The New International Encyclopædia/Cattle

by Alfred Charles True

CATTLE (OF. catel, from Med. Lat. captale, capitale, goods, property, from Lat. capitalis, important, relating to the head, from caput, head). The term cattle in its broadest significance includes not only horned animals, but horses, sheep, and nearly all kinds of domestic animals. In a more restricted and commonly accepted sense it is applied to the various breeds of meat or bovine animals belonging to the species Bos taurus, including the domestic ox, steer, and cow. Cattle seem to have been almost the first animals domesticated by man in the early period of the world's history, and also the most valuable and necessary to his highest welfare in all ages and stages of civilization since that time. The original wild type from which the various breeds of domestic cattle are descended is not well known. Through ancient sculptures and other records cattle can be traced back at least 4000 years, and the earliest evidences indicate that animals of different types were then known. (See Buffalo.) Variations evidently began at an early period, although no very high degree of development was effected by the ancients. Within the last two centuries especially, much attention has been paid to selecting and breeding cattle adapted to special conditions and purposes, and to developing the beef and milk producing qualities. It is stated that there are now in various parts of the world over one hundred distinct breeds of cattle. The principal and most valuable breeds of America have been derived from Great Britain and other portions of northwestern Europe. They are thought to have had a common origin in the wild cattle which existed in the ancient forests of Europe, of which Julius Cæsar, Pliny, and others wrote nearly two thousand years ago. The wild ox, whatever its origin, seems to have been formerly an inhabitant of many forest districts of Great Britain. The wild Chillingham cattle, which have been preserved for many generations in Chillingham Park, are the nearest representatives of these cattle extant. The most important results of man's agency in improving cattle by breeding, care, and management have been a tendency of the animals to mature at an earlier age, and readily to lay on flesh and fat, and an increase of the milk-production far beyond the needs of the calf, and prolongation of the natural period of milk-flow. At the present time the various recognized breeds of domestic cattle may be classified in a general way as beef cattle and dairy cattle.

Beef Cattle. The principal breeds of beef cattle in Great Britain and the United States are the Shorthorn, Hereford, Galloway, Devon, and Aberdeen-Angus. These breeds all originated in Great Britain, and for the most part took their names from the county or district whence they came. Alvord says: “The cattle which have been most famous as a breed in England and America, which have received the longest and closest attention of breeders and improvers, which have commanded prices, singly and in herds, far above all others, and which have made the greatest impression upon the live stock of both countries during the Nineteenth Century, are the Shorthorns or Durhams.” The name Shorthorns was probably given to distinguish them from the rival race of Blackwell's Longhorns, which they soon surpassed. They are red and white cattle, the colors being variously blended and often roan, rectangular in outline and having horns of moderate length. They are notable for early maturity, beauty of form, quick fattening qualities, and minimum amount of waste in slaughtering. Although unsurpassed as beef cattle, many of the cows are good milkers, the best of any of the strictly beef breeds. The Herefords, originated in the county of Hereford, may be described as red with white on face, chest, belly, feet, and over the tops of the shoulders. They are close rivals or the equals of Shorthorns as beef cattle. They are inferior dairy cattle, many giving scarcely enough milk to raise a calf. The Galloways are jet-black and hornless, strongly built and rather low in stature. They are hardy in constitution and much esteemed for beef, but very poor dairy cattle. The Aberdeen-Angus are also hornless and black, and bear a general resemblance to the Galloways, but are longer legged, larger, and looser built. The cows are better milkers. The Devons are an exceedingly symmetrical, beautiful race, originated in North and South Devonshire. They are of a rich red color, and although the bulls and cows are rather small, the oxen grow to great size. The Devon oxen have long been prized as work animals. In regard to the relative merits of the different beef breeds no general conclusion can be safely stated. It is largely a question of individuality and the conditions to be met. There are good and bad examples of the beef type among all the breeds, and it is more important that the animal should approach the beef type in conformation and development, and be so bred as to fatten readily and slaughter to good advantage, than that he should belong to any particular breed. But as between beef breeds and dairy breeds or natives, there is a distinct advantage in favor of the former, which is due mainly to their marked superiority in yielding a large percentage of dressed weight on slaughtering, more advantageous deposition of the fat in the carcass, thicker and better marbled cuts of beef, and to what experts discern as ‘quality.’ The beef animal has been specifically designed for the most favorable production of the best meat, and while there are many cows which combine milk and beef production to a profitable degree, a good carcass of beef from a steer of a pronounced dairy type or breed is rarely seen. The beef type of animals is rectangular in outline, low, broad, deep, smooth, and even—no wedge-shape or sharp protruding spinal column is wanted for the block. According to Curtis, “Broad, well-covered backs and ribs are absolutely necessary to a good carcass of beef, and no other excellences will compensate for the lack of this essential. It is necessary to both breed and feed for thickness in these parts. And mere thickness and substance here is not all. Animals that are soft and patchy, or hard and rolled on the back, are sure to give defective and objectionable carcasses, even though they are thick, and they also cut up with correspondingly greater waste.” A marked and important change has taken place in the profitable type of cattle within comparatively recent years. The present demand is for quality and finish rather than size. The heavy, inordinately fat or rough and patchy bullock has passed away under the demand for early maturity and plump, sappy carcasses of medium weight and minimum offal and waste. The modern type makes beef at decidedly more profit and economy to both the producer and the butcher, and furnishes the consumer a far superior article.

