Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1902-08-20
How to Select the Dairy Cow.

We do not believe that any man, no
matter what his experience may be, can
invariably select first-class, mortgage.
lifting cows by the outward appearance.
There are some men, however, who can
come much nearer 1t than others and
we do not know of any man who can
do it more correctly than G. r. Good
rich, the veteran dairyman of Wiscon-
sin. From paper written by Mr..
Goodrich for the Patrons Herd Book,
we take the following statement as to
how to select good COW for the dairy:
When one wishes to buy cows to take
the place of some weeded out, or to in
crease his herd, or start new herd, q
difficult problem presents itself. He can
not have the years record, for the rea-
son that those who have cows to sell
have not kept record of individual
COWS, or, if they have, they have too
much business sense to sell off their
best COWS. 1t is of no use to ask the
seller which are his good cows, for he
will tell you that they are all good, and
besides he does not know himself, be-
cause he has never made yearly test.
1t is of but little use to see the COW
MIXED and take sample and test it.
One can learn but very little from one
milking what COW will do for year.
Therefore, there remains but one
thing to do, and that is for the buyer to
use his own judgment, being governed
entirely by the form OF the COW. There
is dairy type-a form which indicates
dairy ability, which the close student of
the dairy COW is able to recognize.
/ There are COWS of dairy type and of
good dairy performance in nearly all
breeds, but they are found more nearly
universal among the recognized dairy
breeds, such as Guernseys, Jerseys and
Holsteins, than among other breeds.
There is occasionally one of dairy type,
and splendid performer found among
some of the beef breeds, but they are
exceptions to the general rule, and
though good performers themselves,
would not be very likely to transmit
first-class dairy qualities to their off
spring. So 1t is best to hunt among the
dairy breeds, or grades of dairy breeds
those which have been bred and used
through many generations solely for
dairy purposes wishing to select
dairy cows.
The mouth of the dairy COW should
be large and the jaw strong and muscu-
lar, which indicates that she is good
feeder. She should have great depth of
body showing that she has large cspa-
city for handling and digesting the large
amount of food that her strong jaws are
able to eat. She should have broad
chest and large girth around the heart
and plenty of lung capacity. She should
have broad, strong loin with hips
quite wide apart, with the back bone
rising quite high between them. This
indicates large room for the organs OF
maternity.
The thighs should be thin and in.
curved on the back side with great
room between them, and the flank
arched up high just in front of them
i All this to give room for the large fine
udder which she must have to be 8
great producer. The udder should ex
tend well forward and well back, max
ing long connection with the body
and having four fairly good sized teats
set on well apart. Large, full milk
veins that carry the blood from the nd.
der back to the heart through large
"milk wells" or openings through the
large walls of the chest are indications
of large flow of milk.
Some other points which good cows
usually have, but not always, might be
J mentioned. These are the thin slim
neck; the clean, well cut up throat; tn,
thin withers and the long tail.
A great many men when Judging O
a cows dairy ability are guided almos
> entirely by the udder. If that is larg,
5 and fine they think she must be a goot
s cow, no matter what her form other
: wise is. OF course, q good udder usual
ly goes with 9 good dairy form, but no