10 of the Most Distinctive Cattle Breeds

Texas Longhorn Cow

The Texas Longhorn Cow is descended from a mixture between an Iberian breed and an Indian one. They’ve been a couple of of the primary cattle delivered to North America by Europeans. Appropriately named, the Longhorn is known for its sizable headwear. These horns can develop as quite a bit as 7 toes from tip to tip. Nevertheless whatever the intimidating horns, Texas longhorn cows are pretty delicate and smart.

These cows take eight to 10 years to realize full measurement, which is anyplace from 800 to 1,500 kilos. No matter their slower maturation, they’ve a reproductive interval that’s twice as long as completely different breeds.

Ankole-Watusi Cow

To not be outdone with regards to huge horns, the Ankole-Watusi is a spectacular breed of cow native to Africa. It’s believed they originated over 2,000 years prior to now from the Egyptian Longhorn cattle and the Zebu Longhorns, which might be initially from India.

This breed’s spectacular horns can develop as long as 8 toes from tip to tip. Proportionally, they seem impossibly huge, nonetheless they do have smart features: The large horns are used to disperse heat, along with act as intimidating weapons to push again predators. The cows are usually a darkish purple color, usually with white speckling.

Highland Cow

Shifting from the heat of Africa to the chilly of Scotland, we uncover one different cow breed that has tailor-made to its setting. The highland cow has a thick, shaggy coat that retains it warmth and guarded in opposition to wind and rain. As a bonus, the wavy coat moreover gives it an endearingly silly look. The highland cow has the longest hair of any breed of cattle.

Curiously, Scottish breeders do not seek the advice of with a gaggle of their cows as a herd, nonetheless pretty a “fold.” This originated from the historic need to acquire cattle at night into open stone shelters referred to as folds to protect them from every the local weather and wolves.

Belgian Blue Cow

Worthwhile the trophy for in all probability probably the most bizarre-looking outcomes of experimentation with beef cattle breeding is the Belgian blue. The unusually lumpy look is named double-muscling—a genetic trait that creates an elevated number of muscle fibers. It ends in about 20% further muscle than the frequent cow and extra-lean meat. This attention-grabbing scenario was first well-known in 1808, and since then, the breed has been chosen significantly because of its outcomes.

These animals can develop to be big. It is not uncommon to see a Belgian blue bull that weighs over 2,800 kilos (1,300 kilograms). Females can attain close to 2,000 kilos (900 kilograms).

Zebu Cow

Lumpy and bumpy one other approach is the zebu cow. Zebus are a type of cattle originating from South Asia. They have been developed into further explicit breeds (further on a sort of rapidly), nonetheless the umbrella breed is the Bos indicus. This breed is properly acknowledged by the distinguished hump on its shoulders (which could have been bred by selection from non-humped cattle), along with the dewlap—the dishevelled pores and pores and skin hanging from its neck. The profile of the zebu cow is unmistakable.

American Brahman Cow

The American Brahman cow is one explicit breed of zebu that was developed within the US from zebu cattle imported from India and Brazil, so it has the attribute shoulder hump and distinguished dewlap nonetheless is colored each purple or gray. These cows even have distinctive qualities of their very personal though, considerably their unusually prolonged ears that give them a goat-like look. The breed is known for its functionality to withstand heat, a functionality which may be attributed to its thick hair and abundance of free pores and pores and skin.

Dexter Cow

Merely as there are miniature horses, there are miniature cows. The Dexter cow, initially from Ireland, is a sort of breeds. These tiny cows stand solely about 3 to 4 toes tall on the shoulder, making them good for small farms in all climates. The Canadian Dexter Cattle Affiliation says the breed is “acknowledged for its hardiness, docility, thriftiness and calving ease.”

Dexter cows raised for dairy current one to 2 gallons of milk per day (versus eight to 10 gallons from a typical Holstein dairy cow). For individuals who’re elevating one for meat, you’d get about 400 kilos of meat (compared with twice that from an average-sized steer). These qualities make them further manageable for a family farm. Plus, they’re cute, which is on a regular basis a bonus.

Miniature Belted Galloway Cow

One different lovable and unusual cattle breed is the mini-belted Galloway, or mini beltie. These little cows sport a black coat with a belt of white spherical their heart. Their coat can be pretty thick, which is a outcomes of the place the breed was developed: the highlands of Scotland. The mini-belted Galloway is not virtually as shaggy as a result of the highland cow, nonetheless on account of they naturally have not received horns, they seem the entire further cuddly. They’re primarily raised for his or her delicious marbled meat, though many farmers acknowledge their unusual look inside the pasture, incomes them the nickname of “Oreo cows.”

Miniature Jersey Cow

Jersey cows are widespread enough, nonetheless what about miniature Jerseys? These cows stand a mere three to a few.5 toes tall on the shoulder. Like the alternative smaller breeds, they’ve been developed to be further manageable for small farms that don’t need as quite a bit milk or meat or don’t have to make investments as quite a bit home or feed into livestock. They’ve been developed by crossing commonplace Jerseys with Dexters or completely different miniature cattle. They’re delicate, docile, and mild-mannered—in distinction to their commonplace counterparts, which might be acknowledged to be high-strung and aggressive.

Panda Cow

And finally, we now have now a really unusual cow. The miniature panda cow is known for its markings which will be just like these of enormous pandas, correct all the best way right down to the darkish eye patches. In actuality, if it doesn’t have the correct markings—a white belt throughout the middle and distinct black eye patches on a white face—it doesn’t rely as a panda cow.

There are solely a handful of these cute cows on the earth: In 2013, one breeder estimated there have been solely 30 to 40. They’re so unusual that when one is born, it usually makes the knowledge, like this lovable calf named Ben whose unusual markings have made him worth an estimated $30,000. In case you want to see them to your self, there is a pair of panda cows on the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington.