Breeds of Cattle - Historic and Current Classification

[kansasdexters]

There is an excellent article that was published in 2011 that provides updated information using genetic markers to help identify the origins of many cattle breeds:

www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/3/4/660


I had to laugh because on page 676 of the article it mentions the small black, red, and dun cattle that are found all over India.

[zephyrhillsusan]

You find the most interesting references!

[kansasdexters]

Susan,

Read what the above article found in genetic breed relationships and then take a look at the Western Fjord cattle, compared with the Kerry and Dexter breeds. Here some more info on the Western Fjord cattle:

www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/breeds/cattle/vestlandfjord/index.htm


Patti

[zephyrhillsusan]

On page 672, he has placed the Camargue and Kerry right next to each other in the Iberian line. That's interesting in light of what I posted on the Introgression in Dexter Bulls thread.

So, according to the map on page 681, with DEX in green for the British group and the WFJ for Western Fjord having the W in green he found British influence there, is that correct?  Interesting similarities, dual purpose, polled or horned, right about the same size.

[kansasdexters]

Hi Susan,

We have to remember that Alderson proposed his historical connections in 1992, on the basis of integrative classification (color-based classification with archaeological, socio-historical, and morphological, as well as biochemical evidence).

Figure 8 on page 681 was done by Felius in 1995. It's Figure 9 on page 683 that categorizes European cattle on the basis of microsatellite genotyping -- and this is the map to study to learn about the most current thoughts on breed relationships. The British "breed cluster", identified by genetic analysis, is comprised of breeds that are phenotypically different, yet are genetically related, and this particular breed cluster includes Kerry, Dexter, Hereford, Longhorn, Scottish Highland, South Devon, Devon, Aberdeen Angus, White Park, Galloway, Jersey, and Guernsey. What they've shown by genetic analysis is that these breeds either have a common origin and/or have had gene flow between neighboring populations.


Patti

[kansasdexters]

More historical notes (Reference: The History of Channel Island Cattle, by E. Parmalee Prentice, published June 1940, pages 26-27):


["There was, as has been stated, a long period of decline in the practical value of cattle on the Islands from the latter part of the eighteenth century until near the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1800 Dr. James Anderson said of Guernsey cattle that they were the smallest breed of cows he had yet seen that were natives of Europe. Dwarf cattle were much sought during the nineteenth century for ornaments on the lawns of country estates, as the Punch cartoon shows, and as appears also from such advertisements as those offering a Kerry cow 41 inches high, or India dwarf bullocks 33 inches in height "including the hump," or a "half-bred Alderney, very small," or a half-bred Alderney "small and compact park-like cow."

On September 16, 1850, Mr. Robert Coles, Honorary Secretary of the Bristol Zoological Society, Bristol, advertised to Noblemen, Country-gentlemen and amateurs that he had fancy cattle to dispose of, --- a small bull and a cow from the Grain Coast, Africa, three years old and measuring about 2 feet 6 inches high. "They have nothing of the buffalo about them, but are most like the small Guernsey breed." Note: The Grain Coast was a section of the western coast of the Gulf of Guinea in Africa, extending approximately from Cape Mesurado to Cape Palmas. It is now part of Liberia. (Footnote 1: London Times, September 16, 1850, p. 1. Mr. Coles' reference to "the small Guernsey breed" suggests that there was also on the Island at this time a large Guernsey breed, as we know was in fact the case, for breeders interested in large Guernseys were active in advertising the statement that the small cattle were "spurious". There seem to have been polled Alderneys also. See post p. 67.)

On February 15, 1850, Mr. E. P. Fowler advertised an Alderney cow, due to calve on the third of March, and "pure red; smallest of age ever seen." (London Times, February 15, 1850, p. 1)

It surely is a curious spectacle of human perversity that at a time when there was great demand for meat, and while the Colling brothers, Cruickshank and Bates were receiving large prices for heavy beef cattle, the Channel Islands turned toward dwarfs of no practical value whatever -- unless it were to provide milk for passengers on small sailing ships where goats were sometimes carried. Several writers of the first part of the century spoke of the diminutive size of Alderney cattle and their deer-like form. George Garrard said that in color Aldernays were distinct from all other cattle in England, their colors being more brilliant and in greater variety. It was for this reason that these little animals, so small as to be called toy cattle, were much desired as ornaments upon the lawns of great country estates in England. What they were has been well preserved for later days by the familiar pictures of Alderneys and Jerseys painted by Mr. Edwin Douglas."]

Here is an example: www.rewart.com/edwindouglas.htm

[zephyrhillsusan]

Interesting, it has a Jersey look to its face. I guess that was the equivalent at the time of Paris Hilton and her "pocketbook pooch" and people breeding designer mutts. And it seems that color has always attracted people. When I bred my TWH mare nine years ago, the guy that owned the stallion had zebras and was trying his best to breed a zorse. He had buffalo, too, and was dying to have a "horse of a different color!"

I looked up Alderneys on the internet, and look what I found! 

[kansasdexters]

Here is another painting from the 1830's that shows what Alderney cattle looked like:
www.sciencephoto.com/media/472527/view

zephyrhillsusan - you found some old photos that I'd sent to Shannon Nichols for her Blog, way back in 2008! That's a good reminder that anything people put on the Internet can be extracted at some future date by somebody!

Here they are again in the History of Guernsey Cattle: www.worldguernseys.org/history.html