Dairy Cattle 



353 



There are records of 27,000 and 30,000 pounds of milk a year 

 from a single cow, yielding milk of many times her own weight. 

 There are also recorded yields of 1200 pounds of butter-fat in 

 a year, equivalent to about 1500 pounds of butter. With such 

 high production, it is to be expected that the animal requires 

 the best of feed and care, and comfortable, well lighted, sani- 

 tary stables. Great progress has been made in recent years 

 in the care and housing of the dairy cow. 



184. Conformation of dairy cattle. The larger number 

 of dairy cows that secrete large quantities of milk have a dis- 

 tinctive conformation, and animals possessing this are said to 

 be of the dairy type. Two prominent features of this type are 

 spareness of frame 

 and a wedge-shaped 

 body. The spare 

 frame is not due to 

 disease or lack of 

 feed, but, on the con- 

 trary, to the tend- 

 ency of the animals 

 to convert feed into 

 milk and not into 

 body fat. In a cow 

 of good conforma- 

 tion three wedges are 

 present. The first is seen when the animal is viewed from 

 the side, as shown in Fig. 141. The wedge is not formed by 

 lack of chest depth, but by proper chest depth together with 

 extreme depth of the rear of the barrel and largeness of the udder. 

 The second wedge is seen when the cow is viewed from the 

 front. The apex of the wedge is at the withers and the base 

 at the floor of the chest. The third wedge is seen when the 

 animal is viewed from above. The apex is at the withers and 

 the base, from one hip point to the other. An animal having 

 the three-wedge shape has abundant abdominal and chest 



2 A 



FIG. 141. Dairy cow, showing wedge-shape 

 form ; side view. 



