444 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



cow that is manufactured into beef is lost and wasted from the dairy- 

 man's standpoint. For this reason the animal which converts its food 

 into beef and stores it on its back regardless of what breed it belongs 

 to is a loafer from the standpoint of butter production. The same is true 

 relative to other regions of the animal and you will notice the absolute 

 freedom from beefiness throughout this cow's entire contour. 



The fourth essential point to be considered in selecting dairy cows is 

 the blood circulation. To be of the productive type the cow must not only 

 have an abundant flow of blood but the course of circulation must be 

 through the proper channels and in the ri'ght direction. Herein lies the 

 great difference between beef and dairy bred animals. If you will study 

 the workings of these two classes of machines you will find that up to the 

 point where the food has been masticated the process of consumption and 

 digestion are practically the same. After the food has been digested in 

 the case of the beef animal the blood i's pumped out from the heart along 

 the digestive apparatus, the digested nutrients picked up or assimilated 

 and carried by the blood upward and deposited over the shoulder and 

 chine or back, the ribs, the loins, over the hips and rump and into the 

 hind quarters. The flow of blood is thus directed carrying all nutrients 

 because for hundreds of years beef cattle have been bred by intelligent 

 breeders for the specific purpose of consuming a large amount of food, di- 

 gesting, assimilating and depositing it over these regions of the body be- 

 cause years ago the packer informed the breeder of beef cattle that the ul- 

 timatum of all his efforts was the block and if he desired to secure from 

 6 to 8 cents a pound for his steers instead of from 3 to 4 cents a pound 

 then it was necessary to breed animals the offspring of which would util- 

 ize their food in developing the high priced cuts, namely, the porter 

 house steaks and rib roasts which the consuming public were willing to 

 pay for. The success with which the breeder of beef cattle has met is 

 demonstrated at our state fairs and fat stock shows by a careful observa- 

 tion of the cattle exhibited. 



On the other hand when the real dairy cow has digested her food the 

 blood is pumped out from the heart past the digestive apparatus, picking 

 up the digested nutrients and carrying them not up on top of their backs 

 but around through the udder where milk and butterfat are made. The 

 first indication of the amount of blood passing into the udder is often at 

 the escutcheon, a portion just above the rear of the udder where the 

 hair grows upward on each side of which the hair grows downward. It 

 is believed that the hair covering the escutcheon is nourished by the blood 

 in the vessels which are passing to the udder. An indication which de- 

 termines more accurately, I believe, the amount of blood passing through 

 the udder is found in the mammary veins. All cows have two of these 

 veins, one on each side of the abdomen. Some cows have straight short 

 veins ending in a small milk well. Other cows have veins that are large 

 and tortuous extending far forward, as do the veins of this cow, to a 

 large milk well, an opening in the abdomen large enough to insert my 

 thumb, and passing on to a second milk well and some times on to a third 

 or fourth. These are termed double extension veins. Some cows have 



