Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Beef Raising in Canada
In order to produce a high-class bullock the breeder must possess a mental ideal of his object and work towards that model. This is as necessary to the cattle breeder as to the builder of any structure. An architect must mentally see the finished build ing before he can draw his plans and order his materials. The wide-awake stockman who attends a series of well conducted judging schools or visits a modern fat stock show of any magnitude and there intelligently studies the forms of the prize winning animals, will have established a mental picture of a superior beef animal. It is for the cattlemen out of reach of such educational institutions as these that the following description is prepared.
In judging an animal one looks first at its general appearance or outline. What is wanted is as nearly as possible a block formation, having commratively straight lines, along the top and bottom and up and down at the back. A short neck, short legs and a good length of body are to be looked for in the model beast. The animal is compact and broad of back from shoulder points to hips, has a wide deep body short and somewhat thick neck, wide deep and full bosom; broad, thick, ?eshy hind quarters and a generally deep wide body. Viewed from the side the top and bottom lines of the body run practically parallel with the back quite level. From front or rear the outline should be rather full and broad. A straight upper line, or level back indicates a uniform covering of ?esh, which' is all important to the butcher while a straight underline denotes a good depth of barrel and chest. The former indicates a good feeder and the later a vigorous constitution and these are both essential. The butcher likes a medium amount of bone leaning to fineness in proportion to the size of the animal. Coarse bone is always objectionable as it indicates a large pro portion of bone to meat, and it is meat that the market wants. Smoothness of con formation, largely determined by fineness of bone, goes with a tendency to lay on flesh smoothly in all parts - especially in the valuable parts of the carcass. An animal must not become baggy, showing lumps and rolls of fat. What is wanted is that the fat and ?esh to be laid on smoothly and thickly, especially on the more valuable parts such as the loin and rib.
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