Cattle and Sheep - A Practical Manual about Breeds and Breeding, Foods and Feeding and General Management

Darley Matheson

Description

This book contains a practical manual on owning cattle and sheep, including information on breeds and breeding, foods and feeding, and general management. A detailed and extensive treatise on the subject complete with a wealth of useful information and helpful illustrations, this text will be of much value to the professional sheep and cattle owner, and would make for a worthy addition to collections of farming literature. The chapters of this book include: 'General Management, Diary Cattle: The Yorkshire – The Kerry and Dexter Kerry – Shetlanders', 'The Dairy Cow and Dairy Cattle', 'Graziers' Cattle', 'Cattle for Export', 'Dentition of Cattle', 'Segregation and Isolation', 'Specific Diseases', 'The Digestive Apparatus in Cattle and Sheep and Digestive Disorder', and much more. We are proud to republish this text here complete with a new introduction on cattle farming.

Sujets

• Sheep husbandry
• Animal husbandry

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 22 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528764995
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

CATTLE AND SHEEP
A Practical Manual about
BREEDS AND BREEDING
FOODS AND FEEDING AND
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
BY
DARLEY MATHESON
M.R.C.V.S.
Author of The Horse in Health, Accident and Disease, and many other works on Live Stock.
Copyright 2013 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cattle Farming
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates (a group of mammals, mainly categorised by their hoofs). They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae , and are the most widespread species of the genus Bos . Cows, or cattle, are commonly raised as livestock for meat, as well as dairy animals and even draft animals, kept for such errands as pulling carts, plows and the like. Other products include leather and dung for manure or fuel. From as few as 80 progenitors domesticated in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq about 10,500 years ago, an estimated 1.3 billion cattle are in the world today. Cattle occupy a unique role in human history, they are one of the few animals to have been domesticated since at least the early Neolithic period - and they have been seen variously as workers, sacred animals, and foodstuffs.
Cattle are often raised by allowing herds to graze on the grasses of large tracts of rangeland. The most common interactions with cattle involve daily feeding, cleaning and milking. Many routine husbandry practices involve ear tagging, dehorning, loading, medical operations, vaccinations and hoof care, as well as training for agricultural shows and preparations. Interestingly, there are many cultural differences which occur when working with cattle; the cattle husbandry of Fulani men rests on behavioural techniques, whereas in Europe, cattle are controlled primarily by physical means, such as fences. In terms of food intake by humans, consumption of cattle is less efficient than of grain or vegetables with regard to land use, and hence cattle grazing consumes a larger area than such other agricultural production, especially when they are raised on grains. However, cattle and other forms of domesticated animals can sometimes help to use plant resources in areas not easily amenable to other forms of agriculture.
Cattle today are the basis of a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. The international trade in beef for 2000 was over $30 billion and represented only 23% of world beef production. The production of milk, which is also made into cheese, butter, yogurt, and other dairy products, is comparable in economic size to beef production, and provides an important part of the food supply for many of the world s people. There are some pressing trepidations concerning cattle farming though. A report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that the livestock sector is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions , and the report concludes, that unless changes are made, the damage may more than double by 2050, as demand for meat increases. Another concern is manure, which if not well-managed, can lead to adverse environmental consequences. These are issues which both farmers and governments are working on though, so that cattle farming and the commercial usage of cows can, from its long and largely inimitable roots, progress and develop into the future.
PREFACE
IN the economics of rural husbandry, cattle play a very significant part; in fact, the principal part. The cultivation of the land, the laying down of pastures, both temporary and permanent, is inseparable from, and interlinked with, the raising of cattle and sheep. The dairy farmer and the grazier are dependent upon one another, exactly as the stock-raiser is dependent upon the sun for the rearing of his cattle. Good pasture land is essential for the health of livestock, just as much as the hygienic condition of the cattle-house is requisite for the welfare of the animals kept within it. The smallholder is not expected to possess that profound knowledge of stock-raising required of a man farming five or six hundred acres, nevertheless he (the smallholder) must acquire sufficient information concerning the best varieties of cattle to keep either for feeding or for dairy purposes. If he requires an animal of all-round excellence, the Shorthorn or a first-cross between the Shorthorn and the Red-poll would suit his requirements the best. As a butter cow his selection will probably be either an Alderney, or a Guernsey cow, or, it may be the Friesian or the Dexter-Kerry. For beef-producing purposes, the Sussex, the Hereford, the Aberdeen Angus, the Galloway, or a cross derived from any of these would suggest the right sort to keep. The smallholder must not only know what are the best kind of cattle for him to keep, but he must know how to feed efficiently and economically when he does become possessed of that which he requires. The correct feeding of cattle is the best safeguard against disease, but, should the latter appear, the smallholder ought to have a slight knowledge appertaining to this, as the early recognition of some particular complaint may afford him a measure of protection against something worse. Given healthy animals to start with, and a knowledge of their general management (feeding, housing, watering, etc.), there is no reason why the beginner should suffer any loss amongst his stock apart from those influences over which man has no control.
CONTENTS

