CHARACTERISTICS OF AYRSHIRE CATTLE.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 39, 8 April 1875, Page 3

CHARACTERISTICS OF AYRSHIRE CATTLE.

The leading cattle breeders of Britain have of late years for the most part aimed to establish in their stock some particular property in a high degree — beef or milk, according to circumstances, being the leading object. Hence it has occurred that British cattle have latterly been classed under heads of "beef breeds" and " milk breeds." Prominent among the latter is the Ayrshire breed, which originated in the county of Ayr, Scotland, and within the last fifty years has been disseminated over every part of that country where dairying has been practised. The breed has also been established in the north of Ireland, forming in several counties the leading stock. A great number of cows are annually taken into various districts of England, while in several counties of Continental Europe the breed has been introduced, and is propagated with care. It has also been introduced into the United States, and the British Provinces of North America, and at the present time is probably more extensively kept as a dairy breed than any other in the world. " Importations," says Mr Sanford Howard, Secretary to the Board of Agriculture, U.S., "of Ayrshire cattle into this country were made upwards of twenty years ago, but the animals were neither numerous nor generally in the hands of persons who took much pains to increase them. It was not, therefore, until a comparitively late day that the AyrsMres were much known here, or that specimens were sufficiently numerous to indicate the permanent establishment of the breed in this country." A few remarks in regard to the origin of this valuable breed of cattle, in connection with their comparative value for dairy purposes, may not be out of place. It is evident that the modern Ayrshire breed presents a wide contrast to that which occupied the west coast of Scotland many years ago. Aiton, in his " Dairy Husbandry," speaks of the cattle which occupied Ayrshire fifty years before the time when he wrote, in 1806, as follows : — "The cows kept in the districts of Kyle and Cunningham were of a diminutive size, ill fed, ill shaped, and yielded but a scanty return of milk. They were mostly of a black color; their horns were high and crooked ; their hair coarse and open, and few of them yielded more than six or eight wine quarts of milk a day." A comparison of these points with those pre-. sented by the present breed of Ayrshire cattle, renders probable the conclusion of Youatt, that the present stock could not have arisen entirely from the old. It follows, therefore, that the modern breed, like various other valuable breeds of domestic animals, originated in crossing. The question as to the breeds from which it was derived will be briefly considered. Various accounts represent the Earl of Marchmont, some time between 1724 and l?40, introducing to his estates in Berwickshire some cattle conjectured (their history was not properly known) to be of the Holderness or Teeswater breed, and that not long afterwards some of the stock was carried to estates belonging 1 to the same nobleman in that part of Ayrshire called Kyle. But it is not improbable that the chief nucleus of the improved breed was the " Dunlop stock," so called, which appears to have been possessed by a distinguished family of the name of Dunlop, in the Cunningham district of Ayrshire, as early as 1780. This stock was derived in part at least from animals imported from Holland. It is stated by Youatfc, that the poet Burns, when he occupied a farm near the city of Dumfries, not content with the Galloway breed, introduced some of the west country cows, which he thought would produce more milk. In the poet's published corresponce, allusion is made, in a letter dated November 13] 1788, to a heifer which had been presented to him by the proprietor of Dunlop House, as the " finest quey in Ayrshire." Mrs Dunlop, it will be recollected, was a special friend of the poet. Colonel Le Conteur, in a paper on the Jersey or Alderney cow, published in the " Journal of tbe Royal Agricultural Society of England," refers to a statement by Quayle, that the Ayrshire was a cross of the 1 Shorthorn and Alderney, and adds himself,. " that there is considerable affinity between; the > two breeds." Rawlin also says, in reference to the Ayrshire breed : "It is said to be a mixture by bulls brought from the Island of Alderney with their own, or the old race ef cows. Martin says : i "At some period or other, there has 1 been a cross with the Durham or ffolderriessi and, perhaps; also with the Alderney." Professor : Lp^v' in his < ( Illustrations of BiitisL Quadrupeds," says: *- Etam/all the.evidpnc.fi of wMcb, in tie: absence of authentic! docfttoients, the case- admjtsy. the, dairy, breed, of. AvTsiiire cows owes tlie cn^act^nsti'cs which distinguish them-froraJthe^oldfar-race to-ao»aixtu?er qs~si& blood of the races of th# .Continent-, and of the dairy i breeds- o£ *She following ! points, giy^li sJ the Ayrshire Agricultural Sop&ty "In 1855, "as indicating i superior quality," will give an idea ot !tUe° Standard of Ayrshire cattle, aa

