Cow breeds and types, characteristics, photos with names and description, appearance

Cows are one of the most common agricultural animals in the world, and in the Russian language several words describe animals at different ages:

1. cow’s child calf;
2. female chick;
3. The male is a bull.

Chick is a female who has no offspring. After the birth of the first calf, the chick becomes a cow. Many males of cattle are castrated in order to reduce aggressive behavior and make them more malleable.

Young castrated males who are grown for beef are called bulls. Adult castrated males who are used in the household are called oxen. A group of cows and bulls is a herd.

Etymology of the name “cow”

Cows are members. It includes ungulates mammals with clearly expressed fingers. The cows have characteristic bifurcated hooves (consist of two middle fingers of each leg). Cows relate to:

Some features of the physiology of the cow

Do the cow needs horns

The size and weight of the cow depends on the breed. Adult males weigh 450–1800 kg, and females 360–1100 kg. Bulls and cows have horns, they are short in many breeds, and grow to incredibly large sizes in Texas Longhorn and African cows of Ankole-Vatusi.

Some breeds are removed without horns or cut horns at a young age. Cows are known for large mammary glands (amendments), which have four nipples.

What and how cows eat

Cows graze (they feed) on the grass. They have a wide mouth and adapted teeth for eating hard vegetation. Adults have 32 teeth, but there are no upper incisors and fangs. In the mouth, the cows have a sticky gasket that helps to disrupt the grass. The crests of the dental moths move parallel to the tongue, and thus chewing is more effective and performed in circular movements.

The most specialized adaptation to eating vegetation in cows (and other gum animals) is their massive fourchamber stomach, which acts as a fermentation vat. Inside the scar, the largest stomach chamber, bacteria and other microorganisms digest hard plant fibers (cellulose). To help in this process, the cows spray repeatedly and chew on food again before it enters the rest of the digestive system through other gastric chambers.

This process, called “chewing chewing gum” shakes the food in the gastrointestinal tract of the animal (digested material) and helps to absorb nutrients. Having spent time on rechewing, cows avoid the need to chew freshly fired food well. This allows them to quickly pick up a large amount of grass, being in a vulnerable position upside down.

Types and breeds of cows

Home cattle is bred for the sake of meat, milk or skins or used as dragging power in Europe, India and Africa. Some other species of animals, such as the Asian buffet, Tibetan yak, Gayal and Banteng of Southeast Asia, as well as the bison of North America living on the plains, were domesticated or tamed and used to remove rocks.

All modern cows belongs to these types:

1. Bos Taurus (European species, one of the representatives Shortgorn and Jersey);
2. Bos indicus (Indian species zebu, for example, the Brahman breed);
3. obtained as a result of crossing the first two (for example, Santa Herrude).

The breeds of cows are known today, did not always exist, and many were recently bred.

Determination of the cow breed is a difficult task due to the intricate reproduction of animals, although the term is widely used, well perceived and associated with cows. Typically, animals are understood under the breed, which for a long time selectively diluted so that they have a distinctive identity in color, size, shape and performed functions, and these or other distinctive signs are preserved in the offspring.

Breeds are created by generations of breeders who seek to create and preserve a certain type of cows with the right characteristics. This is achieved by working on the principle of “like this”. Only in relatively recent times the science of genetics, and especially population genetics, contributed to the creation of new breeds of cows.

In continental Europe, there are many old breeds for example, Sharolets meat and Norman dairy breed and many others, but British breeds became the basis for creating huge herds of cows around the world, which supply many beef and dairy products to the market.

Dairy cows

Aishirskaya

The cows are reddish-brown, the color of the red tree, the shade varies from light to dark on a white background. In some bulls, the color is so dark that it seems almost black. The spots, as a rule, are barred at the edges, small and scattered over the body.

These are mediumsized cows, in adulthood they weigh more than 550 kg, strong, hardy, calmly stand in the stalls on dairy farms, and adapt to milking machines due to the shape of the udder, are not subject to problems with the legs.

A few other breeds will be equal to the ability of Aishir cows to eat in adverse feeding conditions or climate. Cows do not have yellow fat, which reduces the value of the carcass, so Airshirov is grown as bulls. Moderate fat content in breed milk.

Jersey

Typically, cows are light brown, although there are almost gray and dull black. They can also have white spots that cover most of the carcass. A real Jersey cow always has a black nose, and almost a white face around the mouth. Strong legs are less prone to injuries.

Cows are relatively small in size, about 400-450 kg.

Jersey breed produces milk more efficiently than other breeds. This is especially important in countries where feed is not enough and makes the breed a profitable option for agriculture.

