udder scores

[badaxemoo]

I've been reading up a little in the archives about cows with udder attachment and teat size issues.

I'm wondering what you think about the udder and teats on this cow.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/i ... e&ei=UTF-8

Does anybody use criteria like this?

http://www.gelbvieh.org/pdf/fsudders.pdf

I've got a couple of 3 year old cows that have much larger teats than others, but their calves don't seem to have any problem nursing and no obvious signs of mastitis.

Of course, they are two of my better looking animals with the exception of the udder.

 

[milkmaid]

I'm wondering what you think about the udder and teats on this cow.

1) I don't care for her foreudder attachment.
2) That left rear quarter is extremely light; perhaps she has/had a case of mastitis in there at some point.
3) Udder floor is very close to going below her hocks, which is not a good thing.
4) From a dairy standpoint I don't like her teats; they would not fit a milking machine well and she would not milk out quickly. However, since she's a beef cow and calves don't care, as long as those teats don't get too large for a calf to nurse the next time she calves, she shouldn't be penalized too much.
5) From the site, she's 13 years old so she's doing well for being that old.

It's hard to compare her with this one, since the Simm is 13 y/o, appears to be dry, and and this swiss/holstein is around 6-7 y/o and calved about 30 days prior, but IMO here's a better foreudder attachment...

Her udder floor is lower than preferable, esp for a beef cow, but yet it is at her hocks and does not drop substantially with each succeeding lactation. I've watched her over several calves and her udder remains stable. Her teats are shorter and narrower than the Simm's. Not only could a calf nurse those teats easily, but she milks out in a jiffy with a milking machine too. ;-)

 

[Northern Rancher]

I usually make a note about a cows udder in my calving book when it's still fresh in my mind-by breeding time when they're sucked down a bit more you can forget some structure problems. Anything that gets a U- beside her at calving gets bred to bulls we don't keep heifers from-the few that get a U+ we'll use a bull we'd like to get replacements from.

 

[badaxemoo]

Thanks for the replies.

The udder on one of my 3 year old cows looks a bit like the 13 year old in the image. She has two large cone-shaped teats, one of normal size, and one medium-large one.

Her two day-old calf is nursing off both front quarters. I hope he moves to the rear ones soon. It seems to be the same size as it was during last year's calving.

I won't save any replacements from her - maybe I'll get lucky and she'll keep having bull calves.