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    The Illustrated Guide to Cows: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them
    The Illustrated Guide to Cows: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them
    The Illustrated Guide to Cows: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them
    Ebook280 pages1 hour

    The Illustrated Guide to Cows: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them

    By Celia Lewis

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Keeping cattle as a smallholder can be a rewarding enterprise, supplying you with food and milk and helping with the management of grassland on your property. This delightfully illustrated and informative ebook is ideal for anyone interested in keeping a cow or two, who would like to choose the best breed for their circumstances.

    The Illustrated Guide to Cows covers the 60 most familiar breeds of cattle worldwide. Breed profiles are written in engaging text that covers the history of each breed, its main characteristics and how to look after them, and each one has been beautifully illustrated by the author.

    Introductory sections contain practical advice on all elements of rearing calves and keeping cattle, including what to consider about land, housing and fencing, whether to choose beef or dairy cows, tips on buying, moving and handling your stock, and guidance on feeding and breeding.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateDec 18, 2014
    ISBN9781408187067
    The Illustrated Guide to Cows: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them
    Author

    Celia Lewis

    Celia Lewis is an accomplished artist and the author of the bestselling Illustrated Guide to Chickens, Illustrated Guide to Pigs and Illustrated Guide to Ducks and Geese and Other Domestic Fowl as well as the wonderful An Illustrated Country Year. Celia started her art career studying life and portrait charcoal drawing with Signorina Simi in Florence. She is now a member of a dynamic art group and several art societies in Surrey where she lives. She has won several prizes including the 2005 Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (RI) medal and Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) Winsor & Newton Prize 2009. Living in the country Celia is lucky enough to be able to keep hens and pigs in her garden and, along with nearby cows and sheep, this is where she finds her inspiration. Although working mainly in watercolour she has now branched out into acrylics.

    Read more from Celia Lewis

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    • 5/5
      Even if you have no plans to keep chickens, the lovely watercolor illustrations on every page will bring delighted enjoyment of this little book. If you do plan to keep a backyard flock, then you will find good information here, including temperament and nature so that you can decide which variety is right for you. The book is small; about 61/2 inches by 8 inches and has a sturdy soft cover so it's easy to pick up and lose yourself in the interesting world of domestic chickens.

    Book preview

    The Illustrated Guide to Cows - Celia Lewis

    Contents

    Introduction

    What to consider

    Land

    Fencing

    Water

    Storage

    Housing

    Feeding

    Hay

    Straw

    Silage

    Haylage

    Concentrates

    Roots

    By-products

    Vitamins and minerals

    A bull or artificial insemination

    Rules and regulations

    Before you do anything else

    Notification of cattle movement

    The death of an animal on your holding

    Keeping on-farm records for cattle

    Farm inspections

    Subsidies

    Acquiring stock

    Handling

    Halter training

    Calving

    Signs of imminent calving

    Normal presentation

    When to intervene

    Castration

    Disbudding and dehorning

    Organic farming

    Common ailments

    Poisonous plants

    Parasites and skin problems

    Eye problems

    Notifiable diseases

    Calf problems

    Adult problems

    Breed profiles

    How to milk a cow

    Dairy products

    Cream

    Clotted cream

    Butter

    Yoghurt

    Curd cheese

    Finishing

    Cuts of beef

    Cow-horn bugle

    How to make a cow horn

    Tanning a hide

    Useful websites

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    Cattle are ungulates (meaning that they are hooved animals) and it is thought that they have been domesticated for around 10,000 years. All present-day cattle are descended from the prehistoric Aurochs that migrated across Asia from India, reaching Europe about 250,000 years ago. Amazingly, the last Aurochs died in Poland as recently as 1627. Aurochs were hunted by humans long before they were domesticated, as can be seen in prehistoric cave paintings in many parts of the world, the most famous being those at Lascaux, France.

    Auroch cave painting

    Cattle are not indigenous to the Americas but were first introduced into the Caribbean area in the early 1500s by the Spanish. Dairy cattle were introduced by British settlers in the early 1700s.

    Cows were revered in Egypt – so much so that whole cows were sometimes buried with their owners. The Egyptians worshipped the cow goddess Bat, protector and mother of the pharaohs. In the Hindu religion of India, cows are considered sacred and should be treated with the same respect as one’s own mother because of the milk they provide. They appear in many stories from the Hindu faith, chief among these being the tale of Shiva, who was said to ride on the back of a bull called Nandi; and Krishna, who was brought up by cowherds and named Govinda or ‘protector of cows’.

    The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that destroyed much of Chicago has long been blamed on Mrs Kate O’Leary’s cow kicking over a lamp. In 1997 the Chicago City Council, after much research, passed a resolution exonerating Mrs O’Leary and her cow.

    Nandi bull

    There are many other traditions relevant to cattle. The ox is one of the 12-year cycle of animals in the Chinese zodiac, the constellation of Taurus represents a bull and the Maasai of East Africa believe that all cows on Earth are the God-given property of the Maasai. The ancient Romans valued their cattle so highly that the word for money, pecunia, is derived from the word meaning cattle, pecus.

    Cattle are one of the most undemanding and rewarding domestic animals to keep, being in the main healthy and temperate. They are the smallholder’s staple, providing the essentials of milk and beef. There are numerous breeds to choose from, many of which are described on the following pages. Some may be unsuitable for your area, but there is sure to be one breed that will be ideal for you.

    A cow was connected with the founding of Durham Cathedral in AD 995. Legend has it that monks carrying the body of St Cuthbert were led to the location by a milkmaid who had lost her dun cow. The cathedral was built upon the spot where the cow was found resting.

    What to consider

    Are you thinking of a house cow, just a few stores or a small herd of a pedigree breed? Do you want to milk your cows, or are you only interested in keeping them for beef? Before anything else you must consider how much land is available and how suitable the grazing will be.

    Cows have no upper front teeth and graze by wrapping their tongues around grass and pulling it up by gripping it between the upper gum and bottom teeth; the grass must be long enough for them to do this. Cattle are ruminants, which means that they have a digestive system that allows them to digest food that would otherwise be indigestible, by a process of repeated regurgitation. The food, referred to as ‘cud’, is then re-swallowed. Cattle have one stomach but it is divided into four parts, the rumen, reticulum, masum and absomasum. The cud is chewed for up to eight hours each day and the animals spend about six hours eating.

    The cow is of the bovine ilk, one end is moo, the other milk.

    Ogden Nash

    Land

    Dairy cows need richer grazing than beef cattle and are likely to be of a more delicate disposition. You need to find the breed that best suits your ground. The Highland and Galloway, for example, have been bred to make the most of poor grazing in harsh conditions, and the Jersey and Guernsey need lush grass to produce their creamy milk – there is a breed to suit every need.

    A question that is often asked is how many cows can be kept per acre, but this is akin to asking how long is a piece of string. What grade is your grazing? How dry is it? This is an important question, as you must also consider if your animals will need housing in winter. On good grazing consider keeping one cow to the acre, but you could increase the number of cattle if you are able to rotate your animals and take them off the grazing in the winter. On poor-grade grassland you might need five or even ten acres per beast. The size of the animal will also be a factor – a Dexter is not going to require nearly as much feed as a Belgian Blue, for example.

    Ask yourself the following:

    • How much land is available?

    • What is the grade of grazing?

    • How well drained is the land?

    • Will the animals have to winter inside?

    • Are you going to breed the animals?

    • Do you want to sell the beef or milk?

    • Is the beef or milk just for you and your family?

    Fencing

    It is your responsibility to fence in your livestock rather than your neighbours’ to fence it out. Although cattle are on the whole calm animals, they will always have their eye on the main chance. This applies particularly to steers, which seem to have a permanent desire to be on the other side of the fence. Fence posts and gates also make convenient scratching posts, and for this reason alone they should be sturdy. If you are lucky enough to have a stock-proof hedge this will be appreciated by livestock as shelter from wind and rain. Cattle can also be very successfully contained with electric fencing, but this must be checked daily as they will notice very quickly if the battery is flat or the electricity is disconnected.

    Water

    All cows drink a lot of water and must have access to ice-free tanks or streams at all times. A lactating dairy cow can drink an astonishing 150 litres (264

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