Buying a cow is an expensive undertaking, but at the same time, these costs must pay off in the future, for example, in milk yield, sale of calves, etc. In order not to make a mistake and not buy aged cow, you need to know how by appearance to know cow age and roughly calculate how many more years it will be able to generate profit after purchase.

When buying a cow, the owner must take a close look at its general condition and well-being. She should not be too phlegmatic, but at the same time her behavior should be adequate. The skin must be clean, without damage, scabs and bald spots must be absent. The hooves should be free of cracks and the sides should not be sunken.

It is worth checking with the seller what he can tell you about the contents of the cow and its fellow tribesmen. Specifically, 2 main signs indicate what the actual age of a cow is - horns And teeth.

Method for determining the age of a cow by teeth

It is important to know that the determination method age of cow by teeth only works until the age of 10. After this milestone, it becomes difficult to say anything specific, since all the teeth by this time are in different degrees of wear.

Every farmer, and even a simple peasant, should know the answer to the question of how to determine the age of a cow by its teeth. Otherwise, having bought a well-fed, well-groomed cow, you can find out after a while that it has practically zero milk yield. And this just depends on what actual age of the cow, and the older she is, the less milk yield will be.

Studying cow teeth must be carried out as follows. First, all the jaws are examined as a whole, and it is checked whether the baby teeth have been replaced by molars. It is quite simple to distinguish them visually: a cow’s milk teeth are narrow and thin, and after the change, the molars, on the contrary, are wide and long.

Baby teeth change to molars in this order: first incisors (1.2-1.6 years), then middle internal (1.5-2.2 years), middle external (2-2.1 years), edges (2.5 -3.4 years). Naturally, it should be understood that these terms are quite approximate, since in each individual case everything will depend on the cow’s diet and living conditions. But anyway procedure for replacing teeth will remain unchanged, and the edges cannot change before the incisors.

You should also pay attention to the appearance of the condition of the enamel of the molars. Somewhere around the time a cow reaches 5 years of age, the teeth gradually begin to flatten and wear down. After the 10-year mark, the edges become more and more rounded and smooth, and may even fall out, especially if the cow is not fed very suitable food.

If barn cow, That rings on her horns will not be. And those growths that can be mistakenly considered to be horny rings are simply indicators of what kind of food the cow ate and whether she received the proper vitamins and minerals. The more uneven the surface of the horns, the worse the conditions in which it was located.

If you can't take a closer look teeth purchased animal, don't despair. Knowing how determine the age of a cow by its horns, a potential buyer will not need a thorough study of the structure of a cow’s teeth; it will be enough to just take a closer look at its head.

Method for determining the age of a cow by horns

After each calving, a so-called horn ring appears on the cow’s horns.. If you know the age at which the cow calved for the first time, then you just need to add the number of rings to it. But it is worth considering that the cow’s diet during this period can have a strong influence on the degree of visibility of the ring - it can be either distinct or barely visible.

Horn rings are considered a consequence of internal restructuring of the body under the influence of pregnancy, and if the animals had adequate nutrition during this period, then in this case the rings are barely noticeable on the horn, and vice versa, if the feeding is insufficient, then the rings are visible very clearly. In idle cows, rings do not appear during this period. First ring can be noticed at the age of 2.5-3.0 years. It follows from this that in order to determine the age of a cow, you need to add her age before the first calving to the number of rings on the horn.

If the buyer does not take the seller's word for it when it comes to the age of the cow, then he will be able to calculate on his own how many months or years the cow is approximately. To do this, you will either need to look into her mouth, examining her teeth, or take a closer look at her horns and count the number of horn rings.

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How many years do cows live?

The physiological life expectancy can be up to 25 years, but in this article we will talk about the duration of the productive period. Cows are kept on farms to generate profit: milk, meat and increase the number of livestock. When the cost of caring for an animal exceeds the benefit received, then the productive period ends. To correctly calculate the expected profit from a livestock, you need to understand how long they live and how to correctly determine the age of a cow.

