Cattle in the Field

While out doing some habitat surveys this week we came across a couple of scary looking cattle! Incredibly long pointy horns and really big, strong looking beasts. Checking their undercarriages it was obvious that they weren’t bulls so we decided to cross the field into the next one we needed to survey.

The trick with cattle is never make yourself appear interesting – just walk slowly never run. Most cattle are just waiting for something interesting to happen – something moving fast across a field is definitely worth investigating and more than likely worth chasing! if you have your dog with you, avoid going through a field with cows at all. Although it may be inconvenient, it's probably better to consider finding another route. Be especially vigilant if you find yourself with your dog in a field with both cows and calves. A few years ago we were over in Cheshire doing full ecological surveys and the farmer had a field with around 30 young bullocks – whenever we went into the field the herd charged towards us scaring the pants off us. “They’re only playing with you” said the farmer!!! Well we decided that they could play on their own and got him to move them into the pens while we did the surveys!

The two we came across this week were English Longhorns. English Longhorns (also known as Longhorns) are not related to the American or Texas Longhorn whose ancestors came from Spain. They do have a long and fascinating history linked to that of the great livestock pioneer of the 1700's, Robert Bakewell of Dishley.

The English Longhorn originated from the northern counties of England, it was used as a draught animal and its milk was used for butter and cheese (Stilton mmmmmmmmmm). The creamy white horns were treasured by manufacturers of buttons, cups, cutlery and lamps. Fine slivers of clear horn were a poor man’s' glass and many a household were grateful for the end product of these elegant long horns. The most usual method of cattle keeping in those early times would have been one or more animals belonging to an individual, kept on common grazing, which were served by a bull owned by the Lord of the Manor. It was all a most haphazard and unsatisfactory method. There was no possibility of an organised breeding programme being carried out. The peasant farmers had to put up with what the Lord provided. As a result, cattle were long in the leg, narrow bodied and coarse, ideally designed for working the fields pulling a plough.

The breed declined rapidly for nearly 200 years and was becoming rare by the 1950's and 60's. The trend for producing cattle that was increasingly cereal fed, housing cattle which pushed selection of cattle with shorter horns or polled to reduce injury. Thankfully it was rescued by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in 1980. With the efforts of RBST and interest in extensively lean grass fed cattle it has made a dramatic comeback.