446 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



However, many of you, perhaps, have owned cows with such udders 

 that were disappointments. The reason likely was because the udder 

 had no texture or quality. This cow not only has a large well devel- 

 oped shapely udder but you will notice the presence of much quality and 

 freedom from coarseness and beeflness as indicated by the texture, pli- 

 ability and elasticity of the covering. You will notice the blood vessels 

 which indicate that branches from the large arteries are carrying the 

 blood into the parts of the udder. 



These are the five points and if you are milking a cow any one of 

 which are absent, you are not milking a cow, but only a part of a cow. 

 For instance, supposing a cow is capable of eating a large amount 

 of feed, but lacks constitution; she will not remain healthy, and perhaps 

 in a short time she will die. Granting her constitution without the 

 proper nervous temperament or disposition to work, she will consume 

 just enough food to take care of herself. And if she lacks capacity 

 she can not eat enough feed to make a profit regardless of her disposi- 

 tion to do so. Given constitution, capacity and disposition to work, if 

 her blood flows in the wrong direction she will make beef instead of 

 milk and then it will be necessary to kill her to get the cost of the 

 feed back. And further than this, if the blood carries the nutrients 

 into the udder which has not the ability of extracting and manufactur- 

 ing the nutrients into butter-fat, still there is a loss. All of these points 

 fit together in dovetail fashion and must be given due consideration in 

 selecting cows for profit. 



There are other points such as width across the hips, breed, type and 

 characteristics, but time does not permit reference to more than those 

 points which are necessary for profitable milk and butter-fat production. 



But, after all, when we have taken into consideration these points we 

 do not know much about the cow. There is no one in the audience who 

 can look at this cow and tell within 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 pounds how 

 much milk she gave last year. If you could not see that she was a Jersey 

 you could not tell within one or two per cent of how much her milk 

 tested were you to see a sample of it. The only way to determine the 

 true measure of the cow is to use a scale each time the cow is milked 

 and test her milk one or two days out of each month. It does not 

 take long to do this and it is the only method of determining accurately 

 the real merits of the cow from the dairyman's standpoint, and it is 

 well worth while. Study the history of every great cow and you will 

 find that at some time in her life she or some of her offspring were sacri- 

 ficed because her real value had not at that time been determined. 



Remember that in the United States farmers are milking fourteen 

 million cows, no one of which makes anybody a profit and that on the 

 average farm in this country somebody is wasting 27.2 days every year. 



By a combination of judgment and determining the development of 

 the essential points for butter production and the use of the scales 

 and test this great waste of feed and labor can be eliminated. 



I thank you for your kind attention. 



Adjournment. 