The quality of life of the animal determines its duration and economic indicators of the farm, so farmers are interested in ensuring proper living conditions. Life expectancy is affected by:

• food - pastures with lush and nutritious grass in the summer, complete feed in the winter;
• care and maintenance - warm barn, daily cleaning of the stall, cleanliness of the body, regular examinations by a veterinarian, vaccination;

Important! A careful and caring attitude has a positive effect on the amount of milk and the duration of the productive period of the animal as a whole.

• heredity - absence of congenital diseases;
• breed characteristics;

• epidemiological situation in the region;
• climatic features of the region.

The lifespan of meat breeds is only 2 years. After bulls reach the age of 15-18 months, daily weight gain decreases, and feed costs remain the same, so keeping meat breeds longer than two years of age is not economically profitable.

The dairy period of a cow begins at 2-3 years of age, after the first calving, and lasts 12-14 years. During her life, a cow calves up to 12 times. Until 5-6 calvings, milk yield is consistently high, but after 8 births the amount of milk decreases. Upon reaching 15 years of age, milk yield decreases and the reproductive function fades away.

In industrial livestock farming, the life expectancy of a cow is 7-8 years, in farm conditions - 10-12, in households - 15-20 years. At the end of the dairy and calving period, the cow is transferred to fattening and then sold for meat.

How to determine the age of a cow?

When purchasing an adult animal, they try to correctly determine its age. A clear indicator of the years lived is the teeth, their thickness and the condition of the enamel.

Important! If you decide to purchase an adult cow, do not rely on theoretical knowledge about determining age. Bring an experienced farmer with you as an expert. This way you can purchase a promising animal and not overpay.

So, the cow's teeth:

• by 3-4 months the edges are leveled out;
• at 4-6 months the first signs of abrasion of the front and sides appear;
• by 9 months, the main teeth are already worn out, the edges show signs of initial abrasion;
• by the age of 1 year, the baby teeth are half erased;
• at 15-18 months they become noticeably unsteady;

• from 1 year 18 months to 4 years, baby teeth are completely replaced with permanent ones;
• at 4-5 years old, signs of wear of permanent teeth appear;
• at 6 years old, up to half worn off;
• at 7 years old the shape resembles rectangles;
• by the age of 10, the enamel is almost all worn out;
• by the age of 13-14, teeth thin out and gaps appear;
• by the age of 15, some incisors are already worn down to the gums;
• at 15-17 the loss begins.

From time immemorial, the horned nurse provided people with essential products: milk, cottage cheese, meat, and was considered the savior of the family. It has been noticed that cows “respond” to human care, affection and gentle handling by increasing their yield of tasty milk.

Determining the age of a cow: video

The main factor that plays a role when choosing a cow is the milk production of the animal. In addition, you should take into account the breed, features of the build and feeding of the individual, as well as age, lactation period, insemination and general level of health.

This article outlines the main criteria to consider when choosing cattle for your household. You will learn which breeds are best to give preference to and how to determine the productivity of an individual by its appearance.

How to choose a cow

To choose a productive dairy cow, you need to take into account many factors: the breed and age of the animal, its exterior features (appearance) and assess the overall health. We will tell you how to choose cattle for homestead farming.

What you need to know about the breed when choosing

To know how to choose a good cow, you should first of all pay attention to its breed. It is important to consider that not all animals have high productivity, since some species are intended only for further slaughter for meat (Figure 1).

Note: The breed plays an important role in the choice. To do this, it is necessary to establish what breed the father and mother belonged to and evaluate their productivity in various areas.

Purebred does not affect milk production. In addition, only that individual whose father, mother and other ancestors belonged to the same breed is considered purebred. All other animals are considered crossbreds. They retain productivity, but the offspring will have fewer characteristics of the breed.

It should also be taken into account that the purebred of the breed is not the only indicator in determining productivity. These animals have individual characteristics that can affect milk production.

Appearance

The best way to determine productivity is to observe other offspring bred from the parents of a particular individual. So, if older sisters on the mother’s side, and especially on the father’s side, have high milk production, the selected animal will also have this quality.

Milk productivity can also be determined by exterior characteristics, which are practically independent of the breed. Figure 2 shows signs that allow you to visually determine how to choose a good cow:

• The body is well developed, has a voluminous peritoneum;
• The bones are strong, but not rough;
• The head is light;
• The legs are straight, the butt is wide and long;
• The skin is thin but dense, the hair is shiny;
• The udder is well developed, cup-shaped, and the milk veins are clearly visible under the skin.

