Organic Farming Technical Bulletin Number 5 ~ Edition 1.

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CROPP Cooperative
Organic Farming Technical Bulletin
Conclusion
Number 5 ~ Edition 1.0
Be aware that observations
of the hair can be very tell-tale
of an animal’s potential.
Most people look at live- Reading the Dr. Paul Dettloff

Bovine Hair Coat

stock without really seeing them. Staff Veterinarian

You can tell a great many There are three external Thymic Swirl –
things about bovines just by swirls of hair that are health This is on both sides of neck,
“reading” their hair coats – of indicators: starts at lower jugular furrow
Healthy, contented, mineralized cows. course you have to know what Pancreatic Swirl – and comes up. The hair is
Note dark line on cow at left side of photo. to look for. The hair coat of a Located ahead of the udder finer and lays forward and up.
healthy bovine can give you in- on the lower body. Works Shows a good healthy
dications of health, production, forward and enlarges with immune system.
components, reproduction and pregnancy. Shows reproduc-
Thank you to Gerald Fry for permission to behavioral traits. Long haired, tive efficiency.
use illustrations from the F. Guenon book, poorly mineralized, deficient
and photos of bulls from James Drayson’s cows will not show much.
book “Herd Bull Fertility”. They are hard to read.
F. Guenon of Germany
spent his life studying the hair
coats of cattle and published
his findings in 1888. It was
reprinted in English in 1913
by Thos J. Hand in New York.
Most of the information in this
CROPP Cooperative Membership bulletin comes from his work.
Services Hotline: 1-888-809-9297
Adrenal swirl –
The advice and techniques presented in this bulletin are provided as an educational service. No guarantees are From the ribs back to the para
implied or given. Always check with your certifier to ensure inputs are permissible under organic standards. lumbar. May be a shade lighter
than surrounding hair. Finer
hair laying forward. Tenderloin
area. Shows that the endocrine
system is working.

One Organic Way • LaFarge, WI 54963

1-888-809-9297 www.org anicvalley.coop/farmer 1
© 2008 CROPP Cooperative
0873005 / PS0142
 CROPP Cooperative
Top Line Cowlick
The top line cowlick is
located from the middle of
the shoulder blades forward.
Animals with a large thorax,
big heart and high lung ca-
pacity have the top of their
shoulder blades at the same
height as the backbone. Legs
should be on the outside wide
stance. Cattle with slab sides
and high backbones have a
small thorax, more respiratory
problems and are weak-lunged
cows. A cowlick that stands
straight up shows a cow with
high estrogen. Virgin heifers
will often have a cowlick that
stands straight up when they
start cycling. If the whole mane
area stands up, the hair is dull
and long and the animal’s a
little unthrifty, you may have a
magnesium deficiency in feed.
Any animal that is 3½ – 4
months pregnant should have
a swirl that lays down since
they have lower estrogen and
2 Butterfly udder swirls can be seen in high milk protein cows. Look for short, silky hair on the udder.
Organic Farming Technical Bulletin
Estrogen levels will show in the cowlick.
Lower left: nice foreward cowlick. Lower right: young heifer showing estrogen from cycling.
higher progesterone from
yellow body-corpus luteum of
the ovaries.
Butterfly Udder Swirls
On the back of the rear
quarters, check for a butterfly
wing on each quarter. This is a
sign of high milk protein. In a
50-cow herd, you will usually
Number 5 ~ Edition 1.0 Reading Hair Coats/Dr.Paul Dettloff
High butterfat
see two to four cows that will
vividly display this and they will
Narrow and wide escutcheons. Milk quality and quantity will be better if the escutcheon is wide.
be very high milk protein cows
consistently. Watch the quality
of the hair on the udder. Long, The Escutcheon Area The hair usually flows up-
coarse hair means the cow will
The escutcheon runs from ward, opposite the other hair.
not be a good milker. Fine,
below the vulva to the top of The area from udder to navel
short, silky hair on the udder
udder. It also runs from the ud- has not been studied. To view
is most desirable. It indicates a
der to the navel. The escutch- the escutcheon, stand behind
good producing cow.
eon goes from the center of and move sideways slightly
the four teats up to the vulva. in good light to see the area.
The width may reach out onto Brushing the hair downward
the back of the thighs going may help show it also.
from the middle of one thigh A newborn is not easy to read.
to the other almost forming a Wait until 6–8 weeks because
shield. Guenon classified the the downy, velvety hair falls
These two escutcheons indicate high milk off, leaving the escutcheon
production and high butterfat. escutcheon into ten groups.
quite naked. At 7½–8 months,
The hair of the escutcheon
even a fetus will show an es-
is shorter, finer, softer and
cutcheon. Check your aborted
silkier and at first glance it
calves to view the escutcheon.
may appear freshly shaven. All
The escutcheon hair is duller
bovines, domestic or wild, are
in color.
marked with a visible escutch-
eon. This is also shown in If you only remember a
males. When selecting a bull, few details about reading hair
use the escutcheon to guide coats, remember these: If the
you. This characteristic is trans- escutcheon is wide, milk qual-
mitted to the offspring. ity and quantity will be higher.
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 CROPP Cooperative Organic Farming Technical Bulletin Number 5 ~ Edition 1.0 Reading Hair Coats/Dr.Paul Dettloff

