THE DAIRY TYPE 21 



Types of Cows. Fig. 6 is a good illustration of a cow 

 lacking in dairy temperament, although a pure-bred animal of 

 one of the leading dairy breeds. This animal has a good bar- 

 rel, and a splendid digestion, an unusually good heart girth, 

 and good skin and hair. She lacks the stimulation necessary 

 to use her food for producing milk. This is shown by her 

 thick withers, thin covering of flesh over the back, and gen- 

 eral smooth beefy appearance. Fig. % illustrates the other 

 extreme. This cow has the tendency to produce milk so 

 strongly developed that she uses all the food she can eat and 

 digest for this purpose and carries no surplus flesh. Her 

 withers are thin and sharp, her back and pelvic region angular 

 and bony, although she receives a liberal ration. 



A cow should also be expected to carry somewhat more than 

 her normal flesh for a short time after calving, but this beefy 

 appearance should disappear within a month or less. 



Limitations of Selection by Type. The selection of dairy 

 cows by type as indicated is often uncertain. Still the practi- 

 cal breeder or dairyman must select most of his animals in 

 this way. The limitations should be understood. Any one 

 familiar with dairy type will seldom fail to choose between 

 a high-class animal and an inferior one, as, for example, 

 between the cow shown in Fig. 8 and that in Fig. 7. It is 

 usually easy to choose between a cow producing 350 pounds 

 of butter fat in a year and one producing 150 pounds. 

 However, as between the good and the extraordinary cow, 

 type gives little upon which to base selection. 



The author has yet to see a cow of extraordinary dairy 

 quality that does not conform to the descriptions given in 

 the following pages. While in some cases these cows would 

 fail to score high on account of not conforming to the score 