Dairy Cattle. In no line of improvement of live stock have more remarkable results been attained than in the case of the dairy cow. This improvement has taken place in the earliness of maturity, the length of the milking period, the quantity and richness of the milk produced, and the general economy of production. In the modern dairy cow the tendency to lay on flesh, so highly developed in beef animals, has been largely eliminated, and in its place the ability to convert economically the food eaten into milk has been cultivated in a high degree. Continued breeding to a special purpose has changed the former short milking period, limited almost to the pasture season, to a comparatively even flow of milk during ten or eleven months of every year. A cow that does not average six or seven quarts of milk a day for 300 days in the year, aggregating 4000 pounds, is not considered very profitable. There are many herds having an average yearly production of 5000 pounds per cow, and single animals are numerous which give ten or twelve times their own weight in milk during a year. Quality has been so improved that the milk of many a cow will make as much butter in a week as did that of three or four average cows of the middle of the last century.

The points observed in judging dairy cows are shown in the accompanying illustration, taken from a publication of the United States Department of Agriculture.

DIAGRAM OF COW SHOWING POINTS.

1. Head.	12. Withers.	23. Shoulder.	34. Fore udder.
2. Muzzle.	13. Back.	24. Elbow.	35. Hind udder.
3. Nostril.	14. Loins.	25. Forearm.	36. Teats.
4. Face.	15. Hip bone.	26. Knee.	37. Upper thigh.
5. Eye.	16. Pelvic arch.	27. Ankle.	38. Stifle.
6. Forehead.	17. Rump.	28. Hoof.	39. Twist.
7. Horn.	18. Tail.	29. Heart girth.	40. Leg or gaskin.
8. Ear.	19. Switch.	30. Side or barrel.	41. Hock.
9. Cheek.	20. Chest.	31. Belly.	42. Shank.
10. Throat.	21. Brisket.	32. Flank.	43. Dew claw.
11. Neck.	22. Dewlap.	33. Milk vein.

Different scales of points have been adopted by the various breeders' associations.

The breeds of dairy cattle most common in the United States and England at the present time are Ayrshire, Holstein, Guernsey, Jersey, Red Poll, and Shorthorns. The Ayrshires, named for the county of that name in the southwest of Scotland, are medium-sized cows, short-legged, fine-boned, and very active. The general form is the wedge shape, regarded as typical of cows of dairy excellence, and good specimens are thin when in milk. The prevailing color is red and white, in spots variously proportioned, but not mixed. The cows are large and persistent milkers, but the milk is not particularly rich, and the fat-globules are small, which causes the cream to rise slowly. An average yield of 5500 pounds of milk a year per cow for a working herd is often realized. One noted herd has an average for nineteen years of over 6400 pounds per cow, and individuals produce 10,000 and even 12,000 pounds a year. Butter records are not numerous, but herds average 300 to 400 pounds a year, and there are individual records of as high as 600 pounds.

The Jersey and Guernsey breeds were both originated in the Channel Islands, but in the development of the latter more of the characteristics of the parent stock of Normandy have been retained. They were both formerly called Alderneys. The Guernseys are rather larger than the Jerseys, stronger boned, and are claimed to be hardier. They are light in color, with darker shades approaching brown, and have a yellow skin. The milk of both breeds is unusually rich in fat, the fat-globules being large and separating readily in creaming. The Guernseys are liberal milkers. At home the average cow is expected to produce 5000 pounds of milk and 300 pounds of butter a year without high feeding. In the United States they are usually fed higher, and respond accordingly. There are records of several herds which have averaged over 6000 pounds of milk and 350 pounds of butter a year. Individual cows have produced 10,000, and nearly 13,000 pounds, of milk, and 500 to 700 pounds of butter a year. The Jerseys are the smallest of the better dairy breeds, though in the United States they have been considerably increased in size. The color varies from cream to various shades of fawn, tan, and mouse-color, dark brown and even black. They have beautiful heads, with intelligent faces, and rather small, close horns. The body is well rounded, with capacity for food and breeding, and the udder is of good size, with highly developed milk-veins. They are irregular in outline and thin in flesh. Like the Guernseys, they are not large, but persistent milkers, and their milk is the richest of any breed. For many years they have been bred especially for butter-production, although American breeders have striven with considerable success to increase the milk-yield without diminishing the quality. Good herds produce from 3500 to 4500 pounds of milk a year, and several herd records show averages of 6000 and 7000 pounds per cow. Single cows produce 1000, 1200 pounds of butter, and even more. There are numerous records of 25 to 30 pounds of butter a week, and individual records run all the way from 600 to 800, and even 1000 pounds of butter in a year. Jerseys are heavy feeders, and as a rule will bear high feeding and forcing for long periods unusually well. Brown Bessie, the famous champion butter cow of the Chicago World's Fair dairy test, averaged over 40 pounds of milk a day for five months, and made 3 pounds of butter a day several times. The Holsteins, or Holstein-Friesians, of north Holland and Friesland, are black and white, irregularly marked, but not mixed, large in frame, strong, and usually in good flesh. Their legs are long and rather small, and the udder is often of extraordinary size, in conformity with the reputation of the breed for enormous milk-production. It is not unusual for a cow to give more than her own eight in milk every month for ten or twelve consecutive months, and there are numerous instances of yields of 100 pounds or more a day, and 20,000 to 30,000 pounds a year, although 40 to 60 pounds a day, or 7500 to 8000 pounds a year, is considered an average. But the milk is usually relatively poor in fat as compared with that of other breeds, and does not always come up to the State or municipal standards in this respect. The fat-globules are quite small and the cream does not rise readily on setting. There are some families of Holsteins, however, which give milk of fully average richness and are profitable butter-producers.

SKULL AND TEETH OF THE COW.

Dentition of a young Jersey cow, showing the small incisors and canines crowded in the extremity of the lower jaw (none in the upper jaw), and the great grinders (molars and premolars).

The Red Polls are a comparatively new breed, resembling the Devons, hornless, and inclined to the beef form. They are only fair dairy cattle, being in the class of breeds which aim to serve the dual purpose of milk and beef production. The Shorthorns, described above as beef cattle, although a typical beef breed, are to some extent dual-purpose animals, and some families have been notable for milk-production. In the best milking strains the cows are rather more ‘rangy’ and angular in outline than the beef types, with large, hairy udders. The Shorthorns made a surprisingly good showing in the World's Fair breed test (1893), and records of several herds in the United States show a milking period of 375 days and an average production of 6500 pounds of milk.

DAIRY CATTLE

1. AYRESHIRE COW, “Red Rose” No. 5566.		4. SHORT-HORN COW, “Kitty Clay,” 4th.
2. HOLSTEIN-FRISIAN COW, “Jamaica,” No. 1336.		5. BROWN SWISS COW, “Brienzl,” No. 168.
3. JERSEY COW, Modern type.		6. GUERNSEY BULL, Modern type.

Formerly certain dairy breeds were considered especially adapted to cheese-making, and others to butter-making, and the two qualities were supposed to be to a certain extent incompatible. The agricultural experiment stations have shown, however, that this is not the case, but that the value of milk for cheese-making as well as for butter-making is measured by its fat content. The richness of the milk in fat is to some extent a breed characteristic, although within the breed the variations in this respect are quite wide in the case of different cows. The following averages of a large number of analyses of milk from cows of different breeds are something of an indication of the composition:

Composition of Milk of Different Breeds

BREED	Water	Total solids	Fat	Casein and  albumin	Milk-sugar	Ash
	Per cent.	Per cent.	Per cent.	Per cent.	Per cent.	Per cent.
Ayrshire	86.93	13.07	3.58	3.42	5.43	0.64
Holstein	87.62	12.38	3.46	3.39	4.84	0.74
Guernsey	86.39	14.61	5.12	3.61	5.11	0.75
Jersey	84.60	15.40	5.61	3.91	5.15	0.74
Shorthorn	87.20	12.80	3.47	3.21	5.43	0.69

Attempts to determine by experiment which is the best dairy breed have not been entirely satisfactory or convincing, on account of the huge number of factors which have to be taken into account in determining this, aside from the yield and composition of the milk, such as hardiness, constitution, adaptability to given conditions, feed requirements and economy, ultimate value for beef, etc. The results are chiefly of interest as showing what the different dairy breeds have done under uniform conditions. The experiment stations in Maine, New Jersey, and New York have made the most extensive breed tests of any in the United States, and the results have been compiled by Prof. F. W. Woll as follows:

Comparisons of Breeds of Cows at American Experiment Stations

BREED	Cows  included	Lactation  periods	Average yields per  lactation period		Average  fat content  of milk	Average cost of
			Milk	Butter fat		Food eaten  per day	Producing  100 pounds  of milk	Producing  1 pound of fat
	Number	Number	Pounds	Pounds	Per cent.	Cents	Cents	Cents
Ayrshire	10	20	6,909	248.5	3.60	14.5	78.5	21.5
Devon	3	5	3,984	183.3	4.60	10.3	94.0	20.5
Guernsey	8	10	6,210	322.9	5.20	13.5	82.8	15.8
Holstein-Friesian	9	10	8,215	282.0	3.43	17.2	74.7	21.5
Jersey	9	18	5,579	301.1	5.40	13.9	94.7	17.4
Shorthorn	4	5	8,696	345.4	3.97	14.3	78.7	19.4
Total	43	68	......	......	......	......	......	......

