A Reflection on Change

In the days leading up to Christmas an American friend forwarded a very neat and old booklet to us. The booklet was published by the then American Jersey Cattle Club. Back in the day, the AJCC was head-quartered in New York City. When this booklet was published the AJCC offices were on West 23rd street in Manhattan.
The booklet represented a celebration of the Excellent Jersey cow. In fonts in heavy use in the era the proclamation on the cover read: " A Jersey "Excellent" is the Living Model of the Cow Beautiful."
The subtitle for the booklet was: Jerseys on Parade.

All photos in the booklet carried the stamp of famed cattle photographers Strohmeyer and Carpenter.

The booklet was created over half a century ago. Included in the contents are photos of 50 Excellent cows and four Excellent proven sires. Production credits are listed for each cow.

And what stands out in the booklet when viewed with 2010 eyes?
The following:

-The cows have proportionately more fore udder and less rear udder than today's Jersey.

-In fact, there is a lot less "bloom", fullness and capacity to the rear udders of most of the cows.

-The trait rear teats too far back we sometimes see today is not at all obvious.

-The animals carry considerably more body condition than today's cow.

-Being able to discern the rib cage is rare.

-Necks are generally shorter and thicker than today.

-All cows are horned.

-If one flips through the booklet and looks at photos first then the cows that take your eye because of a longer, leaner neck, some angulation and visibility of ribs, fuller rear udder than average-more of the "today's cow" look are often the heaviest producers.

-Most every cow tests over 5.0% by a good margin and some over 6.0% but with less yield than we're used to in this era.

-Two cows I think most would appreciate today are Bindle Sleeping Souvenir who made over 850 pounds of fat at six years of age (305 day or 365 days??) or over 380 kgs of fat and Zenia's Sparkling Ivy who offered up 16,627 lbs milk, 916 pounds of fat at 5.5% fat.

One of the important parts of going forward is knowing where we've come from and if possible why.

We've come a long way...what is the right way ahead? Cows as sharp as we have today, fuller rear udders? Great questions!

What is an Excellent today? What will an Excellent be in 2015? 2025?



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