Plumbing the Great Mysteries of the Bovine Swarm
A few days ago I received these urgent questions from Woody, “Are cows black with white spots, or white with black spots? And beside that, why do they even have spots at all?” I'm sure that there is a terribly important reason for her inquiry. I must apologize for my tardy response. Anyhow, according to research conducted at the Rabenstrange Institute for Bovine Studies(RIBS), the coloring of cattle depends entirely on the breed.
It seems that most breeds are not black and white but rather brown or some combination of brown and another color. Of the non-brown breeds, there seem to be several that are either solid white or solid black. Breeds with that display hides that are a combination of black and white appear to be in the distinct minority.
At this point in the epic cow adventure I realized that because there are so many breeds, each with its own distinct coloring, I would have to narrow my field of study.
From the subtle intricacies of the original questions and my highly refined knowledge of bovine photography I was able to deduce that Miss Woody was most interested in Holstein cows.
Holstein cows seem to be the most pictured. Their prominence in books, magazines and literature is probably to blame for the widespread myth that all cows are black and white, a preposterous lie undoubtedly started by racist bigots to keep down brown cows.
Once I was able to focus all of RIBS's resources on this particular breed I was quickly able to find definitive answers.
According to this website, Holstein cows are usually white with black spots although black cows with white markings or even white and red cows are not unknown.
The reason for the different coloring is rooted in genetics. The different proportions of hide color is dependent on the characteristics of a given cows parents.
Hopefully this is helpful. It would be tragic if you were condemned to ponder the great mysteries of cattle to the detriment of your other pursuits.
6 Comments:
Thank you for your answer. I spent several years working on a dairy farm and whispering sweetly to the Holsteins so that I wouldn't get kicked as I stole their milk. Your research brought back all the old memories and smells.
Great study! How long did the actual investigation take you?
Ah! I finally know! Now I can sleep at night!
Jk, jk. Seriously, that's an impressive bit of research, kudos to you.
That was really interesting! I also had to read the entire post over just to appreciate the fact you used the word "detriment". And "terribly important". Not to mention "preposterous". It gave me hope that people still do say those things.
It reminded me of the time I once used the word "farce" in a sentence, perfectly seriously, and received gales of laughter.
Not that your prose is laughable, but that it uses some of the finer words in the English language, a fact I am glad for. Very well done.
Did you know that in the beef breeds, when my dad sells steers in the fall, (they would have been born between Jan through March or so of the same year)the black steers will sell for more than the traditional Simmental colored steers (looks sorta like a holstein coloration exept red and white)or red steers? Also when we show cattle, we mostly show black cattle because they do better in the show ring than the red and white ones. This is all due to the fact that the angus made it big with the "Black Angus". By the way, the coloration of a hide does not effect the meat of the animal. Our red or black Simmental steers usually win our local carcass contest anyway. The meat is what the whole beef industry is really about.
Wow, I should write an article about this in my blog.
Bethany
I like the banner you made for my blog! Very cool! :)
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