DAIRY CATTLE 



431 



and converting it into milk, but do not 

 endure excessive forcing. Guernsey 

 cows average about 1,000 pounds or a 

 little more in weight, and being slightly 

 larger than the Jerseys, may be expected 

 to give more milk than the latter. On 

 the farm a good Guernsey may be ex- 

 pected to produce 5,000 pounds of milk, 

 or 300 pounds of butter, without high 

 feeding. In one case a herd of 104 cows 

 averaged 318 pounds of butter each a 

 year. Recently a Guernsey cow in Wis- 

 consin made a new world's butter rec- 

 ord of 1,000 pounds in the year, under 

 a carefully supervised test. 



Ayrshire — This breed of dairy cows 

 originated in the county of Ayrshire, in 



York in 1822, and began to be imported 

 in considerable numbers about the mid- 

 dle of the nineteenth century. With the 

 exception of the Kerry cow, no other 

 breed of dairy cattle can excel the Ayr- 

 shire in obtaining a subsistence and 

 thriving well on scant pasture and upon 

 the coarsest of forage. "The natural 

 hardihood of constitution renders these 

 cattle admirably adapted to grazing on 

 broken and rugged pastures and in 

 sterner weather than would be conducive 

 to the well being of cows of some other 

 breed " The purpose of breeding in the 

 Ayrshire has been to secure an animal 

 which will give a large milk yield with- 

 out extravagance of feeding, but this 



Fig. 278 — CHAMPION 2-YEAR-OLD GUERNSEY BULL 



the southwestern part of Scotland, and 

 was brought to its present fixed form 

 by careful breeding in that county. This 

 is the most recent of well established 

 dairy breeds. Even the cattle referred 

 to as Ayrshires in 1825 bear little re- 

 semblance to the present breed. The 

 original blood for the production of this 

 breed came from England, Holland and 

 the Channel Islands, the exact methods 

 used in the breeding up of Ayrshires 

 being somewhat in dispute. There ap- 

 pears to be a strong tendency in modern 

 Ayrshires to become lighter in color, 

 many being almost white and showing 

 some relation in this respect to the wild 

 white cattle of the British parks. 



Aryshires were first brought to New 



breed, while showing the greatest econ- 

 omy in the utilization of feed, responds 

 promptly to liberal feeding. 



The Ayrshire cow weighs from 900 to 

 1,100 pounds, and the bull from 1,400 

 to 1,800 pounds. They are short of leg, 

 with small bone and active movement. 

 The general form is good, without any 

 weakness in the forequarters, but with 

 an unusually strong development of the 

 hindquarters. They do not carry any 

 extra flesh during the period of lacta- 

 tion The face is in most cases long 

 and straight, and the horns curve out- 

 ward, then inward and up, with the tips 

 inclined backward. The muzzle is usu- 

 ally black, although white is permissible. 

 The prevailing color is red and white 



