Changes in Cattle

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 211, 20 August 1927, Page 4

Changes in Cattle

Types Ancient and Modern Modern Improvements in Production

By

“Sundowner”

(YVritten for the Tribune. All Kights Keserv-jd.)

JjIROM what original wild stock our various breeds of domesticated cattle originated is hid in the mists of antiquity, but broadly speakinv Jt is generally supposed that the targe breeds are oi Urus origin and the«smaller of Celtic derivation. Whether the originating breed or breeds were polled or horned is also a debated subject, though many authorities contend with reasonable arguments to back their theory, that ■ he original stock were hornless and ueiK-nded on their speed for safety. Later the practice of the males or bulls of fighting for their females developed bony and horny growths on the heads, and through a process of the survival of those best fitted in this direction to secure mates, the horned feature became hereditary Other branches of the family migrating to areas which on account of the sparseness of vegetation, could only support them in limited and widely scattered families, and possiblv where predatory animals were fewer, retained their polled conditions or developed horns as a breed characteristic, carving in length and weight. Certain it is that snorts or throwbacks to the polled condition occur in all the horned breeds, and these show a great disposition to nerpeltate the polled characteristic in their offspring This fact is made use of by breeders in various parts of the world, and we now have polled ptirebreds of such breeds as Herelordg. Shorthorns, etc. From earliest recorded time man has domesti rated various breeds of cattle ami found them so useful as beasts of burden, as well as for their produce in milk, butter, cheese, meat and hides, that many of the ancients legarded the cow as sacred, notablv the Hindoos, the Egyptians, and even the Israelites are recorded as setting up and worshipping as a ->od a golden calf of their own manufacture. From its original home the cattle beast has been transported bv man to almost every part of the clobe. and 1 the world’s cattle stocks are now estimated in round numbers at 500.000,000 head, this total including Asian and African figures, on which no great reliance can be placed. Virgil’s description of a choice heifer for breeding hardly tallies with what we to-dav look for. but we must remember that in his davits flesh and its ability to draw or carry loads were its chief recommendations. He says:— “Best form is Of the stern lookin'* heifer, —hose head is ugly, whose neck is brawnv And whose folds of dewlap'liang from the chin down the legs: Again, no moderation be there in the length of her side; all her parts large; Even her foot and her rough ears under her crankled horns: Nor would she displease me -f

marked with large cnots of white: Or if. refusing the yoke, and some-

times dangerous with her horn; And approaching a bull in aspect, and altogether stately And who as she goes along sweeps her foosteps with the extermity of her tail.”

Varrs. after describing a model beast similar to the above, savs: “Trie strongest have the hide of a black colour; those which come next have it red; the third dun: the fourth white. The cattle of the last being the tenderest; those of he first colour the hardiest; the others intermediate between them.” The ideal cattle of the age as portrayed in Roman and Greek sculpture are much as Vigil describes them .and it is both interesting and instructive to follow up through the years the process of evolution through selective breeding, which has produced the highly productive breeds which we have to-dav.

An English writer who chronicled his opinion only a hundred '-ears ago in regard to the Durham (Shorthorn) and’ Yorkshire breeds as dual purpose animals, savs that: “The dairy farmer is less concerned with high breeding than the grazier: vet he is not by any means indifferent in the matter; for his aim ought to be to obtain a bred no less valuable as milkers than for their disposition to fatten when the milk is dried. These two qualities are not to be attained very easily: vet they may be. and. indeed, have been attained, and especially among the improved Shorthorn breeds, as those of Durham and Yorkshire, or the crossbreds between the old Shropshire and the Holderness, The breeds most valued in the grgat dairies around the metropolis are mixed between the Yorkshire. the Holderness and Durhams For quality and quantity of milk they are eminent; they yield on the average each cow a gallon of milk per day. and often nine quarts, and whey dry they are in general readily fattened for the butcher. Modern dairy farming carried on with such cattle would hardly prove a profitable business but we must remember that even in that day tliere were outstanding dairy beasts which rivalled our own best, and it is within only the last few years, comparatively, that the average production of milk and butter-fat have been raised to a high pitch when herds averagin- 300 or 4001 b of butter-fat per head, with a corresponding large milk supply, have become common. Mr Bakewell, about 1720 to 1760, devoted himself to improving the then popular breed of

