What does a good Lakenvelder look like?
This is one of the main questions dominating within the VLR. Over the years
long discussions and meetings have been spent on this subject.
The real answer to this question is not easily available, certainly not on paper.
I can enumerate point by point what a Lakenvelder should posses to be 'attractive''.
However, even if the animal is blessed with all these features, it is still
debatable whether it is an excellent Lakenvelder or not. A Lakenvelder should
radiate that she or he is a genuine one. It's hard to describe. It's something
you have to see. One can only judge a Lakenvelder correctly if you have seen
many of them.
Having said that, there are a few requirements posed by the pedigree herdbook
which I shall attempt to describe in more detail:
Firstly, the head which should be 'expressive'. Well, there we are,
what is 'expressive'?
Considering the fact a Lakenvelder is a dual-purpose cow , the head should express
this accordingly. Neither a sharp, long heavily veined, typical dairy head,
nor a short beef typical head.
The answer is somewhere in the middle: no clearly visible veins between the
nose and the eyes, a black pigmentated nose, beautiful eye lashes and 'engaging'
eyes. The males should of course have a broader head, to expose their masculinity.
With the females the horns should be fairly light, not those giant protrusions
please. They should be nicely curved with black at the end, indicating hardiness.
The bulls could wear their horns a bit further apart, the ends pointed forward.
Allthough de-horning of Lakenvelders is legal, one prefers to see animals with
horns.
The Lakenvelder's tongue should preferably be coloured. It means it should
be black or grey. In practise, the tongue of black animals is more black than
those of the red version.
The claws (hoofs) have to be coloured as well, a characteristic which
has been developed by Lakenvelders over the centuries.
It has a practical advantage: black hoofs are hard and animals with hard hoofs
are less likely to be disposed of, due to hoof problems. In particular for animals
kept on grids in cubicle-stables this is a great advantage.
Now we get to the colour markings, surely the main characteristic for
the Lakenvelder. They own their name to it.
We can be brief about it. A Lakenvelder is either black or red, with a white
belt over the middle. In Dutch this belt is described as 'laken' (sheet), hence
the name of the breed.
With mature animals this belt should have a minimum width of 25cm and located
between shoulder blade and hip. It is desirable that the belt is well defined
and consistently white.
Additionally, the udder should not be completely white. The hind quarters have
to be either red or black, but the judges do prefer a completely coloured udder.
The breed's character is equally important. A well bred Lakenvelder
is curious and doesn't easily panic.
Generally speaking, it is a quiet breed, not causing any problems for the vet
or inseminator. It should however, be pointed out that the animals character
is to a large extent determined by the 'up-bringing' it has enjoyed.
In addition to the above mentioned characteristics there are also some general characteristics one should take into account when judging a Lakenvelder, more specifically the 'frame', the udder and the legs.
Judging the 'frame' starts by measuring the cow. The ideal height for
a mature Lakenvelder varies between 125 and 135cm.
The forequarter should preferably be broad where the front legs are located.
The reason why one likes to see a broad forequarter is to create sufficient
space for heart and lungs. Some care however has to be applied as a forequarter
which is too broad tends more towards the beef type; a too broad forequarter
can be at the expense of the milk pressure.
Furthermore, the kruis (rump?) must be slightly sloping, the croup
width being broad. This is in particular important for calving. Lakenvelders
are renowned for calving easily and this is one the reasons for making the Lakenvelder
an ideal breed for the hobby farmer. We should try to maintain this characteristic
and therefore, extra attention to this feature should be paid.
A well shaped Lakenvelder should also be 'deep'. The ribs have to be
long and curved slightly backwards. Sufficient length must be available in the
middlehand in order to create some extra space and to resist some hard wearing.
After all, this is the area where the cow's 'engine' is located.
Finally, to end the frame description, the back must be straight and
strong.
The udder has not yet received the attention from the VLR it truly deserves.
It should be attached firmly at the front of the udder and posses some length.
It should not be too deep and one likes to see well placed, straight teats.
The hind udder must be high. Additionally, the udder should not be beefy and
should be well veined. Robust udders can be recognized by the shape after being
milked. The robust udder will be clearly shrunk, whilst the shape of a less
robust udder hardly alters after milking .
What the legs should look like is hard to describe as it is important
how an animal uses its legs. There are, however some points requiring special
attention.
The 'claw diagonal', the angle between the front of the claw and the ground
must be correct. The legs' position seen sideways should neither be straight
nor too bent (crooked). Legs which are too much bent are not very durable, whereas
animals with too straight legs tend to stand on their "bijklauwtjes"
(side claws). Seen from the rear, the legs must be straight. Occasionally, Lakenvelders
suffer from hocks pointing inwards, which of course is not desirable.