 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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 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 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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 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 and tender, fine-textured meat |
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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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 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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| 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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| Scrotal
Conformation |
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After 30 years of observation with 25 years
of semen collection and evaluations I have come to the conclusion that
over 90% of open cows is the result of the low fertility status of the
bulls used on the cow herds today. There are a few bulls that do not
leave open cows in the herd and accomplish that fact the length of
their life.
James Drayson collected information while
operating his bull collecting facility for 30 years and before the end
of his life compiled his research and findings in a book entitled Herd
Bull Fertility. Drayson found that the size, shape (conformation)
starting as early as 7-8 months of age has more impact on bulls ability
to impregnate cows that any other impacts. Almost every producer culls
open cows, almost no producer culls a bull because of open cows no does
any breeder I know (short of two breeders) work on herd bull fertility.
Without a herd of cows that have the ability to produce fertile herd
sires and using a bull with the highest amount of motel sperm
cells (1 billion 500 million at 14 months) reproduction will continue
to stay at the national level of 70%.
I will attempt to express the problems and
some solutions with the following pictures of testicles and
conformations in the following examples
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 Sketch of a perfectly shaped scrotal |
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This is a perfect set of testicles in conformation and
structure and testosterone production. The testicles will assimilate
the near perfect genetic makeup of the mail. These testicles provide
2-3 billion sperm cells per mil of seminal fluid. This bull is very
masculine (large crest, wide shoulders and maintains himself when
working hard). This bull will easily impregnate 80% of the cows he
services in the first 21 days of the breeding season.
 Perrfectly shaped testicles |
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 These testicles have no neck and the testicles are long and
cylinder shaped. The shape is supposed to represent a football with
slightly more taper at top than bottom. This bull and any bull that has
testicles shaped different than the perfect will only settle on a
regular bases approximately 50-60% of the cows he services in the first
21 days of the breeding season and will leave a few of the best cows
open that the fertile bull would settle.
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 Notice the nipples on the neck
of the scrotum. Results from this kind of nipple setting will
cause the daughters to have tilted udders. Tilted udders don't
produce the volume of milk a well formed flat udder will.
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 Note the epididymis on the left
side is on the outside bottom. The testicle is turned half around in
the scrotal sack. Note the division (the V shape ) between the inside
bottom and also the crease or dividing line between the testicles
from the bottom up to the top.This V and division will cause the
daughters udders to be segmented, funnel shaped, lower
production and the division between the back of the testicles causes a
week restraining ligament or the udder will sag and brake down.
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 Note the deep division between the
testicles in the back. the left testicle overlaps the right on bottom,
his daughters will have sloppy udders. These
misshapen testicle or any other type of misshapen
or deformity will always have low sperm production, low
testosterone production therefore fertility suffers.
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This picture represent a perfect udder and a son with a
perfect scrotal at 8 months of age, his sire (Lodge) possessed a
near perfect
scrotal. The cow possessing this udder produces high butterfat
milk (enough energy and protein for proper
development) and her body also is near phenotypically
perfect. I have selected for this kind of udder and testicles from the
beginning. This young bull will be an optimal breeding bull and will
also recreate himself because of his genetic density of all
desirable traits.
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