This method of award is at present the best that can be devised, but it is possible that, as experience accumulates, some rearrangement of the points may be found to be desirable. Omitting many of the details, Table I. shows some of the results in the case of Shorthorn and Jersey prize cows. The days “in milk” denote in each case the number of days that have elapsed since calving; and if the one day’s yield of milk is desired in gallons, it can be obtained approximately[1] by dividing the weight in pounds by 10: thus, the Shorthorn cow Heroine III. gave 52.4 ℔, or 5.24 gallons, of milk per day. The table is incidentally of interest as showing how superior as milch kine are the unregistered or non-pedigree Shorthorns—which are typical of the great majority of dairy cows in the United Kingdom—as compared with the pedigree animals entered, or eligible for entry, in Coates’s Herd-Book. The evening’s milk, it should be added, is nearly always richer in fat than the morning’s, but the percentages in the table relate to the entire day’s milk.
The milking trials are based upon a chemical test, as it is necessary to determine the percentage of fat and of solids other than fat in each sample of milk. The butter test, on the other hand, is a churn test, as the cream has to be separated from the milk and churned. The following is the scale of points used at the London dairy show in making awards in butter tests:—
One point for every ounce of butter; one point for every completed ten days since calving, deducting the first forty days. Maximum allowance for period of lactation, 12 points.
Fractions of ounces of butter, and incomplete periods of less than ten days, to be worked out in decimals and added to the total points.
In the case of cows obtaining the same number of points, the prize to be awarded to the cow that has been the longest time in milk.
No prize or certificate to be given in the case of:—
(a) Cows under five years old failing to obtain 28 points.
(b) Cows five years old and over failing to obtain 32 points.
Table II.—Prize Shorthorn and Jersey Cows in the Butter Tests, London Dairy Show, 1900.
| Cows. | Age. | In Milk. | Milk per Day. | Butter. | Milk to 1 ℔ Butter. | Points for Butter. | Points for Lactation. | Total Points. |
| Years. | Days. | ℔ oz. | ℔ oz. | ℔ | No. | No. | No. | |
| Shorthorns— | ||||||||
| 1st | 9 | 104 | 55 2 | 2 5¼ | 23.67 | 37.25 | 6.40 | 43.65 |
| 2nd | 9 | 34 | 72 7 | 2 10¾ | 27.11 | 42.75 | .. | 42.75 |
| 3rd | 7 | 33 | 58 5 | 2 7¾ | 23.47 | 39.75 | .. | 39.75 |
| Jerseys— | ||||||||
| 1st | 7 | 157 | 29 10 | 2 2¼ | 13.83 | 34.25 | 11.70 | 45.95 |
| 2nd | 4 | 103 | 33 10 | 2 3 | 15.37 | 35.00 | 6.30 | 41.30 |
| 3rd | 12 | 257 | 40 13 | 1 12 | 23.32 | 28.00 | 12.00 | 40.00 |