British White Cattle Association Annual Meeting in Snyder, Texas

Make plans to attend the annual meeting of the BWCAA on June 8th and 9th in Snyder, Texas.  Members and non-members alike are welcome to attend, and it is a great opportunity to learn more about the breed and meet breeders from around the country.  The BWCAA meeting events will be held at the Coliseum Ag Annex in Snyder.

The Western Swing Festival will be in full swing in Snyder that weekend as well, with lots of live entertainment and good food to enjoy.  For more information on the Festival visit http://www.SnyderChamber.org . 

I'm hoping some rain will 'swing' our way while we are attending the Snyder meeting.  We're dry as a bone and the flooding rains of spring seem like a dream.  To remind me it was real, here is a video of the terminally low pond on our place.  It was brim full in April, the floating dock was actually floating for the first time in years.  Fortunately, it is still floating, but the pond level has dropped . . . . quite a few feet already.

Cattle Are Sentient Creatures - And I wouldn't have it any other way . . .

J.West's Elsie Edna and J.West's Clementine, April 2012
Best Buddies, Born 4 Days Apart

There are times in this cow business when I find myself considering, fleetingly, becoming a vegetarian; when I keenly understand why some folks are so adamantly anti-meat.  Some particular event happens that makes me think a little deeper about the 'feelings' of my cows, or at least some of them.

I then mull over in my mind many of the fairly ridiculous stances of a lot of the extremist PETA types, most of whom no doubt have never stepped in cow manure or certainly never resuscitated a newborn calf -- but yet are emphatic that cows are 'sentient' creatures and therefore shouldn't be eaten.  Which leaves them in a sorry life in a zoo in some perfect future vegan world with zero meat consumption. Wait . . . That's also the FAO arm of the United Nations' long term plan! But I'm not going there this morning, discussing the FAO right now would give me a headache and make me nauseous, and my health care has already gone up 40% in the last two years, so I have to be careful not to go to the doctor, that might be an excuse to raise my rates another 20% next year. Oops, digressing . . .

Elsie Edna and Clementine, April 2012

I recently sent Elsie Edna and Clementine on to their new home in Oklahoma.  These two heifers are really bonded, more often than not found together, and I think would really have been traumatized to have been shipped off to separate pastures.  Eventually that strong tie they have now won't be so important, but at 2 years old the bond is still very strong.  Clearly, these two demonstrate that cattle are indeed 'sentient' creatures, as they have 'feelings' toward one another.

I 'had' two other heifers who were very much pasture buddies, born 7 days apart - J.West's Boopsie and J.West's Lassie.  Unfortunately, I never took a photo of the two of them together, but I do have a 'picture memory' of the two of them from last Sunday.  They both walked up to the cattle guard by the house, checked it out, looked at me, and presumably listened to me (okay probably not) when I told them not to walk that cattle guard.  But, they did promptly turn around and prance off together . . . and that's the last time I saw them alive and well.

Sunday night we were hit by the worst of thunderstorms and the lightning was very bad.  Boopsie and Lassie died under a grove of hickory trees, lying about a foot apart.  Fortunately, the rest of the cattle in that group were all fine, and so was every other pasture group.  I had moved this group in to the pasture by the house on Sunday so they could get shelter under the barn's big tractor shed, which they generally immediately do when the rain gets hard.  For some unknown reason they didn't this time.  The ground outside the shed was smooth and slicked off from the massive flow of water run-off from the barn roof (we had probably 11 inches or more of rain), so clearly the cows didn't exit the shed after the storm, they simply weren't there.

J.West's Boopsie in August 2011
Boopsie was Carter sired out of a Popeye daughter, bw 66 lbs.

Could it be something wasn't safe that night about the shed?  Oddly, when we finally got power back on Monday, all the power to the barns was still out, and that's never happened before.  Something caused the main breaker to all the barns to trip, and I have to wonder if it was a lightning strike directly to the barns or a hit to the ground around the barns.  They are metal pole barns, with tin roofs and walls of course, and I've not ever considered the possible danger to the cattle from being under a metal structure during severe lightning.  So far we haven't found a thing to indicate a strike on or around the barns, so it will remain a mystery.

J.West's Lassie as a newborn, her dam is J.West's Taylor Maid
Lassie was Carter sired with a bw of 37 lbs.

The sight of those two heifers lying dead and bloated under the hickory grove was a shocking sight.  Their walk to the cattle guard, their quizzical looks at me and down at the rails of the cattle guard, and that quite prancing turn and exit off to the pasture was all I could see in my mind, the contrast startling, the end of that life lying in the mud.  Rational or not, this became one of those moments when I question what I do, and think of the 'sentient' creature argument of vegans against eating meat.