The Chicago World's Fair breed test was the most famous test of its kind ever conducted. Although open to all breeds, only the Guernsey, Jersey, and Shorthorn breeders' associations entered the competition, and they selected the best cows of their respective breeds to be found. The results of the butter and cheese tests with these three breeds are summarized as follows:

World's Fair Breed Tests, 1893

No. 1, Cheese Test, 15 Days, May

COWS IN TEST	Milk  produced	Fat in  milk	Cheese made	Price of cheese  per pound	Cost of  feed	Net gain
	Pounds	Pounds	Pounds	Cents	Dollars	Dollars
25 Jerseys	13.296.4	601.91	1,451.8	13.36	98.14	119.82
25 Guernseys	10,938.6	488.42	1,130.6	11.95	76.25	88.30
25 Shorthorns	12,186.9	436.60	1,077.6	13.00	99.36	81.36

No. 2, 90-day Butter Test, June, July, August

COWS IN TEST	Milk  produced	Fat in  milk	Butter  credited	Proceeds   of butter	Cost of  feed	Net gain
	Pounds	Pounds	Pounds	Dollars	Dollars	Dollars
25 Jerseys	73,488.8	3,516.08	4,274.01	1,747.37	587.50	1,323.81
25 Guernseys	61,781.7	2,784.56	3,360.43	4,355.44	439.14	997.64
24 Shorthorns	66,263.2	2,409.97	2,890.87	1,171.77	501.79	910.12

No. 3, 30-day Butter Test, September

COWS IN TEST	Milk  produced	Fat in  milk	Butter  credited	Proceeds   of butter	Cost of  feed	Net gain
	Pounds	Pounds	Pounds	Dollars	Dollars	Dollars
15 Jerseys	13,921.9	685.81	837.21	385.59	111.24	274.13
15 Guernseys	13,518.4	597.96	724.17	329.77	92.77	237.00
15 Shorthorns	15,618.3	555.43	662.67	303.69	104.55	198.89

The various breeds continue to have their advocates and admirers, and each breed has some points of advantage. The pure bred stock, however, comprise only a very small fraction of the dairy cows of the United States and Canada. The larger part of the cows are grades, i.e. crosses of natives or ordinary cows with pure breeds. Among these are many excellent animals, rivaling the thoroughbreds in amount and economy of milk-production. Much attention is now being given by dairymen to testing the individual cows of their herds, determining which are the most profitable ones, and gradually eliminating the inferior ones. In this way an improvement of the ordinary stock is going on which, in some sections, has already raised the cows to a high degree of excellence and will ultimately result in a much higher standard for good dairy cows.

The following books treat of the history, breeds, and management of cattle: Sanders, The Breeds of Live Stock (Chicago, 1887); G. W. Curtis, Horses, Cattle, Sheep, and Swine (New York, 1893); Wallace, Farm Live Stock of Great Britain (Edinburgh, 1889); Flint, American Farmer (Hartford, Conn., 1884); Alvord, “Breeds of Dairy Cattle,” in United States Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin 106 (Washington, 1898); Coleman, Cattle, Sheep, and Pigs of Great Britain (London, 1887); T. McKenny Hughes, On the More Important Breeds of Cattle Which Have Been Recognized in the British Isles, and Their Relation to Other Archæological and Historical Discoveries (Westminster, 1896); Oskar Knispel, Die Verbreitung der Rinderschläge in Deutschland, nebst Darstellung der öffentlichen Zuchtbestrebungen (Berlin, 1897); Richard Lydekker, Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats of All Lands, Living and Extinct (London, 1898); A. Lydtin and H. Werner, Das deutsche Rind; Beschreibung der in Deuischland heimischen Rinderschläge (Berlin, 1899). See also Feeding Farm Animals; Dairying; Breeds and Breeding; and Plate of Wild Cattle.

WILD CATTLE

1. YAK (Bos grunniens).		4. BANTENG (Bos sondaicus).
2. CHILLINGHAM WHITE BULL.		5. GAUR (Bos gaurus).
3. HEAD OF HIGHLAND BULL.		6. GAYAL (Bos frontalis).