Conformation
Conformation is the way the animal is formed (frame) reflecting the genetic makeup of the animal. There are somewhat different conformation standards for the two main types of Devon: beef and dairy. We are dealing with beef and structural correctness is a must for the animal to function properly, utilize grass and possess a high meat to bone ratio or retail product. Structural defects or inferior conformation means the gland system does not function as it should and always results in a loss of retail product.
Travel
The animal must travel with ease just to forage. However, if there is inefficiency in travel, in most cases there are problems in other parts of the frame. Normally they are associated with an irregular shape of the pelvic cavity and therefore forecasts potential calving difficulty. The back feet and legs should have a slight angle forward from hock to foot. The rear foot should come straight up and straight forward and be placed on the ground in the track of the front foot or slightly in front of the front foot track.. The front feet and legs should be wide apart with the legs being straight from the bottom of the shoulder to the foot. No bending inward from bottom of shoulder to knee joint.
Chest, front legs wide apart
The chest must be wide at the bottom of chest where legs exit the muscle mass. The legs should be wide apart. The leg should be straight from lower shoulder to split between toes on both legs. If the feet are splayed out or the inside toe has a hook that rubs against the outside toe either tells you the lower chest area is too narrow. The results will be a little less grass utilization or higher maintenance.
Wide shoulders
In the female, the shoulders should be the same width as the rump length. When the shoulders are the same width as rump length the animal is always a low maintenance animal, meaning she is a high utilizer of the grass she eats, plus she will stay in good body condition in extreme cold or low food intake (dry conditions) and raise a good calf and breed back. The bull must be at least 2 inches wider in the shoulders than rump length to be a productive or agent for changing your herd.
Volume
Volume means the amount of meat she has on her carcass or retail product. Remember we are in the beef business and the more muscle there is on an animal the cheaper she is to keep (because of structural correctness) and the cheaper it is to add muscle. Another form of volume is the spring of ribs and depth of stomach.
Full Loin
The loin is on top of the back from shoulders back to front of rump. The animal is split in half at slaughter so there are two loins or rib eye areas, one on either side of the back. This loin area is the highest dollar value of the carcass. If the loin muscle is small and not full or is irregularly shaped it indicates how much the carcass is worth. A small or irregular shaped loin is reflective of glandular dysfunction and low volume meat. When one part of the body is irregular there is a reason, so other parts of the body are also out of balance. We are in the business of producing food for two reasons: to provide fine food for our neighbor and manage a sustainable operation.
Wide rump
A linear measurement standard calls for the rump to be 40% as wide as the height. The width of the rump is an indication of femininity, calving ease and meat volume. I personally like my cows to be in the 44 to 46% rump width-to- height range. When the rump width is wide there is always a good set of shoulders on the animal. We are looking at balance.
Arm pit & heart girth
When the arm pit area is full of meat (front leg protrudes out of a mass of muscle) the animal is normally structurally correct; the heart girth and loin is full of meat. The heart girth area is reflective of the loin area. Linear measurement calls for the heart girth to be the same circumference as the total length of the animal or greater. One inch of positive heart girth represents 37 pounds of red meat. For instance, if an animal has a 3-inch negative heart girth measurement that indicates a lost of 111 pounds of red meat; a loss of perhaps a thousand dollars for that animal.
Small cannon bone and hide
The cannon bone is the area of front leg from knee joint to top of ankle. The small cannon bone is representative of tender meat. Large bone represents coarse and stringy meat. If the cannon bone is large, the other bones of the body are large. You cannot have large bone and high quality meat. With small cannon bone the animal will have a soft and supple hide. The downward folds in the hide (neck & shoulder area) will be very close together. The softer hide also represents high quality meat. By pinching the hide over the 12 & 13 ribs you should be able to pull the hide 3-4 inches from the ribs.
Tail bone small and dainty
The thinness of the tail bone is another way to visually appraise meat and milk quality of individual animals. The boney part of the tail from the top of the switch up about 8-10 inches will be very small and you can feel the joints, there will be no muscling covering the bones. A large, clubby tail represents a boney structure. With a smaller tail bone, there will almost always be a dandruff looking substance mixed in the next to the bottom 3-4 inches of the tail bone. This dandruff represents a level of butterfat which is reflective of the quality of meat on the carcass. Animals regardless of color that have that dandruff with a high yellow color will have a higher level of quality of meat and butterfat. Those cows are the cows which will produce your best, most trouble-free calves. With high yellow and heavy flakes near the bottom of the tail bone, you will produce gourmet meat. The cows with the least amount of hair on the lower half of their udder will have the highest butterfat. Butterfat is a genetic characteristic we must select for to insure quality.
These are most of the major body areas you can evaluate visually to predict the quality of meat and milk in the animals you have in your pastures. With this score card or some similar form, you can select the animals to build your herd for the future.
We can produce gourmet meat on grass with our Devon. No other breed has the quality to challenge us. Do we take advantage of this situation, or do we do nothing and forfeit our competitive advantage?
Selecting for quality is critical for Devon and for us. Selecting along the guidelines in this score card will pay off: in quality meat and profit.