But, even so, as the days have passed and I've thought about my own personal reaction to the loss of the heifers, I suspect it is me being too sentient of a human creature about my cows, or at least about some of them.  Yes, I do think cattle are 'sentient' creatures, many seem to make eye contact with us humans with something ticking in their brains and coming through their eyes that makes a total lie of the 'dumb cow' phrase for sure, could be their eyes are just so pretty I imagine it though.  Look at little Lassie pictured below - she had the sweetest eyes ever.  But sentient creatures or not, beef has been critical to the human diet since time out of mind.

J.West's Lassie, June 2011

So, I'll not be tossing out all the grassfed beef in the freezers, or turning the ranch in to a petting zoo, and for sure I also won't stop caring about the well being of my cows and trying to tune in to what they need in a 'sentient' way.  I'm glad I had that odd last encounter with Boopsie and Lassie; you have to wonder, or at least I have to wonder, about the timing of that and their death mere hours later.  I couldn't tell you one thing about any other cow or calf in that group from the afternoon before - just that picture memory in my brain of Boopsie and Lassie . . .

Yes, cattle are quite the sentient creatures, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 


  

 

Happy Easter from J.West Cattle Company . . . and Happy Spring and Happy Ostera!

Happy Easter to Everyone!

Sandhill Cemetery's Oldest Unmarked Grave, cared for by
Colmesneil's Kenneth Brown, who planted the bluebonnets
 you see on the hillside.   (April 2012)

How fortunate we are that this most ancient and most revered celebration in the Christian world is still allowed to be celebrated publicly in the United States of America.

It actually strikes me as quite odd that it is still politically correct and unoffensive to say 'Happy Easter'.  I really can't imagine why we aren't already forced to say 'Happy Spring' - particularly in our public schools. 

Or has that already happened and I just don't know it?  In the pre-Christian era of the world, those happy heathens, the Anglo Saxons, celebrated spring by feasting to the goddess Ostera - so perhaps we could really trip up those spiritually bereft secularists by saying 'Happy Ostera'!  (FYI - Secularism Definition: ". . . a doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations.")

Perhaps the day is coming when we see politically unoffensive pagan festivals of the ancient gods and goddesses beneath a peaceful spreading oak tree in a farmer's cow pasture, or  beside the banks of a clear and beautifully flowing stream deep in the woods - all with a closely guarded secret of course - that it's a scam of the Highest Order - if you get my meaning? 

The mainstream media would have a field day with that - probably run massive news coverage with the headline:  Proof The United States is not a Christian Nation! or, Paganism Replacing the Pulpit!  Christian city dwellers could even camp out in the public parks for some pagan tree praying!  Hmmm, what would the media label them?  Occupiers!  Occupying for their right to worship nature . . . what conceivable argument could be found with that?  They would be hailed as 21st Century hippies who actually cleaned up their trash, and would likely be interviewed with fond tolerance on the Today Show or Good Morning America.

Below you'll find some really old sayings and superstitions about Easter that are amusing, but also informative.  I had no idea that getting my 'Easter dress' as a child was from traditions started hundreds of years ago; and certainly had no idea how far back the tradition of the Easter egg dates.  If I'd been asked that question, I'd probably have replied without much thought that it is likely something Americans got started - I've just never really thought about it.  Shame on me. 

Also, I've excerpted at the end a great deal from an 1859 printing of a 'Cyclopedia' on the topic of Easter.  I haven't stopped to check what a modern 'Encyclopedia' says about Easter, I just generally like to read the less politically edited versions of old topics.


Old Sayings that caught my Eye or Ear:

     If you find a little calf on Easter Sunday, keep it and raise it, for it will bring you a small fortune. (Darn, wish I'd known that several years back!  I've only ever had one calve on Easter, and I didn't keep the cow and calf!)

     On Easter Sunday blow a loud horn into the cattle-house, and as far as the sound is heard, so far it will wild beasts keep away for the year.  (Okay, I'm on board for this one, and will be blowing a fog horn through all the pastures!)

     Egg rolling on Easter day used to be practiced with the idea that the farm lands over which the eggs were rolled would be sure to yield abundantly at harvest time.  (I'm too old, not to mention clumsy, to do this one.)

Really old Red Oak Burned up by a Lightening Strike
 a few days ago; fortunately, no cattle were in the pasture - April 2012

     In Catholic times, in England, people used to put out their fires on Easter day and would relight them from a flint. It was thought that a brand from this fire was a sure protection from thunder storms.  (We might need to figure out how to accomplish a modern version of this custom!  Lightening strikes have been many and fierce this spring!)

    

"At Easter let your clothes be new, Or else be sure, you will it rue."  In many countries it is a very general custom to wear new clothes on Easter Sunday and it is considered bad luck to wear old clothes. In East Yorkshire is the saying, that the birds, especially rooks or "crakes," will spoil the clothes, unless the person wears something new on Easter day.  (I do look back fondly mostly at new dresses for Easter Sunday, mostly, as some of them were awfully stuffy and itchy . . . Note in East Yorkshire you wear new clothes or a bird might poop on you, but in Gloucestershire it was good luck if a bird pooped on your new bonnet!)

