ORIGIN OF THE AYRSHIRE CATTLE

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2683, 13 November 1882, Page 3

ORIGIN OF THE AYRSHIRE CATTLE

The Ayrshire cow, as we have her, is a native of County Ayr, Scotland, where we can trace her history back for about a century. Mr William Alton of Hamilton, in a communication made to the “ British Farmers’ Magazine,” in 1826, says :—“ The dairy breed of Scotland have been formed chiefly by skilled management within the last fifty years, and they are still improving and extending to other countries. Till after 1770 the cows in Cunninghanl were small, ill-fed, ill-shaped, and gave but little milk. Some cows of a larger breed and of a brown and white color were about that time brought to Ayrshire from Teeswater and from Holland by some of the patriotic noblemen of Ayrshire; and those being put on good pasture, yielded more milk than the native breed, and so their calves were much sought after by the farmers.” The magazine goes on to say:—“ We are verbally assured by old breeders, who had known the Ayrshires - since 1780, that they had received improvement from crosses with shorthorn bulls for the last half century, and although they may now be considered a good established breed in themselves, they are in reality merely high grade Durhams.” Touatt, in his history of British cattle, says, writing in the year 1833 .• —“ The origin of the Ayrshire cow is, even at the present day, a matter of dispute; all that is known about her is that a century ago there was no such breed in Cunningham or Ayrshire, in Scotland.” Through several pages of speculation as to what crosses have compassed the breed known as “ Ayrshires,” at the time he wrote, and an elaboration of their remarkable yields of milk and butter in the Ayrshire dairies, he leaves the impression that the prezent breed has sprung from a succession of crosses by shorthorn bulls upon the native Scotch cow; that the, produce of these crosses were interbred among themselves with care and an eye to improvement both in form and dairy quality, which finally resulted in an animal eminently fitted to the climate and soil of south, western Scotland, and the best of all they have for dairy purposes. The effort appears first to have been to introduce shorthorns and substitute them as a dairy cow, which failed, but the cross was successful, and hence the breed. Mr Youatt proceeds to say —“ On a first view, by a judge of the different varieties, the Ayrshire would be called a diminutive short - horn, so nearly in figure, color and prominent characteristics do they approach them. They are about the size of our common stock, compact in form, exactly built for a dairy cow, light forward and heavy behind, with an exceedingly home-like domestic appearance. In color they vary from a brown, running in lighter shades up to red, and into a pale yellow, alternated more or less with white, in distinct patches, rarely mingling into roan. There is scarcely that uniformity of appearance with them that there is in the shorthorns, yet they appear to hold true to the dairy quality throughout, which, like the gentle voice in woman, is an excellent thing in a cow.” A much later article in the “ American Agriculturist, 1868, says, “The Ayrshires have been bred from milk in a country where quantity and quality wore both wanted, where the pastures were only moderately rich, and where rapid fattening for the shambles was also a desideratum. The result is a breed of no more than ordinary size, many being decidedly small, but hardy, easy keepers, yielding a large quantity of excellent milk, rich both in butter and cheese. The claim set forth for those cows is that they will give more and better milk, on the same feed, than cows of any other breed. This, we believe, is not disputed. Ayrshires have been known in this country since 1822, when, wc- believe, they were first imported. The stock was kept pure, however, only a few generations, as it became blended with the shorthorns, and the blood now flows in some of our registered shorthorns. In IS3I, other animals were brought over, and ever since that time the breed has grown in favor. The animals are prevailingly of medium size. The cows have great digestive capacity, as indicated by their deep, full bodies. The colors are usually red, spotted with white, the spots being very well defined, often fine and sprinkled over the body in patches.”— Home paper.