SELECTING MILKING COWS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1300, 1 December 1911, Page 10

SELECTING MILKING COWS.

VALUE QF TESTING. -Fracticallv every dairyman know? tho points to look for" in'a good milkin" cow but it is onlv whop, tho tow. is snbmit- ■ tcd to actual"tests "that' it is ascertained how misleading some of these .o"*,' I '?™ signs of productiveness may be. Milking points arc, of course, of use in ; selecting a deep niilking pow when there is no information available that. mcnlfi the eve as to" what the cows are likely to be capable of. But appearances do not count for everything, the milk and buttcr-fnfc production is the finest test, Mr. A. E. Sweaney, who, probably, has had more experience of cow-testing than anyone elfo in the New South Wales, recently said on this subject :— "How often do we hear the remark from, dairymen, and also from judges at shows, assorting their ability to pick out a good or. a poor testing cow. Pick up 'books written' by recognised authorities, and you can read a great lot of how to go about selecting a good testing cow, and setting forth certain characteristics in a cow which indicate richness of.'milk. .-Theorists tell us that in order to pick out the' producers of rich milk we should look for the following Qualities: A thin, soft, elastic skin, soft, silky hair, especially in the vicinity of the 'udder; deep orange-tinted skin, especially in tho earn and tail; a well-de-fined escutcheon i and other points too numerous to mention. ' "As ope who has followed this question very exhaustively, I say it will not work out in practice. Most of tip above characteristics are materially influenced hy climatic conditions and treatment, and in my opinion .do not necessarily indicate, or have any direct, or indirect, bearing on the quality of milk produced. Tor several years.-!' set myself out to trv and discover this important factor, fully realising what an'advantage and practical benefit it would be, and during- my duties as tho official tester to several agricultural societies, testing and computing -tho-results of. so many excellent butter-producing cows 'entered in the competitions, I .had'every "facility afforded me;"in -my investigations. I duly noted ami recorded every possible peculiarity and characteristic of evarv cowtested, a, number.of .which were .amongst the best producing cows in ■ tho ."colony,' and. often, when I- thought, I.:had founda- clue, -succeeding .tests would contradict and. disprove . what • I -had hoped would, he the.goal of. my ambition, and after years of the closest possible investigation I wns reluctantly forced kc the conclusion . that-there were.no. positivo outward' indications discernible. '•-.