     It is lucky to put on a new bonnet on Easter day, and still more lucky if a bird leaves a mark on it. (Gloucestershire, England.)

    

In Devonshire, the maidens rise early on Easter morning to see the dancing sun and in the center of its disk a lamb and a flag.  In Scotland, superstition had it, that the sun even whirled round like a mill-wheel and gave three leaps. This unusual merriment of the sun could be seen in its reflection in a pool or a pail of water, the movement of which of course caused or strengthened the illusion.  An Irish woman declared that she had seen the sun dance for joy on Easter morning: "It gave three skips just as it came over the hill, for I saw it with my own eyes!"  (This is a very old belief, and maybe is the root of the modern day Sunrise Service on Easter?)

On Easter day the water is believed to possess many exceptional properties, peasants ride their horses into the water early in the morning to ward off sickness. Girls wash their faces with the morning dew, to improve their beauty. Water drawn with the stream and while the wind is due east, is supposed to have great healing virtue. Much importance is attached to rain or shine on Easter day:

"A good deal of rain on Easter Day Gives a crop of good grass, but little good hay."

     Who steps not barefoot on the floor on Easter day, will be safe from fever; and if you bathe with cold water on Easter day, you will keep well the whole year.  (I see no reason not to keep this tradition up, and it is so unseasonably hot these days a cold shower shouldn't be a problem at all!)

Vintage Easter Greeting Card - Quite Appropriate, and I have lots
of Newborn Kittens to Back that up - Need a Kitty Kat?

On the traditional Easter Egg: 

"The custom of the Christians to present Easter-eggs as a symbol of the resurrection, has been adopted from the peoples of the East, particularly the Persians, where the egg was since the most ancient times symbolical of creation, or the re-creation of Spring. In Christian countries the Easter-eggs were painted red in allusion to the blood of the Redeemer.

The usage of interchanging eggs at Easter has also been referred for its origin to the egg games of the Romans which they celebrated at the time of our Easter, when they ran races in an egg-shaped ring, and the victor received eggs as a prize. These games were instituted in honor of Castor and Pollux who came forth from an egg, deposited by Leda, after Jupiter had visited her in the shape of a swan.

Others allege that the custom was borrowed from the Hebrews who at the passover set on the table two unleavened cakes and two pieces of lamb. To this they added some small fishes because of the leviathan, a hard egg because of the bird Zig, and some meal because of the behemoth.

In some remote districts of France it is still customary for the priest of the parish to go around to each house at Easter and bestow on it his blessing. In return he received eggs, plain and painted.

In Italy an egg dyed scarlet like the cloak of a Roman Cardinal is carried by some for luck all the year round.

It is very unlucky to give away a colored egg that has been presented to you at Easter."

On the history of Easter as presented in 1859: 

Source: THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA: A POPULAR DICTIONARY OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE, Volume VI., 1859

"EASTER, the festival of the resurrection of our Lord, or the Christian passover. The English name Easter and the German Oitern have been supposed by some writers to be derived from the name of the feast of the Teutonic goddess Ostera (the goddess of spring), which was celebrated by the ancient Saxons in the spring, and for which the early missionaries substituted the Christian festival.

According to Adelung, both the English and the German words are derived from the old Saxon word otter, oaten, which signifies rising, because nature arises anew in the spring. According to the Mosaic law, the passover among the Jews was celebrated on the 14th day of the month Abib, afterward called Nisan, that is, within a day or two before or after the vernal equinox. The early Christians differed in regard to the time of celebrating Easter.

The churches in the West, taught, as they declared, by St. Philip and St. Paul, observed the nearest Sunday to the full moon of Nisan, without taking account of the day on which the passover was celebrated. The Asiatic churches, on the other hand, in accordance as they said with the tradition derived from St. John, followed the Jewish calendar, and adopting the 14th of Nisan as the day of the crucifixion, celebrated the festival of Easter on the 3rd day following, whatever day of the week that might be.

Saving occasional disputes, matters continued in this state until the time of Constantino, who had the subject brought before the council of Nice (A. D. 325). The question was fully discussed, and finally settled for the whole church by adopting the rule which makes Easter day to be always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after March 21; and if the full moon happen on a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday after.

By this arrangement Easter may come as early as March 22, or as late as April 25.—This sacred festival has been termed the queen of festivals; it has been observed from the very beginning, and it is celebrated in every part of the Christian world with great solemnity and devotion. The primitive Christians very early on the morning of Easter saluted each other with the words: " Christ is risen;" to which the response was made : " Christ is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." The Greek church still retains this custom.

In nearly all Christian countries the recurrence of Easter has been celebrated with various ceremonies, popular sports, and superstitions. Among the best known is the English custom of making presents of colored eggs, called pasche or paste eggs, which were often elaborately ornamented ; and in a royal roll of the time of Edward I., preserved in the tower, appears an entry of 18d. for 400 eggs to be used for this purpose.