The volume of the peritoneum is important when determining milk production due to the fact that an animal with a voluminous belly will be able to eat more feed (roughage, juicy and concentrated) necessary for milk production.

Milk productivity can be determined by a simple external examination. A good dairy breed, when viewed from the side, has a triangle shape, while meat breeds look like a rectangle.

There are also certain factors in the presence of which an animal is considered vicious and is not suitable for breeding in order to obtain large milk yields:

• Rough bones and heavy head;
• The neck is short and thick, and the withers are forked;
• The back sags or has a hump;
• There is a weak interception behind the shoulder blades;
• The peritoneum is underdeveloped;
• The udder is small, poorly developed, or its quarters are unequal in size;
• Drooping, narrow or short rear;
• General underdevelopment and poor health.

It is important to take into account that milk productivity characteristic of a particular breed is manifested only under conditions of proper maintenance and proper feeding. Physical disabilities can appear due to unbalanced and poor feeding at an early age. As a result, the individual grows up underdeveloped, and it is impossible to use it as a productive animal. Even with proper feeding in the future, the productivity of the individual will not increase, and it will not have the necessary hereditary qualities to breed full-fledged offspring.

Udder of milk cows

Experienced breeders know how to choose a female with high milk yield. To do this, you need to carefully examine her udder. Firstly, it should be large and cup-shaped. Secondly, a good milking female has a clean udder, without bruises or lumps.

Cow age - how to determine it

Often, first-calf heifers and females after the first two calvings have low milk productivity. Its maximum level is reached by the sixth calving. The age of an animal can be determined from documents, but on many homestead farms there is no data on the animal’s date of birth. In this case, the approximate age is determined by the rings on the horns.

The rings look like depressions and are formed due to changes in the nutrition of peripheral tissues during pregnancy. To determine age, you need to count the number of rings on the horns and add the number two, since the first calving in most animals occurs at the age of two. In addition, the age of an animal can be determined by its teeth (Figure 3).

Live weight is also an important factor when choosing. The animal can be weighed on special scales, and if they are not available, measure the girth of the body behind the shoulder blades and the oblique length (from the anterior protrusion of the shoulder to the ischial tuberosity).

Live weight can be determined using a special table in which data on the length of the body and oblique length are entered, and at the intersection there is a figure that corresponds to the live weight of the animal.

Note: It is worth considering that daily milk yield is constantly changing, regardless of the livestock diet.

If data on changes in milk productivity is available, the annual level can be determined from daily milk yield.

Features of feeding dairy and beef cows

To find out how to choose the right animal when purchasing, you need to watch how the animal eats. A healthy individual has a good appetite, regular chewing and a healthy appearance.

In addition, after purchasing, it is better to take some hay or feed from the old farm in order to give it to the animal after transportation. This way, adaptation to new conditions of keeping and feeding will be faster.

How to choose a cash cow

• The dairy individual must be pregnant.
• It is necessary to ensure timely insemination of the heifer (no later than 20 months). Insemination too early (before 18 months) can cause delays in the development of the animal and lead to a decrease in milk production. Late insemination often leads to barrenness.
• Health assessment: examination of the eyes (normal color of the mucous membrane), nose (there should be no purulent discharge), mouth (assessment of the condition of the teeth), coat and skin.
• There should be no ulcers or ulcers on the skin.
• The udder should be clean and free of scratches. When feeling the udder there should be no hard or inflamed areas on the glands.

An important indicator in determining the health of an animal is its appetite. If it is not eating well, has purulent discharge from the nose, mouth or udder, and is missing chewing gum, its health is poor. You will learn how to choose a milking animal by breed from the video review.

Determining the age of cattle is a skill that may be needed when assessing the quality of an animal. If there are no documents indicating the exact age, you can determine how old the animal is by external signs. The most common methods used to calculate age are the appearance of the horns (when present) and the condition of the cattle's teeth. Let's tell you in more detail how to calculate how old a heifer is, focusing on the condition and number of teeth.

