49Whether someone, admiring the prizes of the Olympic palm, breeds horses, or someone breeds bullocks strong for the plough, let him above all choose the bodies of the mothers. 51The best form is that of a fierce-eyed cow, whose head is ugly, whose neck is very large, and whose dewlaps hang from chin to legs; 54then there is no limit to the length of her flank; 54everything is large, even the foot; 55and shaggy ears beneath the crooked horns. 56Nor would one marked with spots of white displease me, or one refusing the yoke and sometimes fierce with her horn, and closer to a bull in face, and tall all over, who as she walks sweeps her footprints with the tip of her tail. The age for enduring Lucina and lawful matings ends before ten years and begins after four; 62the rest of life is neither fit for breeding nor strong for ploughs.
63Meanwhile, while glad youth abounds in the herds, let loose the males; 64be the first to send the cattle to mating, and supply generation after generation by breeding. 66Each best day of life is the first to flee for wretched mortals; 67diseases creep on, and sad old age, and suffering, and the harshness of unrelenting death snatches them away. 69There will always be some whose bodies you would rather change: so always renew them, and, lest you miss them later when they are lost, be beforehand and choose new stock for the herd each year.