Colored eggs were used by children at Easter in a sort of game which consists in testing the strength of the egg shells, and this practice is retained in many places in England and the United States. In some parts of Ireland the legend is current that the sun dances in the sky on Easter Sunday morning. This was once a prevailing superstition in England also, which Sir Thomas Browne, the author of "Inquiry into Vulgar Errors," thought it not superfluous to declare unfounded."

For lots of old traditions and superstitions surrounding Easter and other events see:  Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Pg. 1515.

British White Bulls - A Little Fighting, a Lot of Working, and a Bunch of Bull . . .

J.West's Elvis, British White Bull, March 2012

The past couple of weeks have been full of a lot of 'bull'!  I've had my three eldest bulls penned and handy for a few weeks now - handy for me to pen them, but also handy for them to quarrel and trumpet at one another, make big bull head sized holes in the so-called 'bull' fencing, not to mention dig holes along the fence line that could serve as small ponds.  But only one actual bull fight as happened.

Unbelievably, I actually left a gate open!  Me!  The neurotic gate closer and double chain it back even if you're coming back in just a few . . . I actually screwed up in a big way on that rule.  Below is a video of the latter part of a fight between Elvis and Tom Sawyer.  I shot the video with my cell phone after giving up on breaking it up by my puny presence and a leather whip - all my efforts were just irritating to them - and I felt like I might just get swatted like an irritating fly on their behind. 

J.West's Tom Sawyer, British White Bull, March 2012

About the middle of the video you can see them both pause and look up at the faint sound of the chain on a gate in the background.  Then they go right back at it, and Mr. Brown drives right up on them with the alfalfa truck.  It distracts Elvis mostly and the next thing I know he's almost getting himself flipped over by Tom.  I decided to be that irritating fly on Tom's behind again and maybe try to make that whip sting more like a hornet - and as quickly as possible, my imagination in over drive at the prospect of old Elvis getting stomped once he was rolled.  I popped Tom hard twice, he jumped back (and I jumped back!) and took off at a gallop to one of the open pens - I could hardly believe my eyes.

 

While Tom is the younger bull, it looks like Elvis must surely be the old and wise bull.  When you watch the video you see Tom pushing Elvis over a lot of ground.  Elvis is resisting, rather than being on the offense, which would be a lot more tiring I'd imagine.  I took current weights on all three bulls last week, and even with Elvis being underweight right now - he still outweighs Tom considerably. 

J.West's El Presidente, British White Bull, March 2012

Here are the results of weight and hip height measure on each bull:

Tom Sawyer, Hip Height of 50.5 inches, Weight of 1565 lbs, Mature Frame Score 2 Bull
El Presidente, Hip Height of 51.5 inches, Weight of 1745 lbs, Mature Frame Score 2.5 Bull
Elvis, Hip Height of just under 52.5 inches, Weight of 1715 lbs, Mature Frame Score 3 Bull

And here is a short video of working the bulls in the squeeze chute on my vet's first visit. Tom and El Presidente have been real good about being moved in and out of the chute - while Elvis, normally such a laid back dude, seems intent on letting everyone know he is still a Rock Star!  Elvis was also the lucky bull this breeding season, he's been with a large number of cows - Tom and El Pres have been on their own - so maybe old Elvis is just full of a lot of bragging 'bull'........

Cattle Economic Forecasting - Some Prescient Words from the Noble Foundation

J.West's Stella and her Tom Sawyer sired Heifer

The following is a full reprint of a Noble Foundation article published in September of 2008.  It certainly is pertinent to today's cattle business environment, I'd say even more so today than in the fall of 2008 -- and without a doubt the livestock industry is " . . . about as interesting as most of us can stand."  Cattlemen following the advice of Mr. Wells back in 2008, would have weathered the past year and more of Texas drought with less hardship to their bank account and their cattle herd.




Interesting Times for Cattle Economics (Sept. 2008)

by Robert Wells

"There is an old Chinese curse that says, "May you live in interesting times." The current era in the livestock industry is about as interesting as most of us can stand. I believe we are in the midst of a paradigm shift. The cattle industry of tomorrow will almost certainly look different than it has in recent years. During 2008, many ranchers did not apply the same amount of fertilizer as they have in the past. Thus, in combination with low rainfall, forage quality and quantity this fall and winter may be lower than in the past. The price of feed has increased by 20-25 percent compared to fall 2007; therefore, feeding the current herd size though the winter may not be economically justifiable.
So what can a rancher do to stay economically viable given the high input costs? Ranchers need to look at several aspects of their cow herd: mature cow size, milking ability of the cow and stocking rate.

Mature Cow Size:
There have been many articles written to advise ranchers that they may need to moderate the mature size of their cow herd. We should always match the cow with the environment and the bull with the market. If you are in western Oklahoma or the Texas Panhandle, the optimum cow for your operation will typically be smaller than a cow on a ranch in the southeastern U.S. If your stocking rate (without fertilizer) is in the double digits of acres per animal unit, you might consider using a moderate-framed (smaller) cow (i.e., less than 1,000-1,100 pounds). Using a calving-ease, terminal-cross, and performance breed bull could yield calves that will be 50-60 percent of the cow's weight at weaning.

