The Cow for the Dairy.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XII, Issue 1, 4 January 1893, Page 3

The Cow for the Dairy.

Every practical dairyman who a cow for dairy work has a more orVcss defined notion for what her form must be and how she shall be built and finished, and while dairy qualities are not altogether dependent upon construction of the carcase, and many exceptions arise to any supposed rule, there is a well-established guiding principle that is near enough for all practical purposes This is the formula laid down by an eminent authority in the Practibal Farmer-.— “ The law of judging a daily cow is now very closely allied to the development of her backbone and its appendages The cow of large dairy performance is one that shows large spinal proportions and large spinal cord The heads of great milking cows are always fine and bony, with large protruding eyes and I a strong joining spinal column to the head. The back should be rooflike, never a flat back that obscures the spinal processes. 1 The ribs should spring rafteriike away from the backbone and should be far apart and so give an open expression to the barrel of the cow. At the hip the backbone should rise and give a high pelvic arch. This indicates a strong maternal action, indicative of strength and roof for office of maternity. The long tail is a good sign, as it tells of a continuation of the spinal piocess, and the best cow has the longest, slimmest tail. The open flank must go with the we 11-developed backbone and rise into tne arching flank, so as to give extra space for the udder. The beet type is th'ff’ opposite of all this ; as we want all this sharpness and openness in the dairy cow filled with beef in the other, because we want to sell the beef; but in the other case it is milk that is wanted, and milk must come, if p.ofitable, from the dairy form. There must be strong lungs, a big heart, a wide room for food, and a good constit ition to work with, an.l then if our breeding and hereditary record of performance is built upon dairy judgment, when we shall have found out true dairy cow, an animal that,put food into milk, and not into beef that "an only be secured with the butcher’s kniu.