Calf Age Estimation

Heifers normally have 32 teeth. They are divided as follows:

• On the lower jaw: 8 incisors and 8 molars. To determine age, you first need to look at the condition of the incisors.
• The incisors are divided into four types: the front pair are the hooks, on the sides of the hooks are the inner middle ones, then the outer middle ones and the outermost incisors are called the edges.
• The upper jaw contains only molars, no incisors.

Cattle do not have tusks because they are herbivores. Milk teeth erupt first and then are replaced by molars.

To determine the age of the calf, it is necessary to evaluate the condition of the incisors. Newborn calves may not have them at all or, if they erupted before birth, only one, two or three pairs of incisors are present. If after birth the calf does not yet have incisors, then they should erupt in 2–4 days. The edges usually appear by 7-8 days, so if a calf has them, then the animal is more than a week old.

Age can also be assessed by the wear of the incisor cups. Immediately after eruption they will slightly overlap each other. If the cups of the toes are worn out and do not overlap each other, then the calf is about one and a half months old. The worn second pair of incisors indicates an age of 2 months, and the worn cups of the edges indicate an age of 3 months. A one year old calf will have some noticeable space between the incisors, but a 17 month old calf will have all of the incisors sitting loosely. Sometimes by this age you can even notice the roots of the teeth.

The primary incisors begin to replace molars by the end of the calf's second year. You can distinguish a molar tooth from a baby tooth by a larger and more massive crown, the shape of which is similar to a quadrangular prism. The folding on the surface of the crown is longitudinal. By the age of 21 months, the hooks change, by two to two and a half years the second pair of incisors changes, by three and a half - the third. Complete replacement of baby teeth with molars occurs at the age of four years.

Determining the age of adult animals

After changing teeth to molars, the number of years the heifer has lived is determined by the degree of wear of the molars. In five-year-old bulls and heifers, the molar cups touch. By the age of six, the cups of the two front pairs of incisors wear down, and thin stripes appear on them at the point of wear. By the age of seven or eight, the stripes expand and the incisors take on a quadrangular shape.

In a ten-year-old animal, only the edges do not have a quadrangular shape; abrasion stripes are noticeable on all the incisors. By the age of 12, the shape of the teeth approaches rounded, and empty spaces can be seen between them. By the age of thirteen to fifteen years, the enamel of the teeth is worn away very much, only the roots remain from the teeth, their shape resembles a triangle. It is no longer advisable to keep cattle of this age, since special feed will be needed, and it is expensive.

Thus, if you know the characteristic signs of wear on the teeth of cattle, you can determine the age of the cattle with an accuracy of two to three months, simply by examining the condition of the incisors. This skill will be very useful to a livestock breeder.

Determining age by horns

Much more accurately than in the previously described methods, it is possible to determine the age of young animals and cows by their horns. This is a relatively simple and accurate method, but its effectiveness is limited because some breeds (and some animals) are hornless. In addition, horns are quite often damaged and cracked.

A newborn calf already has horny tubercles. Somewhere from 14-16 days of age, in the places where future horns are formed, some thickening of the skin can be detected, and from the 30-35th day, hair falls out, the skin becomes quite hard, the formation of the horny core occurs, which ends at 2 months of age . By the end of the second month of a calf’s life, the horns grow by 1 cm. In the period from 2 to 17-20 months of age, the horns grow almost evenly, increasing by approximately 1 cm per month. Therefore, if we measure the length of the horn along the outer, large curvature from its base to the tip and add one to the resulting value (in centimeters), we will get the age of the young in months.

After 20 months Horn growth slows down and amounts to about 2.5 mm per month. Therefore, it is quite difficult to determine the age of young animals older than 20 months by their horns.

Under conditions of insufficient feeding, the age of a dairy cow can be determined by the number of rings on the horns. Horny rings appear in cows during the second half of pregnancy, when the nutrients supplied with feed are primarily used for fetal growth, and the horns, as an organ that performs a minor function in the body, receive almost none of them. In this regard, the growth of the horns is significantly impaired, as a result of which annular depressions appear on them. If the cows are well fed during pregnancy, the rings are little noticeable or almost not formed. The first ring appears on the cow's horns when she first calves. Therefore, to determine the age of a cow, it is necessary to add 1.5-2 years to the number of rings (the age of first insemination). Thus, the number of horn rings is equal to the number of calvings in a cow. In cows from the first to the seventh calving, the horns grow quite evenly (2.5 mm per month). So, if a cow calves annually, then the width of her horn rings from the first to the seventh calving will be almost the same. Starting from the eighth calving, the ends of the horns become thin, the rings on them are formed at smaller intervals, and at an even older age they are almost impossible to count.