J.West's MsRae and her El Presidente Heifer Calf

Milking Ability of the Cow:
If you have a moderate-framed cow, but she is a heavy milker, then her requirements are higher than those of a low or moderate milking cow. Granted, a heavier milking cow may wean a heavier calf, but if you have to supplement that cow to a greater extent for her to recover flesh before the next calving season, are you really making more money? A heavier milking cow has a higher maintenance requirement even when she is not lactating. Thus, she requires more forage and feed to maintain her body condition score.

Stocking Rate:
Stocking rates will have to be adjusted if you have changed fertilizer rates from previous years. This reduction should take place in September before the flood of open and old cows goes to market in the fall. October and November are typically some of the lowest priced months to sell a cow. With the high cost of feed, it will be difficult to economically support feeding all the cows if the herd is at a maximum stocking rate. Many producers will get to the first frost and then realize that they will be short on pasture and hay this year. We need to get out of the mindset that a particular ranch needs to have a specific number of head to support itself. If your current number of head requires a lot of inputs, the ranch may be more economical at a lower number of cattle with fewer inputs.

As input costs continue to increase, we may need to look back to our grandparents' era to see how cattle were raised before we had easy access to fuel, feed and fertilizer. With every change in the industry, new opportunities abound. Those who dare to venture out of their comfort zone are those who will stay in the business for years to come.

 By becoming more efficient today, you will have a better chance of weathering the storm."

 

© 1997-2012 by The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Inc.

British White Calves - A Look at Their Color

Last week I said I'd take a look at the color of my new calves out of Target on this week's blog.  Trying to reason out the why's of color is sort of an excercise in futility!  That said, as calving has progressed this past week, there really hasn't been a lot of surprises like I anticipated after the first few calves were born.  Target most definitely likes to make bulls, so far I've had only one Target sired heifer born, so there'll be lots of grassfed beef for sale here in the Spring of 2014!   Here's a look at some of them . . .

J.West's Target, son of Morgan

J.West's Morgan, daughter of Marie

Halliburton Marie

Target is a mostly blue-skinned bull sired by El Presidente, also blue-skinned, out of dam, J.West's Morgan, who has light speckling on her sides; and his granddam, Halliburton Marie, a Popeye daughter, had light speckling as well, practically identical to her daughter, Morgan.



This is a first calf heifer sired by Carter, J.West's Molly, whose own dam, Doc's Gal, and granddam Ms. Rae, and great grandam, CRAE 215G are all standard marked.  I was quite surprised to see this little guy present himself with these large splashes of black. 

Molly and her Target sired Bull Calf

This is a first calf heifer sired by Carter, J.West's Miss Marie, whose own dam, Merry Marie, is marked almost identical to her in color pattern.  Her grandam is also Halliburton Marie, pictured above, so she's a 2nd cousin to Target, and if any one of these three calves could have been expected to be speckled or spotted, it would be this calf. 

Miss Marie and her Target sired Bull Calf

J.West's Maude Rae with Target sired Bull Calf

This is Maude Rae, a daughter of Huckleberry Finn and CRae 215G, and an aunt to Molly above.  As Huck Finn has lots of spots, I might have expected her to have a very spotted calf out of Target if Molly did.  Not so, but he does have lots of black about the face, more than I generally see in my calves.  

J.West's Brigit 07

This is Brigit, a daughter of King Cole, who was a blue-skinned bull with speckling; and Brigit herself is quite blue skinned and lightly speckled, having very nice pigment in all the vunerable areas.  Her dam and grandam both have mostly identical markings, with distinctive neck and shoulder spotting.  Brigit's dam and maternal sister are pictured below.  This Target sired calf is very much like his dam, Brigit, but with some black about the face.

J.West's Blossum and J.West's Bountiful Brigit

Brigit's Target sired Bull Calf

White Galloway Cattle and Color Patterns

Whisperings Jasper, A White Galloway Bull
Semen Available, Suncrest Stud, New Zealand

Last week I wrote about the Riggit Galloway, which generally is a line-backed bovine, having a white stripe from tail to nape and being color-sided - what we call linebacked.   The origins of the seedstock for the new Riggit Galloway breed came largely from White Galloway herds where the riggit marked calves were born that are of course not desirable in a White Galloway herd, just as they aren't desirable in a British White herd.  At the same time they are keen on retaining those color points, and at one web site we are told:

"It has been shown by years of breeding White Galloway bulls to White Galloway cows that the distinctive black colour points do disappear. However the use of a Black Galloway bull on a well marked or mismarked White Galloway cow does nearly always produce a well marked White Galloway calf. Over the years mating a Black Galloway bull to a White Galloway cow produces a 50:50 chance of a black or white calf." (Belted Galloway Cattle Society)

Lifestyle Danika, White Galloway Cow
Pinzridge Stud, New Zealand

There is a lengthy discussion entitled 'Inheritance of Colour in the Cattle Breed White Galloway' at the Suncrest Stud web site.  It seems they have taken the initiative to develop a project aimed at unravelling the various alleles which contribute to the variations in color that result from White Galloway breedings, with the goal of course to find the path to consistent breeding results as to White Galloway color and markings.