If the escutcheon is narrow there is a downward interrup- Guenon’s Escutcheon the better. The greater the
or missing, the cow will not tion of the escutcheon area, it Classifications width on the thighs means
give as much milk. If the hair is means less milk and a down- more butterfat. The width up
long and sparse, the milk will grading of the female line of 1st class: Flandrines – to the vulva means a large
be low in protein and butterfat. genetics. When downward Wide escutcheon that is way quantity of milk holding deep
If the hair is short and furry, it feathers appear in this area, it out onto the thighs and cover- into lactation. On these cows,
will be rich milk. If the thigh is not a good sign. Sometimes ing the entire udder. Ascend- check the tail for yellow, flaky
area is wide, way out to the downward feathers of long ing silky hair flowing up with butterfat on the tail end and
middle of the thigh, it will be coarse hair will appear next to a different colored tint. Two yellow secretions in the ear.
high butterfat and a lot of milk. the vulva in the buttocks area feathers of descend- This shows up more on
Butterfat can also be evalu- or escutcheon area. This means ing oval colored breeds than on
Virtually no escutcheon. ated by scratching the skin shorter milk flow and a drop patches on Holsteins.
from the inner thighs to the off after becoming pregnant. the back of
vulva. If it is yellowish and the udder.
you get a little fatty, flaky, oily The finer
substance, you have a high the hair,
butterfat animal.

