 Every
cow has some form of escutcheon mirror. The escutcheon is the
representation of:
Butter-fat production is revealed by the amount of hair on the udder. The cows with a bald to semi bald udder are the highest butterfat producers. |
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 This cow has a good
escutcheon, she has a lot
of long silky hair on the udder. A cow with long silky hair has milk fat depression and is living under poor management. |
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 This cow has a very small escutcheon. she
will be
low in milk production. wont come into full milk production until around 60 days. The absence of the escutcheon extending up to the vulva indicates the cow will fail substantially after the onset of pregnancy. |
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 A very small escutcheon, milk production
is low. Her peak is half of normal production. Her calf will suffer from starvation in early months because of low milk production. |
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 This cow has a small udder
and the escutcheon
stops just above the top of udder. She will not produce milk in abundance. Her calf will suffer from lack of (milk) nutrition. |
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| Selecting
for butter fat / milk fat |
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 This is a beautiful bald udder. This is what we
are
looking for for butterfat production. Her tail is of a high yellow with large dandruff scales.The wax in the ear is a high yellow. The absence of hair on the udder is the no 1 indicator of high milk fat. The more hair on the udder the lower the butterfat. This is also an indicator of tenderness or fine textured meat. |
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 I call this tail butter.
Any animal with high yellow
and flakes on the last 6 inches of tail under the long switch hair is an animal that produces a high milk fat content. This animal will also have 4+% intra-muscular fat. This is also an indicator of tenderness or fine textured meat. |
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 An animal with yellow wax in
the ear is a high milk-fat
producer and also a tender meat indicator. You always find this with the yellow and flakes on the tail. |
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 This cow has a very good escutcheon, comes into
milk
production soon after calving, in 30 days she is in full production and will maintain that production until the owner turn her dry. Notice the two white feathers on either side of the udder. Those feathers represent a high protein level (solids not fat). I know the record of this cow. She is a 4.2% milk fat (note bald udder) and a protein (white feathers) level of 4%. |
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 The escutcheon
stops just above the
top of udder. She
is a high producer and will be producing maximum amount of milk in 30 days. After pregnancy a sharp decline in production begins.. The owner of this cow waits 150 days to re-breed because of that sharp decline. |
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 This cow is a high fat content cow, note the
yellow tint
of the tail switch. Note the hairless (bald udder) udder, she is a 4+% milk fat cow. she is a heavy milker but takes 50-60 days to reach maximum milk production. she will milk well to the drying off period. |
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| Selecting
for Glandular Function |
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 Note the dark hair on the lower neck. this
represents the thymus gland activity.
The thymus gland represents good immune
function. Note the deep sheen/shine of the hair coat. this represents a
very active immune response. These kind of cows do not get sick nor do
their calves. If I look at a cow/bull to purchase this is the very
first thing I look for. If I cant see a large thymus whorl I am not
interested in purchasing the animal. The thymus gland gives the white
blood cells their marching orders. If the hair coat and the thymus
gland are not visible then the animal is susceptible to the stresses
and diseases that plague our industry.
In the dairies that
feed a lot of starchy
supplements the hair is short and maybe a little sheen, however the
thymus and other glands are not very often visible. The sebaceous fluid is not healthy in the grain-fed cows.
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  A cow with a shinny streak the full length of
the top of the
back is an indicator that the gland system is fully active.
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| Selecting
for Fine Textured Gourmet Beef |
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 This cow has a very soft supple skin with short sleek shinny,
silky hair. She has a well developed gland system. Note the
wrinkles in the skin. The softer the hide the closer the wrinkles are.
The closer the wrinkles the softer the hide, the more tender the meat.
The soft supple hide has a level of vascularity (blood flow) which is a
product of health and viability. Normally a cow with this soft a hide
has a high level of milk fat which is highly collated
to intra-muscular fat, tenderness and fine textured meat. If you
take hold of the hide over the 12 & 13th rib and shake you will see
the hide shake over the shoulders and back to the rump area at same
time. This is a very important trite we should select for in all our
cattle. The veterinarian will tell you that a wound on this soft hided
cow will heal twice as fats as the hard hided cow.
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 Note the clean hocks (no fullness in Achilles area) on
this matured animal. This animal will have a tender steak and the
connective tissue will melt away with the cooking process. Selection
with knowledge allows you to have good meat, muscle mass, production
and quality meat all in the same animal.
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 This is the way to hide score the cow. Take
hold of the hide over the 12-13th rib with thumb and fore finger and
see how far the hide will pull out from the rib cage. A very soft hide
will stretch as much as 5-7 inches and when turned loose will go back
in place like a rubber band going back into its relaxed position. The
hard hided cow is extremely hard to pinch and pull away from rib cage.
The cow with hard hide will normally have more flies than the soft
hided cow and a lot of times she will be later shedding the hair. The
cow with soft hide is always more healthy.
A breeder should test his heifers and bulls
at 10-12 months of age for this trait. This is a critical test for
quality and health.
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 Note the cannon bones on these guys. They do
go into an hour glass just under the knee joint. However these guys
cannon bone slowly gets larger as you look down the leg to the top of
ankle. It blends back into the ankle slowly in size and maintains a
slower size increase. These bones are much more dense than the one on
left. Their meat will be much more tender with finer texture of
meat than the large boned animals.
The smaller the cannon bone the more tender
the meat.
The smaller cannon bone will always be a part
of the animal with the soft supple hide.
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 This picture is about tough meat. I will send
a picture of a set of front legs that represent tender meat. Can they
be put side by side.
Not the large knobby knee on this steer. Note
the bone (cannon bone) under the knee joint goes into a hour glass
shape and then as you look down the bone it immediately gets large
again and goes on down to the ankle. We have been told for many years
we need a lot of bone on our animals. The larger the bone the tougher
the meat. Large bone are porous bones and represents long strings
of fibrous meat which is always tough and a hard hide will accomponany
these animals.
We need a small, dense bone for the highest quality of meat. Note the animals cannon bone photo above this one. |
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 This picture represents a calf that the connective tissue is
so heavy that when you eat a bite of steak you will have a large wad of
connective tissue in you mouth you have remove with the hand.
Very undesireable! Connective tissue is supposed to melt away in
the cooking process. The area under the Achilles tendon (area
where the hanging sticks are placed) is supposed to be skin against
skin. Where there is any kind of fullness or puffiness in this area the
connective tissue is heavy and in most cases the meat is tough.
This area is skin against skin for the best
eating experience.
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 A
correctly formed hock. Note how the skin and hide nearly touch,
wrapping around the Achilles tendon. This is a sign of very
little connective tissue. Compare this hock to the photo just
above it.
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