Golstinskaya

The breed is recognizable thanks to black and white or red-white pattern, dairy productivity, large body. Healthy Holstein calf weighs 40 kg or more at birth. Mature cow of the Holstein breed weighs about 680 kg. The normal productive life of the Holstein breed is six years.

Cows produce more milk than other breeds. They have unsurpassed genetically the ability to improve without a biological ceiling. Genetic improvements from 1 to 2% per year are absolutely realistic.

Cows adapt to the content on closed farms, partial and free gravity. Also, the living conditions do not matter, animals feed in the highlands and in base places.

Meat cows

Highland

A large head with a long fringe (which seems to cover the eyes), long and dark horns make a breed of memorable and unusual.

The cow has a double layer of wool a down undercoat and a long outer fur, it reaches a length of 30 cm and covered with oils that repel moisture. In the hot, dry climate, the highland cows dumped thick fur, and then the new weather grows when wet cold weather returns.

The color of the wool is black, spotted, red, yellow and grayish-brown. The breeding breed with natural and unique ability to effectively graze on the poor pastes poor in vegetation. It differs in longevity, many cows multiply at the age of more than 18 years, give birth to 15 calves for life. The maternal instinct is developed, even the heifers of the first generation rarely abandon offspring.

Adult bulls weigh about 800 kg, cows 500 kg.

They give a lean beef, with marble, delicate and juicy pulp with a characteristic taste. Cow meat is good for health, nutritious, with a lower fat and cholesterol content and a higher protein and iron content than other breeds of cows.

Aberdin-Angus

The breed is born without horns. Cows of black or red, although the dominant shade is black, sometimes white appears on the udder.

The breed is resistant to severe weather, undemanding, easily adapting, goodnatured. Specimens ripen early, after the face they get meat carcasses with a pleasant marble beef tasted. Anguska breed is used in crossing to improve animal quality. Females have a good ability to birth and grow calves. They are also used as a genetic fund, since the dominant gene conveys the qualitative characteristics.

Gereford

The breed of cows is painted from dark red to red-yellow color. Contrasting against this background look white:

Cows with white sides and white marks are also widespread below the knees and hocks. Most animals have short thick horns, which usually bend on the sides of the head, but in North America and Great Britain they brought a helavic, rash cow.

Mature males weighing up to 800 kg, females about 550 kg.

This breed is energetic and famous for longevity, females produce calves over the age of 15 years. Bulls give offspring in the herd up to 12 years or more. Many breeders hold animals until they die from natural reasons.

The Gereford breed lives in the Arctic snow of Finland, transfers the heat of the northern transvaal, opposes the harsh climate and gross grasses of Northern Uruguay or the subtropical zones of Brazil.

Combined meat and milk cows

Belgian blue cow

Large animal with rounded outlines and pronounced muscles. Shoulder, back, lower back and sly muscular. The back is straight, the sacrum is tilted, the tail is expressed. He has beautiful, strong legs, and it walks easily.

The color is white with blue and black or their combinations, red color is present in some genotypes. The breed is known for a calm temperament.

The weight of an adult bull from 1100 to 1250 kg. Cows from 850 to 900 kg.

Belgian blue in crossing programs with other dairy or meat rocks increases the performance of a copy of 5-7% compared to the maternal line.

Simmental

The color is from gold to red with white, and either evenly distributed or clearly expressed in spots on a white background. The head is white and often a white strip appears on the shoulders.

The breed cows weigh about 700-900 kg, and bulls-1300 kg.

Breeding breeding for the production of milk and beef at minimal costs created a balanced breed that is easily adapted, has strong muscles and good survival. Submission and good maternal qualities other characteristics of the breed.

When crossing, the Simmental breed provides good growth and, therefore, the best beef output for crossed offspring, improves the quality of meat with white fat and excellent marbled, improves milk yield of milk.

Shvitskaya

A light brown body, a creamy white muzzle and a dark blue eye pigment help the breed to resist extreme solar radiation. These are strong, prolific, longlived, easily adaptable and balanced by the hooves and limbs of the cow.

The breed provides a good yield of milk and meat.

Rawders love the milk of the Shvitskaya cows for the best ratio of fat and protein among dairy rocks.

When the cows are ready to give offspring

The chick reaches puberty aged 6 to 15 months, depending on the breed, but it is not used for breeding up to 18 months. Too early pregnancy will worsen growth and reduce fertility and milk yield.

How long the pregnancy of the cow lasts

It depends on the breed and floor of the calf. Pregnancy duration from 279 to 287 days. For most breeds, the period is 283 days. Cows carrying bulls have a longer pregnancy than cows carrying warm.