Long, course udder hair

Narrow, widening at base

Double escutcheons
(above and below left & right)
Butterfat indicators on the ears and tail F. Guenon‘s
study of the
Also, check the skin on the hair coats of
switch of the tail. High but- cattle was
originally pub-
terfat cows will have a yellow
lished in 1888.
flaky dander there. Another It was reprinted
butterfat indicator is the inside in English
of the ear. This sometimes will in 1913. .
be very yellow and almost oily.
I have witnessed this especially
on Jerseys. If the escutcheon is
wide at the vulva and narrow
in the middle take an average.
Don’t judge the escutcheon
a few days before calving, as it
will expand like a flower. Wait
4 5
until after calving. Whenever
 CROPP Cooperative
2nd class:
Left-handed Flandrine –
These appear the same as the
flandrine except the hair runs
up to the
left. Same
principles
apply for
judging
them as
the flan-
drine class.
3rd class: Selvedge –
This group is very similar to
the previous ones, but has
a narrowing of the escutch-
eon as it approaches the
vulva. This characteristic can
get dramati-
cally smaller,
revealing a
poor cow.
4th class: Curve lines –
This group tends to have
a rounding curve on the
top of the escutcheon that
doesn’t reach the vulva.
These can be good milkers
if the bottom part is wide.
They will not hold up
as long in the
lactation.
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Organic Farming Technical Bulletin
5th class: Bicorns –
This group has a bifurcated
escutcheon and the left one is
usually longer (taller). These
are not rare and are seen often
in Brown Swiss. The same
principles apply as with other
classes. The bigger, taller and
wider, the
better.
6th class: Double Selvedge –
The escutcheon is widely split,
all the way down onto the
udder.
Fairly good producers
Poor producer
7th Class: Demijonngs –
Same production principles
apply.
Good one
Poor cow
Number 5 ~ Edition 1.0
8th Class: Square Cows –
The top of the escutcheon
is shaped like a carpenters
square. The same
principles apply.
9th Class:
Limousines
10th class: Carresines
The last two classes
tend to be lower
producing groups.
Reading Hair Coats/Dr.Paul Dettloff
Other indicators to ob-
serve: The vulva should be
larger and void of hair, except
for a few coarse hairs on the
bottom. A large fleshy vulva
means more estrogen and
stronger heats.
Any long, coarse hair on
the udder is not a good sign
for production
A thick-skinned cow is not
a quality milk cow. Cows with
thin, silky skin tend to be better
for dairy. This was noticeable
on cows that someone did a
DA (displaced abomasums)
survey on. Skin thickness varies
very noticeably. When sew-
ing cows up, the skin of some
would be so thick it was hard
to get the needle through the
skin. For others, it was a snap.
The thin skinned cows that
were a breeze to sew on did
a better job. Any incision that
got infected always seemed
to be on a thick-skinned, big
,coarse-haired animal. I must
add that very few got infected,
but a few do become infected
in a barn atmosphere.
For some reason, butterfat
on the tail and in the ear is
negated by feeding alfalfa hay.
The hair is definitely harder
to read in the winter months,
especially with long hair. The
escutcheon area is easier to
read than the pancreatic,
thymic and adrenal swirls. The
best time to read cow hair is
when it is on pasture and the
hair is shed, out in the sun. On
healthy cows, when you look
closely it is often very evident.
The hair is a road map.
 CROPP Cooperative
Bulls
If using herd bulls for clean-
up or full time, they show the
same things in their hair as
cows do, except for pregnancy.
The first place to look at a bull
is his head. On the top of the
poll, the hair should be coarse
and wavy or coarse and curly
and it should lie down, not
stick up. If it sticks straight up,
that means infertility.
Anyone using a bull should
read “Herd Bull Fertility,” by
James Drayson and published
by Acres; and anyone milking
cows should read Charles Wal-
ters and Gerald Fry’s “Repro-
duction and Animal Health,”
also published by Acres.
Fine, straight hair, even if it
isn’t standing up yet (that takes
a few months) is a sign of in-
fertility also. Neck hair should
also be curly and coarse, not
straight and fine. To compare,
go look at a big steer and see
his fine, straight hair.
Above: young bull getting curly poll hair
Below: an older bull showing curly hair
8 note cleavage between testes
Organic Farming Technical Bulletin
Compare the curly neck hair on the young bull in the foreground with the steer behind him.
Checking the scrotum –
A bull should have very fine,
downy hair on the scrotum.
Long, coarse hair on the scro-
tum is not a good sign. The
scrotum should not have an
inverse V on the bottom in the
middle. The bottom should
be rounded. A bull with a big
V will throw a female with a
weak suspensory ligament in
her udder. Check the bottom
of both testes. The epididymis
should be the size of a walnut
and the testes should be even
in size. Always check for teats
Fine, silky hair on scrotum –
near the base of or on the
scrotum. They will not produce
a nice uddered cow. All four
teats should be neatly placed
ahead of the scrotum.
For length and width,
check Drayson’s book to see if
your animal fits into the proper
parameters. The tail is a good
fertility indicator, also. The
hair on the tail from the head
down should be like the poll,
curly and coarse.
Coarse, wavy tail hair – high fertility
Number 5 ~ Edition 1.0
There should be a good
hump on the neck and withers.
This is the testosterone hump.
Look for deep body, well muscled, wide thorax,
strong male head. The yearling above already
looks more masculine than the two-year old bull
below it (in the inset).
Reading Hair Coats/Dr.Paul Dettloff
No or little hump means no or
little testosterone for the bull’s
sex drive.
Periods of infertility displayed in the horns
A bull’s horns can give a life
history. Dairy bulls are usually
dehorned for safety, but some
beef bulls are not. Fertile bulls
will have a red, rosy color on
the basal 2/3 and the rest will
be creamy white before pu-
berty. After about three and a
half years of age, the color will
become an olive green. If inter-
rupted with a white band near
the base, it means the bull went
through a period of infertility.
Fertile bull showing color at base of horns
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 CROPP Cooperative
Proper proportion. Notice the grazing stance – cows always graze this way.
Body Conformation
We lost good body confor-
mation when we locked cows
up and gave up grazing.
Large capacity is always
desired, with legs wide set on
both males and females. The
cow on the horizon should be
two-thirds body and one-third
legs, with a big wide chest,
a big heart and lung capac-
ity. Look for wide shoulders
with the backbone even with
the shoulder blades. The legs
should be wide apart and
short. The cannon bone should
be shaped like an hourglass.
10 Narrow, slab-sided
Organic Farming Technical Bulletin
Typical cow today with long legs, backbone
sticking way above the shoulder blades
and narrow, slab-sided chest. This is a
pneumonia-weak animal waiting to get sick.
Very poor longevity.
Wide shoulders – backbone even with the
shoulder blades.
Wide stance; notice the cannon bone. This
should be like an hour glass.
High backbone, low shoulder blade – should be level.
Number 5 ~ Edition 1.0 Reading Hair Coats/Dr.Paul Dettloff
Healthy animals will show
a dark line on their top line.
This indicates good minerals
and trace minerals.
A dark line on the top line indicates good
minerals and trace minerals.
Pre-breeding heifer. Use the escutcheon in
culling heifers when selling off oversupply.
Photos above and left:
happy lines
Happy Lines
Happy lines appear in the
mid-thoracic area as horizontal
parallel lines in the skin. These
lines on a cow’s sides are as-
sociated with a healthy relaxed
animal on high forage. It shows
up most on grazing cows.
Some herds will run up to
40–50% with happy lines.
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