DAIRY CATTLE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4744, 29 August 1924, Page 3

DAIRY CATTLE.

THE TYPE OF COW. RELATION TO PRODUCTION. While the year’p test will alone determine the actual producing capacity of a cow, it is still necessary—and necessary more than ever—to have a sound conception of type. Because what some authority has considered to be the true type of a heavy-milking cow has failed to come up to expectations when put under test does not prove that type has no relation to production. It rather proves that the authority’s conception of type is wrong, or that he was swayed by consideration of some fancy point, a that may even be antagonistic to productive capacity. We believe that beauty of form can be combined with productive capacity, and that the ideal of the breeder should be to combine the two qualities. Perhaps the most common error judges fall into is to look for too much refinement in the forepart of a cow, and thereby forget that a fine wither does not necessarily accompany a wide chest and the wide frame that invariably accompanies the great heart-girth. And because of an exceptionally fine wither they will decorate a cow that is too narrow in construction to ever be a big producer. They quite ignore the fact that a point may be reached in regard to fineness of shoulder which may constitute a grave defect, that is if the fineness means any contraction of the shoulder-blades. We are hearing much nowadays of the desirability of the great middle-piece, but of even more importance is the matter of width. The wide cow is invariably the cew with constitution and capacity as well as the room for a wide, well-attached udder. The narrow cow may have depth—often a quite deceptive quality—but she will have probably a weak pendulous uddtfr. We have seen the narrow cow that has put up quite a respectable butter-fat record, but she was only able to do it because she was in the hands of a man who nursed her and fed her to the greatest advantage. And after the record she went to pieces, simply because she did not have the constitution. In these days of ever-increasing milk-producing power in our cattle, and the prevalence of various diseases, particularly mammitis and abortion, the need of strong constitutional vigour fe more urgent than ever. And it is width rather than depth that indicates this very essential quality.—The Dairyfarmer,