DAIRY CATTLE AND THE DAIRY FARM 97 



"Some breeders have selected on type alone and thereby have produced animals 

 that to the fanciers, satisfaction fulfil the requirements of the breed score cards 

 as to the finer details of physical conformation but that are not noted for their 

 producing ability. Other breeders relying less on the breed score card and on 

 show ring judgment have, while paying due regard to physical fitness and the 

 breed characteristics, made the actual measured producing ability of the indi- 

 vidual and of its near ancestors the dominating factor in selection and so without 

 sacrificing those characteristics of color and milk quality which indicate purity of 

 blood, have improved the producing abilities of their herds. Thus, in the higher 

 producers of the four principal dairy breeds, has been developed a similarity of 

 type, characterized by good dairy temperament or ability to produce milk, large 

 feeding capacity, strong constitution and capacious milking organs. That con- 

 tinual selection and development for production has evolved a type common to 

 all breeds is convincing evidence that such a type is best adapted for high produc- 

 tion. It follows, that when it is desired to distinguish profitable from unprofitable 

 cows judgment may be based upon a simple standard or score card considering 

 physical requirements which are logically and physiologically related to the 

 organic functions necessary to milk production. These functions are those of 

 the vital organs to furnish pure blood to the body and secretory glands, of the 

 digestive organs to digest large amounts of food and to make available material 

 for use in the body processes and in milk secretion, of the milking organs to secrete 

 large quantities of milk from the blood coming to them, of the generative organs 

 to produce strong offspring and of the nervous system to stimulate and to co- 

 ordinate the activities of all organs and glands in the efficient production of milk. 

 A weakness in any one of these functions weakens the production of the animal. 

 That a judge must weigh the varying degrees of excellence in the combinations 

 of these functions occurring in different animals, explains the impossibility of 

 his accurately estimating, producing ability. 



" There are qualities of form, capacity and material in certain body parts and 

 their combination which indicates their adaption and capacity for milk produc- 

 tion. A standard which considers these combinations of parts directly in their 

 relation to function emphasizes that function and considers the physical parts 

 only as a means in estimating the ability of that function to perform. The user 

 of such a standard thinks and judges in terms of function, and not of parts. 



"The following score card in use at the University of Illinois is made up with 

 the above requirements in mind. After practice in its use, few students fail to 

 distinguish the better of two cows when the difference in their yearly production 

 is 4,000 Ib. of milk or more and many students succeed in selecting the better 

 animal when the difference between the two is only 2,000 in a yearly production 

 of 10,000 Ib. or more." 



The cow of modern herds is not only a splendid example of man's 

 conquest of nature by domestication of wild animals but is a triumph 

 of the breeder's art. The animals have been plastic in his hands and 

 have been moulded to man's needs until they have been developed to 

 such a degree that they may be regarded as highly perfected machines for 

 efficiently producing food. Breeders have developed three types of 

 animals, beef cattle, especially adapted for meat production, dairy cattle, 



