Scottish highland cattle

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HLD 45
Scottish highland cattle

The Scottish Highland Cattle , Highland Cattle or Kyloe ( Scottish Gaelic Bò Gàidhealach "Gaelic cattle") is a breed of domestic cattle . It is the oldest registered cattle breed (1884).

It comes from the north-west of Scotland and the Hebrides , where it has developed the characteristics attributed to it through natural selection for centuries - the small and relatively light highland cattle are good-natured, robust and long-lived, they are also suitable for year-round free-range husbandry Cattle in unsuitable soils ( suckler cow husbandry ), calves easily and a lot, even without human help. It provides medium-cream milk and low-cholesterol meat.

Originally there were two breeds, the usually black and slightly smaller Kyloe , who lived in the islands of northwestern Scotland, and a more reddish and slightly larger breed from the remote Highlands. Both breeds became one through breeding and acquired the red-brown color that is predominant today. The official names of the color spectrum of long-haired fur are: red, yellow and black, and - rarely occurring - brindle ( brindle ), gray-brown ( dun ) and white.

The long and very symmetrical horns are usually shaped differently depending on the sexes. For bulls , they typically have a strong, horizontally to the front curved shape. The horns of the cows are usually much longer and curved upwards .

The breed is particularly suitable for extensive grazing and is often used in grazing projects. As half wild animals, respect for the long horns is required when dealing with humans. A "handiness" on the halter must be trained and maintained, as well as driving in pens.

Today the breed is bred in many countries around the world. The first highland cattle were introduced to Germany in 1975 and have been used in the United States since the end of the 19th century.

So-called small highlands either result from selective breeding selection or as a by-product of too early covering or very poor feed, as a comparison with breeding in the Hebrides and historical documents show.

  • Scottish highland cattle on an alpine pasture in Lungau with calf

  • Scottish highland cattle (female)

  • Highland cattle

  • gender-specific male horn position

  • Scottish highland cattle (female)

literature

  • Ùna Flora Cochrane: A Keen Eye. Fact and folklore on Scottish highland cattle. Busdubh Publishing, Edinburgh 1996, ISBN 0-9528390-1-6 .
  • Friedrich Hardegg , Wolfgang Müller: Robust cattle. Highland Cattle and Galloway. Origin - keeping - breeding. avBook - Österreichischer Agrarverlag, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-7040-2275-2 .
  • Highland Cattle. Journal of the highland cattle breeders in Germany. annually, ZDB -ID 2083378-7 .

Web links

Commons : Scottish Highland Cattle  Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Bunzel-Drüke, C. Böhm, G. Finck, R. Kämmer, E. Luick, E. Reisinger, U. Riecken, J. Riedl, M. Scharf, O. Zimball: Wilde Weiden - practical guide for year-round grazing in Conservation and landscape development. Sassendorf-Lohne: Working Group on Biological Environmental Protection in the Soest District (ed.), 2008. Page 81.