How to Select Cows / or, The Guenon system simplified, explained, and practically applied

by Willis P. Hazard

Fig. 8. COLUMBUS.—10 mos. old.

“The breadth and extent forward of this front escutcheon, indicates the capacity in the mature animal, of the front quarters of her udder. In some cases this front escutcheon will be found of twice the extent that it is in others, and is evidence of that much more yield. The dimensions on Figs. 6, 7, 8, are actual measurements—the first two of heifers, and the last of a bull. If Fig. 7 represents four quarts as the yield per day of the front quarters, Fig. 6 will represent eight, thus, if the rear yield is the same, say four quarts in each cow, the total yield of Fig. 6 will be twelve quarts, while that of Fig. 7 is but eight. This examination enables one to see the size of the teats and their distance apart, and to test the looseness and softness of the udder skin. It is marked precisely the same in bulls, see Fig. 8, and can be easily examined at any age between one and ten months.

“Udders of all shapes hold milk, and some homely ones hold a large quantity. B, C, D, and E, at a glance explain their deficiencies, both of shape, lack of capacity, and bad style of teats. In udder A, we have the perfect shape....

“Many think that the escutcheon of the bull is of but little moment, so that he is a good-looker. So far is this from being the case, that a bull, with a mirror like Fig. 4. or worse, will stamp his escutcheon on, and to that extent damage his daughters, out of cows with escutcheons as choice as Fig. 2. In this way the daughters of some of the best cows come very ordinary, while, if you use a bull marked like Fig. 2, he will make poor escutcheons better, and will improve the best. His injury or benefit will be doubled, according to the escutcheon markings under his body in front of his scrotum. Hence the importance of the dam of a bull being unexceptionable in her udder and escutcheon. Her qualities, inherited by her son, will be transmitted to his daughters.

[Mr. Sharpless’ bull Comet of M. is one of the finest Jersey bulls we ever saw, and his escutcheon is unexceptionable, being a perfect curveline, the one most commonly found on bulls.]

“While careful as to escutcheons, we must not neglect the other essential features of a good cow—the buckskin hide, the rich-colored skin, and the fine bone. Let the hair be soft and thickly set, and let the skin be mellow. This latter quality is easily determined by grasping between the thumb and forefinger the skin at the rear of the ribs, or the double thickness at the base of the flank that joins the stifle joint to the body, or that on the inside of the rump-bone at the setting-on of the tail. Let the teats be well apart; let them yield a full and free stream, and be large enough to fill the hand without the necessity in milking of pulling them between the thumb and forefingers. And let us ever keep in mind that the large yielder must be well fed.”

Those who condemn Jersey cows as small yielders of milk and butter, should listen to the story of “Rosa” as told by her owner, C. L. Sharpless. She is five years old, is solid creamy fawn, and, combined with great volume and bone, she is neat in the head and neck, and with fine legs. Her dam was a small mouse-colored cow, and her sire’s dam a small fawn-colored, neither of which would give over twelve quarts.

“We found we were making a good deal of butter, and as ‘Rosa’ looked superbly, we determined to test her butter quality. We fed her per day twenty pounds of hay, eight quarts of meal, and four quarts of carrots. The meal was a mixture of good wheat bran and cornmeal, in the proportion of four bushels of the former to one bushel of the latter. Her yield the first day was sixteen quarts, the second day fifteen and a half quarts, the third day sixteen quarts, and the next morning eight quarts; being in all seven milkings, or half the week. Her milk was kept separate; was skimmed after standing thirty-six hours, and made six and three fourths pounds of butter, or thirteen and a half pounds for the week.

“As you place Rosa and Duchess side by side there are some points of agreement and of difference that are of interest to notice. They are both wedge-shaped, with large body—Duchess the more bony, but Rosa with the greater rear volume, (broader hips, &c.) They both have neat heads and necks, and fine bone. Duchess is, in winter, smoke-color, with brilliant white, but not with black points. She has yellow hoofs and skin, and her udder is rich yellow. Rosa has yellow hoofs, and yellow inside her ears, but a pale skin and udder, and would be called a butter cow inferior to Duchess, and yet she has just proved herself one half pound greater. The color of it is the deepest—no coloring matter being used. This upsets the theory that a yellow skin is essential for deep-colored butter. Perhaps a safer way to put it is, that though a rich yellow skin is evidence of butter quality, yet equally good quality may come from a pale skin, provided the cow has yellow inside her ears.