"Despite the fact that the mode of inheritance of colours and markings in White Galloways up to now is mostly unclear, it is attempted to fix rules, e.g. for registering animals in herdbooks, according to their colour. The basic rules of inheritance suggest that matings of animals with “perfect” colours and markings will yield the highest probability of obtaining offspring with the same colours. However, it is also quite clear that this strategy is not always successful and also it has to be decided what to do with animals with “perfect” colours and markings that are offspring from parents that not at all show these “perfect” characteristics. Hence, there is a specific demand for further research in the White Galloway breed." (Suncrest Stud News Page)

"Confusion exists whether the breed White Galloway indeed is a breed or just a phenotype. This may lead to even more confusion whether an animal with perfect colour and markings can be registered as a White Galloway even if its parents are not “perfect” or vice versa, i.e. the question of whether a White Galloway with offspring in different colour and markings can still be a registered White Galloway. The answers to all these questions are yet unknown. However, preliminary data points to assume that the White Galloway phenotype is indeed the result of a distinct genotype. The objective of the project is to scientifically solve the “WGA-mystery”, i.e. to unravel the mechanisms of colour inheritance in White Galloways."  (Suncrest Stud News Page)

Pinzridge Endevour with Hadley at Gore 2011
Pinzridge Stud, New Zealand

If you search for images of White Galloway and really give a good look, you'll notice that the breed is quite short legged and with very nice body depth and quite consistently meaty thick bovines.  The calf photos show youngsters that one might wonder if they were indeed of a miniature variation, they are so small and deeply built and just plain cute.  But of course they grow up to be very thick and stocky moderate framed beef animals that pack a lot of volume. 
 

Here is the often repeated description of the basic characteristics of the breed:

"Bulls weigh from 1,700 pounds (770kg) to 2,300 pounds (1045kg) with the average being 1,800 pounds (820kg). Cows weigh from 1,000 pounds (450kg) to 1,500 pounds (675kg) with the average being 1,250 pounds (565kg). Calves generally weight from 40 pounds to 60 pounds. Galloways are generally of a quiet temperament, but still maintain a strong maternal instinct and will protect a calf against perceived threats."

But at Pinzridge Stud we are told " . . .  Galloways are medium in size, with cows weighing about 1,000 pounds and bulls about 1,600 pounds."  For certain, many of the images you can find of White Galloways have them looking about 1000 to 1200 lbs, but it is always hard to judge a photo.  And what about all that hair in some of the images?  The Galloway puts on a second layer of longish hair in cold climates, yet will shed this layer and slick off in warm climates.  I was surprised to learn this, and long ago I had nixed them as a possibility in East Texas because of the thick coat of hair.

White Galloway Cow, Available for Purchase at Pinzridge Stud in New Zealand

Here's an old photo of two Elvis sired young calves in a cold winter.  The bull calf on the left put on quite a shaggy coat of hair.  I've noticed some do and some don't - just never stopped to consider the genetics of the reason.  I've had some freshly born with much longer hair than normal in the winter time as well, but again never took note, just thought they looked warm and cute!

Next week I'll post some photos of the newborns from this past week.  It has been interesting to see who got spots from whom this go around, and it has been down right disappointing to have had only one heifer born of these first five calves of the season,  The past couple of years I've been quite lucky in the rate of heifers born to bulls -- I'm afraid that luck has quite run out for spring 2012!

What's a Riggit? Meet the Riggit Galloway

A breed of cow unknown to me came to my attention a while ago; it is the Riggit Galloway.  Only very recently, in early 2007, has this type of Galloway cattle been rescued from obscurity and a breeding program established under the Riggit Galloway Cattle Society in the United Kingdom.  The Riggit has a long history in the British Isles, particularly Scotland.  'Riggit' has its basis in the word 'rig' which was the word for a back in old dialect, and a cow that had a white streak from tail to head was once variously referred to as a 'riggit' or 'rigget' or 'riggy' or 'rigged' animal.  Certainly that is much preferable to the derogatory term of 'skunk' to which they were regularly referred when I first became involved with the British White breed. 

"Clifton Hawthorn with her bull calf, Clifton Firethorn"
Source: Riggit Galloway Cattle Society

Apparently, the Riggit marked bovine was quite common on the British Isles, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone really.  For certain it is this very coloration that is often found in old cave paintings from prehistoric times.  That fact seems to mysteriously never be deserving of comment, much less retention in a herd, when puzzling over the births of 'Riggit' marked calves for a couple of hundred years in both the polled and horned white Park Cattle of old.  It is the very common purist attitude of the last hundred years and more that resulted in the relative obscurity of 'Riggit' marked cattle born in to Galloway herds until the establishment of the Riggit Galloway.

