cattle -- Judging; Cows; Dairy cattle
“This front or level escutcheon is distinctly marked in the
young heifer or bull, and can be seen by laying the animal on
its back. The udder hair under the body all runs backward,
commencing at the forward line of the escutcheon—see dotted
lines in Figs. 6, 7, 8. This dividing line is very perceptible,
from the fact that the hair in front of it all runs forward
towards the head of the animal, while the escutcheon, or udder
hair, all runs backward over the forward quarters of the udder,
around and beyond the teats, and ceases at the markings of the
rear escutcheon, on and between the thighs.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Fig. 6. LOTTIE STARR.—10 mos. old.]
[Illustration: Fig. 7. SYLVA—10 mos. old.]
[Illustration: Fig. 8. COLUMBUS.—10 mos. old.]
“The breadth and extent forward of this front escutcheon,
indicates the capacity in the mature animal, of the front
quarters of her udder. In some cases this front escutcheon
will be found of twice the extent that it is in others, and is
evidence of that much more yield. The dimensions on Figs. 6, 7,
8, are actual measurements—the first two of heifers, and the
last of a bull. If Fig. 7 represents four quarts as the yield
per day of the front quarters, Fig. 6 will represent eight,
thus, if the rear yield is the same, say four quarts in each
cow, the total yield of Fig. 6 will be twelve quarts, while
that of Fig. 7 is but eight. This examination enables one to
see the size of the teats and their distance apart, and to test
the looseness and softness of the udder skin. It is marked
precisely the same in bulls, see Fig. 8, and can be easily
examined at any age between one and ten months.
“Udders of all shapes hold milk, and some homely ones hold
a large quantity. B, C, D, and E, at a glance explain their
deficiencies, both of shape, lack of capacity, and bad style of
teats. In udder A, we have the perfect shape....
“Many think that the escutcheon of the bull is of but little
moment, so that he is a good-looker. So far is this from being
the case, that a bull, with a mirror like Fig. 4. or worse,
will stamp his escutcheon on, and to that extent damage his
daughters, out of cows with escutcheons as choice as Fig. 2.
In this way the daughters of some of the best cows come very
ordinary, while, if you use a bull marked like Fig. 2, he will
make poor escutcheons better, and will improve the best. His
injury or benefit will be doubled, according to the escutcheon
markings under his body in front of his scrotum. Hence the
importance of the dam of a bull being unexceptionable in her
udder and escutcheon. Her qualities, inherited by her son, will
be transmitted to his daughters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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