I NTRODUCTORY
I
G ENERAL M ANAGEMENT
II
D AIRY C ATTLE : T HE A YRSHIRE -T HE K ERRY AND D EXTER -K ERRY -S HETLANDERS
III
T HE D AIRY C OW AND D AIRY C ATTLE
IV
G RAZIERS C ATTLE
V
C ATTLE FOR E XPORT
VI
D ENTITION OF C ATTLE
VII
S EGREGATION AND I SOLATION
VIII
S PECIFIC D ISEASES
IX
T HE D IGESTIVE A PPARATUS IN C ATTLE AND S HEEP AND D IGESTIVE D ISORDERS
X
T HE H EART AND H EART A FFECTIONS
XI
R ESPIRATORY A FFECTIONS IN C ATTLE AND S HEEP
XII
A FFECTIONS OF THE C ENTRAL N ERVOUS S YSTEM
XIII
P ARTURITION AND SOME A FFECTIONS OF THE G ENERATIVE A PPARATUS IN C ATTLE
XIV
T HE U RINARY A PPARATUS IN C ATTLE AND S HEEP AND SOME A FFECTIONS OF IT
XV
S OME E YE A FFECTIONS
XVI
S OME S KIN T ROUBLES OF C ATTLE AND S HEEP
XVII
P LANTS P OISONOUS TO BOTH C ATTLE AND S HEEP
XVIII
S OME A CCIDENTS AND D ISEASES
XIX
M INOR O PERATIONS
XX
L ONG - WOOLLED S HEEP
XXI
S HORT - WOOL S HEEP
XXII
M OUNTAIN B REEDS OF S HEEP
XXIII
V ARIOUS OTHER B REEDS OF S HEEP
XXIV
I MPROVED B REEDS OF S HEEP AND S HEEP FOR E XPORT
XXV
T HE S HEPHERD AND HIS W ORK THROUGHOUT THE Y EAR -D ENTITION OF S HEEP -P EDIGREE S HEEP - AND G ENERAL M ANAGEMENT , ETC .
XXVI
S HEPHERDS D OGS
XXVII
S OME D ISEASES OF S HEEP
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
G ALLOWAY B ELTED C ATTLE
D EVON C OW
D AIRY S HORTHORN C OW
J ERSEY C OW
G UERNSEY C OW
F RIESIAN C OW
B RITISH F RIESIAN B ULL
R ED S HORTHORN B ULL E DYCOTE P RINCE
H EREFORD C OW
A BERDEEN A NGUS C OW
K ERRY C OW
S OUTHDOWN R AM
S UFFOLK R AM L AMB
B LACKFACE R AM
S HROPSHIRE R AM
INTRODUCTORY
A KNOWLEDGE of various preliminary matters, incidental to both cattle and sheep, should always be acquired by every stock-owner, by every shepherd, or by any one interested in the care of cattle and sheep. During the course of his professional career, the author has often been surprised at the large amount of ignorance displayed by those who have the management of farm livestock, and who should, certainly, be acquainted with the elementary facts contained in this introductory notice .
Temperature in Cattle and Sheep
To ascertain the bodily heat of cattle and sheep, both in health and disease, a small instrument, known as the clinical thermometer , should be employed, and the temperature is taken in the rectum. The normal temperature of cattle is 101 Fah., and the normal temperature of sheep 103 Fah. The degrees on the centigrade scale are 38.5 and 39.4 respectively. Age, sex, time of day, feeding, watering, exercise, and external temperature, etc., are all liable to produce slight variations in temperature, but these variations are of no practical importance. The clinical thermometer is marked either on the Fahrenheit scale, or upon the centigrade scale, and sometimes upon both. In the former case, it bears the whole numbers 95, 100, 105, and 110, whilst between these whole numbers we have two kinds of strokes, viz., long and short. The former indicate degrees, and the latter fractions of degrees, each short stroke having the value of two-tenths of a degree . Fractions of degrees are of very little practical importance. The clinical thermometer contains mercury in the bulb, and it registers, by means of a small detached rod of mercury, known as the index , which latter remains in the stem of the thermometer to show the temperature of the body, after the thermometer has been removed. A slight degree of fever is indicated by a temperature of 103 , a moderate degree of fever from 104 to 105 , and a high degree of fever is reached when the thermometer, or, rather, the index in the thermometer, points to a temperature of 107 or thereabout. In sheep a temperature of 105 discloses a slight degree of fever, 107 a moderate degree, whilst higher temperatures, when registered, must be valued accordingly. The time to allow the ther