recognised by the leading breeders: "Head short; forehead wide; nose fine, between the 1 muzzle and the eyes; eyes full and lively ; horns widely set on, IncEnfng upwards, and curving 1 slightly inwards ; neck long, and straight from- the head to the top of the shoulders; back short and staight; short ribs, arched; the body deep at the flanks; the milk' yeins well developed; pelvis long, broad, and straight ; hook-bones wide 1 apart ; thighs deep and broad ; tail long and slender, and set on a level with the back ; milk vessel (udder) capacious, and extending well forward ; hinder part broad and firmly attached to the body ; the under line level ; the teats from 2 to 2|- inches in length, equal in thickness, and hanging perpendicularly ; their distance apart at the sides should be equal" to about one-third the length of the vessel, and across to about one-half the breadth ; the colors preferred are brown, or brown and white; weight of the animal when fattened, about 40 imperial stone (about 5601b.) sinking offal." As to the annual returns of Ayrshire cows In dairy produce, Professor Low says : "Healthy cows in good pasture give from 800 to 900 gallons of milk in a year." Aiton says, 600 gallons may be deemed about an average ;" and the author of '•' British Husbandy'' says,- in reference to this yield, "If equalled, we believe it will not be excelled by any other breed in the kingdom." Martin says : "■ The milk of a good Ayrshire cow will afford' 2501b of butter, or 5001b of cheese, annually." Haxton cites many statistics, from which it appears that, in one dairy of thirty cows, the average annual yield of milk was 652 gallons; that 9^ quarts afforded a pound of butter, amounting to an aggregate of 274 pounds in a year. In the competition at Ayr in 1861, for a prize offered by the Duke of Athol, the average weight of milk per day, for two days, from six cows, was about fifty pounds, the cows being milked twice a day. On this occasion, the Duke of Athol stated that the cow (then in his possession) which received the first-prize of the previous year, had given an average of upwards of twelve quarts of milk per day for a year, actual measurement having shown a product of I.llo^ gallons in something less than twelve months. The imported cow, Jane Armour, says Mr Howard, the American Secretary, already quoted, owned by H. H. Peters, of Southboro', Massachusetts, in 1862, gave an average of 491b of milk a day, for 114 days, commencing June Ist; and for the month of July her average was 51b 13ozperday; her milk for three days in July yielded 61b of butter. Her live weight at the close of the trial was 9601b. It will be observed, from the remarks already made, that the dairy is the leading object with the breeders of the Ayrshire cattle ; but there is" a large amount of ignorance displayed throughout these colonies' with regard to the fattening qualities of Ayrshire cattle. Aiton, in speaking of what the Ayrshire cow will do, says, "she yields much milk, and that of an oily, or butyraceous, or caseous nature, and after she has yielded very large quantities of milk for several years, she shall b3 as valuable for beef as any other cows known ; her fat shall be much more mixed tb rough the flesh, and she shall fatten faster than any other." Whatever may be said in regard to the extent of these claims, it will be admitted that they indicate the confidence which was long ago placed in the breed, in regard to the properties mentioned. Ypuatt, who wrote 25 years after Aiton, says: — "The breed has been much improved since Aiton described it." It is upwards of forty years since Mr Youatt made this remark, and in this time the breed has still further improved ; and having had long experience in their use, I am convinced they have the blood of the Shorthorn, and they are coming to that again as they improve.