"They were well known and recognised prior to the specialisation of the current mainstream types, and were amongst the accepted types that eventually divided into the ‘Galloway’, and the ‘Angus’."  (Riggit Galloway Cattle Society)

Unlike the white Park Cattle of old, Galloways were Galloways were Galloways in the very early 19th century, despite the Riggit markings.  This is demonstrated by the painting entitled "A Fat Galloway Heifer" dated 1804 by the artist George Gerrard, as cited at the Riggit Galloway web site.  That painting is of a red 'Riggit' marked Galloway.  Certain quarters of horned white Park Cattle breeders  promote the notion that the 'riggit' markings occurring in the polled British White is due to outside blood introduction, and thus demonstrative of their 'impurity' as a breed.  The antiquity of the 'riggit' markings in the Galloway breed quite belies that notion. 

Certainly, you see the line-backed or 'riggit' markings oftentimes on a cross, but they are born as well to parents who are standard white with black points for some generations back.  If this were not the actual fact, then the appearance of 'riggit' marked calves in the ancient Chillingham herd, the horned White Park herds, and polled British White herds would have long since been completely eradicated as they were known to be ruthlessly culled.  Further, it is only recently that the Chillingham folks have stopped claiming to be the closest bovine in existence to the ancient aurochs of Britain.  Per the Riggit Galloway web site:  "Interestingly, German research indicates that the pre-domestication bovines, the Auroch, may have been carrying the same markings."  Certainly those markings have always seemed to me the best of both worlds, so to speak -- they have all that sun protective pigment to prevent skin cancers, yet they have the white along their back and head that provides for better heat tolerance. 

This young bull calf would be "baith brucket and rigget"
as he has a white line from nape to tail and his head his white. 

A Riggit marked cow is what most refer to as a line-backed cow these days, and in the polled British White breed there are oftentimes unexpected Riggit marked cows born to this day.  More often than not, at least in my herd, those Riggit marked cows or bulls are exceptional bovine specimens. 

It is primarily from the Riggit marked calves born in White Galloway herds that the genetics for the recovered Riggit breed was obtained over the years.  Riggit Galloways can be red or black in primary color, as is the case in Park cattle, polled or horned.

I did some digging, looking for use of the various old spellings of this 'Riggit' term in reference to cattle.  I didn't find a lot, but here are the old references and even definitions of Riggit cows I ran across, which of course quite confirm their regular occurrence in the herds of the British Isles of old:

"A cow in Scotland is called a riggie, if she have a stripe running along the back from the nape to the tail; she is then said to be riggit or rigged, from rig, the back, in Swedish rygg, or rijgg . . . Rig, which with us has now become ridge, was once an English as well as a Scottish word, in the sense of a back (a pake at his rigge, a pack at his back). In like manner the old English word brigg, brig, has become bridge."   (Source: Notes and Queries, Pg. 154, Oxford Journals, Aug. 22, 1857)

"RIGGY, sb. Sc. Also in form rigga Sh.I. [ri'gi.] A name given to a cow having a stripe along the back. . . "  (Source:  The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect . . .edited by Joseph Wright, P. 109, 1904)

"Riggie, s. A cow with a white strip along the back. S. Riggit, Rigged, adj. Having a white strip, or white and brown streaks along the back ; applied to cattle. . . Riggie, S. A designation given to a cow having a strip of white along the back, S.O. and B.; obviously from Big, the back. . .  Riggit, Rigged, adj. Having a white stripe or white and brown streaks, running along the back; applied to cattle, ibid.  "When a stripe of white run [r. ran] along the ridge of her back, she got the name of a rigged cow."  (Source: Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, by John Jamieson, Various editions from 1841 and beyond.)

Early 19th Century Scottish Fairy Tale Excerpt:  "However, she employs Tom to go to a fair that was near by, and buy her another (cow); she gives him three pounds, which Tom accepts of very thankfully, and promises to buy her one as like the other as possibly he could get; then he takes a piece of chalk, and brays it as small as meal, and steeps it in a little water, and therewith rubs over the cow's face and back, which made her baith brucket and rigget.   

So Tom in the morning takes the cow to a public-house within a little of the fair, and left her till the fair was over, and then drives her home before him; and as soon as they came home, the cow began to rout as it used to do, which made the old woman to rejoice, thinking it was her own cow; but when she saw her white, sighed and said, "Alas! thou'll never be like the kindly brute my Black Lady, and ye rout as like her as ony ever I did hear." But says Tom to himself, "'Tis a mercy you know not what she says, or all would be wrong yet." 