longhorn cattle, and though this breed was pre-eminently a beel breed, the success which followed his breeding methods encouraged owners of dairy cattle and dual purpose cows to follow similar lines. In Cheshire, some of the triangular crossbreds selected and bred solely for milk production, produced six gallons of milk per day but onlv for a short time, the average vield being two to two and a-half gallons, each gallon returning a Pound of cheese or three gallons to a pound or outter. Regarding the profit that could be made out of dairying a hundred years ago in England Mr Rudge. in nis “Agricultural View of Gloucestershire,” considers that the profit on a dairy of twenty good cows, costing £2O each (in all £400). fed upon forty acres of land, will amount to about £136 per annum. He calculates the cost of the dairy utensils as under £24. The genera] tendency nowadays is to specialise in the breeding of cattle for one specific purpose. Thus in most dairy breeds the onlv considerations pre strength of constitution and ability to produce an abnormal amount of milk or butter-fat. depending on wether a cheese factory or milk round is being supplied, or whether butter is to be made from the produce. Beef cattle are similarly bred with a comparative neglect of milk production, but the qualities of symmetry, size and early maturity claim the breeder's wholly, attention.

(hie or two other breeds, notably the milking Shorthorn, the Red Polled and the Hoisetein breeds are held bv their supporters to be true dual purpose cattle, - but though a few individual beasts mav warrant this title, in general practice the balance between the widely differing tequirements of the two types is so difficult to keep, that they fail of reaching perfection in eithfer direction. The leading spirits in ’he making of the Shorthorn, which of all breeds most nearly approaches the type of dual purpose beast,, were Thomas Bates and the Booths, who rose to fame about the middle of the last century Bates founded his herd bv the purchase at Darlington market in 1874 of a cow which he named Duchess. This Duchess was described as “a massive, short-legged animal of a beautiful yellow-red flecked colour; her breast was near the ground and her back wide.’’ Mr Bales is generally conceded to have been one of the greatest cattle breeders of his own or anv time. He sought refinement of conformation and milking capacity, combined with fleshing tendencies and resorted to inbreeding to accomplish this purpose. So successful was he that for years after the dispersal of his herd, m 1850, cattle of “Bates” breeding were in demand on both sides of he Atlantic, and many have even come to Australia and New Zealand. At the same time Robert Colling selected a bull called Hubback. distinguished for his fins finish and mel-low-handling quality, and this bull really marked the turning point from the old to the new type or beer Shorthorn. It was with the blood of this bull that the Collings began their successful application of the Bakewell system the issue of a doubly incestuous mating producing the bull Comet, the pride of his time, and the first Shorthorn to sell for £lOOO.

The work of these and other breed founders has been ably carried on in Great Britain, the colonies, and America, and to-day a world’s record for combined milk and butter-fat production in twelve months is held bv the cow Melba loth of Darbalard, 'New South Wales. Australia, with 32,522 pounds 6f milk and 1614 pounds of butter-fat. The record of the little Jersey breed for production within the British Empire is also held in our own New Zealand, where Holly Oak Annie has an official test of 1036 pounds of butter-fat for one season. Such production proves that intelligent breedin - is still raising the standard of Reduction far beyond what our foreuears dreamed possible and h' v much further this improvement can be carried' remains yet to be seen. At the same time the improvement of beef-producing cattle has not been neglected, and baby beef under tw-o years of age is now produced in Britain and America, killing out at 8001 b and over per carcase, a weight not frequently attained some years ago in fattened' three and four-vear bullocks All cattle measuring un Io the modern human idea as to what they ought to be are most assuredly not improved from the standpoint of the animals themselves. Hence the first thing that nature undertakes to do for them, when man withdraws his sunervision. is to begin restoring them to their ancient form. Breeding and selection must be continuous if the improvements gained are to be retained and further improved.