It should be noted that during the barren period, the distance between the horny rings increases slightly (almost 2 times) and therefore, to determine the age of such animals with the number of rings, another unit is added. If the animal is aborted in the first 3-4 months. pregnancy, then the horny ring is almost not formed; if later, it will be smaller in size.

In conditions of very poor feeding, especially in winter, “fake” (side) horn rings can form, which can sometimes be quite difficult to distinguish from real age rings.

Determining the age of livestock based on changes in the dental system

Of all the auxiliary methods, this is the most objective and accurate. Thus, from 2 to 5-6 years, the age of animals can be determined with an accuracy of 0.5-1 year, and of older animals - with an accuracy of 1-2 years. But it should be remembered that the rate of change in the signs of the dental system, by which age is determined, depends on a number of factors: individual characteristics, level and type of feeding, living conditions, precocity of the animal and its physiological state. Thus, the change from milk toes to permanent ones in animals of early maturing breeds occurs 3-4 months earlier than in mid-maturing breeds. Replacement of edges in late-ripening breeds occurs at 40-45 months of age, and in early-ripening breeds - at 29-31 months. In addition, feeding coarse feed or mixed with sand and soil at an early age or grazing on pastures leads to slightly faster wear of the dental surface. Disturbances in mineral feeding and rickets lead to the same consequences. So, when determining the age of livestock due to changes in the dental system, it is necessary to take into account the influence of these factors.

In cattle, there are incisors (incisivi), anterior (false) molars (praemolares), and posterior (true) molars (molares). All of them, with the exception of the posterior molars, change: before replacement they are called deciduous, and after replacement they are called permanent. Cattle have 20 primary and 32 permanent teeth. The dental formula of cattle is as follows:

In cattle, the incisors are located only on the lower jaw, four on each side: the hooks, next to them are the internal middle ones, then the external middle ones, and finally on the edge - the edges. On the upper jaw, instead of incisors, there is a well-developed thick plate of keratinized epithelium.

It should be noted that in practice, when determining age, changes in the dental system most often pay attention to the incisors. Only in some cases, for the purpose of clarification, changes in the molars are taken into account.

Determining the age of cattle based on changes in the dental system is based on the following indicators: eruption of primary incisors; abrasion of the surface of primary incisors; replacement of primary incisors with permanent ones and their alignment; abrasion of the dental surface of permanent incisors; changes in surface shape and size of permanent incisors. The appearance and loss of primary and permanent molars can also be taken into account.

Typical changes in the dental system of cattle occur during the following age periods (Table 2, Fig. 4).

Changes in the dentition of cattle

Rice. 4. Changes in the incisors, which can be used to determine the age of livestock:

A - 4-5 months; B - 6-9 months; C - 19-22 months; B 22-24 months; E - 32 months; B - 33 months; B - 3840 months; N - 50-54 months; K - 57 months; b - 5.5 years; M - 6.5 years; N - 7 years; B - 8 years; R - 9 years; I am 11 years old; B - 12 years old; T - 14-15 years old

Dental examinations, especially in adult livestock, are somewhat complex, so safety precautions must be followed when performing this job. It is necessary for two people to examine the teeth, one fixes the animal, and the second at this time lowers the animal’s lower lip with his left hand and inserts several fingers of his right hand into the oral cavity, opens it and examines the teeth.

Average timing of changes in cattle incisors

Note: write the beginning in the numerator, and the end of the process in the denominator.

2. In your workbook, write down and decipher the dental formula of animals with milk and permanent teeth.

3. Record in Table 3 and study the average timing of eruption, changes, alignment and wear of incisors in cattle.

4. On a training farm, acquire practical skills in determining the age of 4-5 cows and 4-5 heads of young animals in various ways. Record the results in Table 4 and provide a written analysis.