ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



I I I 



convent a great deal of food into milk she is valuable. If she cannot pro- 

 duce much milk she is not valuable. 



I start at the udder; that i& where we get the milk from. Now a cow 

 should have a good udder. Buy a good udder; an udder that is of good 

 size; that extendls' well forward and well up behind. Shouldi have four 

 teats, if well placed' so much the better. There are some good cows with 

 the teats not so squarely placed as some would want them. There are a 

 few points in regard to udder. A good udder should not have a heavy 

 coat of hair on it. Inmost cases the udder heavily coated with hair in- 

 dicates that the udder is fleshy. On the other hand I want to have a thin 

 -coating of hair. 



I have some pictures here. This is a Jersey owned by the Hord farm 

 of Massachusetts, and I saw the same one down here at Springfield at the 

 State Fair this year. She had a very fine udder and I noticed in particu- 

 lar that she had many veins on the outside running over the udder. 

 Plenty of veins on the outside of the udder indicates that the udder is 

 not fleshy. Again, I like to see an uddier having good veining on the out- 

 side. A fleshy udder is one that will milk down. After milking just feel 

 the skin getting loose. Grasp it with your hand and a cordy feeling is a 

 good indication. Leaving the udder, we will remember that is where we 

 get the milk from. 



The milk veins on fhe body. Some cows will have two veins; others 

 will have four or five branching out. The more veins she has, the larger 

 they are and the more crooked, the better. Remember that; want large 

 veins, plenty of them, and crooked. 



The veins do not carry milk to the udder, but return the blood from 

 the udder to the lungs. If large and full they indicate a great deal of 

 Wood passing through, and milk is a producer for blood. These veins will 

 run into the body. Sometimes up to the forelegs; sometimes way up into 

 the body. Where they enter the body you will find udder holes, tender 

 milk wells. The larger they are the better, five or six of them, especially 

 in Holstein cows you will find fiv e or six milk wells in a cow. I claim- 

 this is an essential point in the dairy cow. When yoii get the' udder, get 



