JUDGING OF COWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 April 1917, Page 7

JUDGING OF COWS.

: LECTURE BY MR. SERGEL. Mr. H. G. Sergei, agricultural instructor under the Board of Education, ; yesterday gave a very interesting and instructive lecture to the Taranaki teachers, who are assembled for agricultural instruction, on the points to be noted in judging and selecting dairy ' cows. The lecture was given in the. Central School ground, and several visitors took advantage of the opportunity , to attend. Two grade Jersey cows were used for demonstration purposes. Mr. Sergei dealt with the various points individually. The horns, he said, should be small, incurving, and not too widely separated at the base. The eyes of the Jorsey should be prominent, bold and placid. They should' be very wide apart, with the space between dished. Yellowness was sometimes' considered tv, indicate butter-fat qualities. The neck should be long. The wither required inside the ears indicated butter-fat qualities. The neck should be long, gently curved on top-without a double chin underneath. The wither required to be pointed. Next, the spine should be prominent, and easily traced by running the fingers along, and the separate vertebrae distinctly felt. If they could not be distinguished it was a sign that the cow was looking aft"herself too much, to the detriment- of butter-fat production, The tail shoulu) be set square with the body. Mr. Sergei said judges 'liked to see a good width of chest, showing plenty of lung room. Also, a cow falling iqwords on either side of the wither, showed lack, of heart girth. Well sprung ribs, curving well outwards, we're a good feature, allowing plenty of food capacity. The hip bones should be wide apart and protruding; looking from behind the rump should be square, and not too sloping, as the latter showed poor ronstitution. Another important point, which the speaker mentioned had to his knowledge greatly influenced judges at shows, was the distance from the hip to the pin bone. A thin, flat thigh was one of the most important points of all, as this was necessary to allow plenty of udder room. The next point, dealt- with was the udder. The fore udder should be noted first, as it was there that the weakness was most common. The hind udder should come well up at the back, and when the cow was in full milk should Btand out well behind. The udder should not be divided, either from the front to the back or from side to side. The teats should be dark in color, flat- at the tip, and placed at each corner. The escutcheon required to be wide, and, indicating butter-fat, yellow in color. The milk veins in a good milker would be prominent and knotted, indicating strong blood circulation. The cow's tail should be long and thin, while the switch, if too big, indicated coarseness elsewhere very often. When judging a cow, it should be made to walk away from one to see that its hocks did not come- together, as this was a sign of weak constitution. Mr. Sergei dealt with the thrci wedges. The body, looked at from the side, should be wedge-shaped from neck to hips; the wither should be narrowest at the top and slope outwards down the shoulders. The skin of a Jersey should be thin and pliable. In concluding, the speaker said that a well-developed cow was the best from the point of economy. At the. conclusion of the lecture Mr. Sergei answered satisfactorily numerous questions.