RED POLLED SOCIETY 159 



The Red Polled Society of Great Britain and Ireland was 



formed in 1888. 



" The Council made a regulation that any record sent in 

 for publication at the Society's cost in the Herd Book should 

 show the milk yield of all the cows in the herd." In 1899 it 

 formulated regulations for judging, which provided for the 

 taking of morning and evening records under normal con- 

 ditions and subject to independent inspection. " They also 

 provided for pail and butter-fat tests in the showyard, and 

 for the judging there of the cow by quality and appearance as 

 a dual-purpose cow. One-third of a specified number of 

 points being allotted to milk, a third to butter-fat, and a third 

 to quality. ... A dual-purpose cow must be able to give a 

 fairly good account of herself in the dairy, and be able to 

 produce calves which, when steered, will grow well and fatten 

 into good butchers' beasts." 



In the oldest herd, that of R. Harvey Mason, Necton Hall, 

 a recent year's record of 43 cows, including 14 heifers, was 

 203- 1 2 Ibs. of butter-fat. Of the mature cows the best gave 

 369-82 Ibs. of butter-fat 4-41 Ibs. to each 100 Ibs. of milk; 

 another, 388-37 Ibs. = fat 4-08 Ibs. per cent. A heifer which 

 milked 365 days gave 10,396 Ibs. of milk, yielding 35379 Ibs. 

 of butter-fat. 



The breed is noted for abnormally prolonged periods of 

 lactation. The cow " Crocus," whose dam was of the old 

 Suffolk dun milking blood, yielded, after dropping her third 

 and last calf, in May 1890, during a period of nine years and 

 four months of continuous profit, 50,427 Ibs. of milk with 

 during the last five years a percentage of 4-3 of butter-fat. 



Some cows have a nervous habit of holding up their milk 

 for one or two milkings if moved to strange surroundings, as 

 when taken to milking competitions at shows, the per- 

 centage of butter-fat as well as the yield of milk being 

 altered. The Red Polled breed suffers acutely in this way. 

 At the dairy show in 1898 the cow which gained the breed 

 silver medal for butter-yield, showed the abnormal difference 

 in percentage of butter-fat between 2-26 in the morning and 

 4-26 in the evening meals. Another winner "gave 17-5 Ibs. 

 at the first morning trial, 25-5 Ibs. at the second; 27-4 Ibs. at 

 the first evening trial, 24-7 Ibs. at the second ; and while the 

 morning's fat was only 2.54 per cent., the evening's was 4-45." 



