STOCK BREEDING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 70, 8 January 1947, Page 4

STOCK BREEDING

ORIGIN OF BEEF CATTLE A Leicestershire farmer, Robert Bakewell, less than 200 years ago, began an experiment in stock breeding that led to the purebred pedigree herds of today. The roast beef or Old England was famed in story and song long before Bakewell’s day, but it production was unscientific in the extreme. Although some beef was bred for the table, the chances of its being tender and succulent were remote. So remote that one of the Stuart Kings is supposed to have knighted a loin of beef which he was able to eat without nearly breaking a tooth—hence ‘Sirloin.” The poorer people in the preBakewell era seldom tasted beef, and the scraps they did get were generally the grisly remains of a cow or working bullock which had outlived its usefulness, for it has to be remembered that from primitive times cattle were bred, not wholly for their food value but primarily as working animals to draw the ploughs and carts of early agriculturists and traders.

Robert Bakewell’s idea was briefly to put more flesh on their bones, particularly on the most valuable parts of the carcase. He sought ‘to do that by the close mating of the progeny of animals- which approximated most nearly to his ideal. Breeding from close affinities, he found, tended to reduce size and vigour while leading to increased fat secretion and earlier maturity. Bakewell himself was far from satisfied with the results obtained, as his aim was great size and weight, but contemporary breeders were more than eager to follow his lead. With the result that, today, the long legged and individualistic beast has vanished from the herd to be replaced by a short-legged, ponderous and—in many cases—hornless beefmanufacturing automaton. The modern Hereford, Shorthorn or Aber-deen-Angus has about as much resemblance to Bakewell’s longhorn as a bull dog has to its wild-dog ancestor—thanks to the Leicester farmer and his disciples.