So in two or three days the old woman put forth her bra' rigget cow in the morning with the rest of her neighbours' cattle, but it came on a sore day of heavy rain, which washed away all the white from her face and back; so the old woman's Black Lady came home at night, and her rigget cow went away with the shower, and was never heard of. But Tom's father having some suspicion, and looking narrowly into the cow's face, found some of the chalk not washed away, and then he gave poor Tom a hearty beating, and sent him away to seek his fortune with a skin full of sore bones."  (Source: Excerpt from LOTHIAN TOM, Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales, by George Douglas, [1901], at sacred-texts.com)

The video below is of J.West's McQueenie, who was out of my 'Riggit' marked Bountiful 04 sired by my original 'Doc' bull, who is also the sire of J.West's W.W. Doc, J.West's Elvis, and J.West's Mazarati.  Bountiful 04's dam was a quite costly Popeye daughter - HRH Bountiful, who is the senior cow in my herd today.  McQueenie had standard marked 'immediate' forebears, and McQueenie has had nothing but white calves for me until her 2011 calf, and nothing but heifer calves I would add.  It is this video on YouTube that led me to learn about the Riggit Galloway breed of cattle.

My Bichon Frise Turned 20 Years Old - Meet my Fred - The Oldest Living 'Confirmed' Bichon Frise in the USA Today!

<> Fred died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday morning, March 25, 2012. He was buried Sunday evening with all the love and grace and honor that such a wonderful life companion deserves.

"We do have another current report of a 20 year old Bichon," and "we have heard of a few that may have reached 20 but their owners never sent confirmation of date of birth.  I suspect those that are supposed to have gone beyond 20 are VERY few and far between." (Feb 1, 2012, Anne at BichonHealth.org)



 

Forever Fred the Wonder and Pumpkin, Jan. 2012

We managed to escape the ranch for a week on a last minute trip down to Port Mansfield, Texas.  The weather was so mild it was flat hot some days.  Of course we took Fred, my elderly Bichon Frise, along for the trip, and that warm weather seemed to do wonders for his old arthritic bones.  He woke up Christmas morning unable to walk because of some new problem with his right rear leg.  His lower vertebrae are all fused together, a solid mass of bone per the vet.  By the time we got back from Port he was walking good stretches on his own and managing turns as well.  I figured out a way to walk him after Christmas.  I put a leash under him and in front of his rear legs, and support him lightly with both ends of the leash.  It works remarkably well. 

Some of you know Fred from the early days when he was agile and manageable to travel to association meetings and sales.  The past few years that's not been the case, and so I've missed a lot of events out of consideration for my little Fred.  Seems silly to most people, of that I am certain.  But, we do what we do.  Fred turned 20 years old on October 28th, 1991.  I finally contacted the AKC to double check the year of birth, as I'd been thinking he turned 20 last year, but my old memory was off by one Christmas.

Freddie Boy, my 20 year old Bichon Frise, Christmas 2011
Click this link for a video of Fred on Christmas

Fred was a Christmas present for me, and he arrived on Christmas Eve 1991, a bundle of rolly polly joy from the day he arrived, and he loves me madly like I'll never be loved again.  Unfortunately, for quite some time now I rarely get a full nights sleep, or even a stretch of sleep for more than 3 hours, because only his Mom can seem to make him happy and figure out just what it is he needs - food, water, or just me to hold him until he goes back to sleep.  It's not something you think about when you get a pup, that he'll live to be a crotchety old fart that needs constant attention - and believe me it is tiresome and really wearing me down.

Freddie Boy on New Years Day 2012
Click this link for a video from New Years

There are good days for him still, for us all, like New Years Day.  He really enjoyed being outside and just hanging out in the mild weather.  This past summer was so brutal that it was the very rare event that he ever ventured outside, he can't tolerate the heat anymore, or for that matter real cold weather either.  Last September when the weather finally turned mild I brought him outside with me for a while.  I was very happy to see him interested in exploring and sniffing and just enjoying himself out of the house. 

Pumpkin the cat has a thing for Fred, she always likes to say hello to him, tries to get him to interact with her.  It's kind of strange.  Pumpkin gets along with absolutely none of the other cats on the place - once she raised her kittens she was quite done with tolerating them and considers herself very important around here.  This is a video of Fred and Pumpkin in September 2011:



One of these days I'm going to get a scanner so I can scan in some of his old photos - he was quite the cute Bichon pup and the handsome all grown up Bichon as well.  I can't imagine there are very many Bichon Frise's that have made it to 20 years and beyond, so I figure he deserves a little recognition out there for his stubborn survival of 2 decades.

And it really has been a miraculous survival.  He has had so many brushes with death it is mind boggling.  Let's see how many I can recall in order . . .

. . . . . He was deliberately run over by a young punk when he was real young and we were down in Port Mansfield.  He had gotten out of the yard and was standing in the middle of the road and the kid drove straight over him, while I'm running from the yard and screaming my head off at him to stop.  Fred was still standing there after the car passed over him, just fine except for a greasy streak across his back.

. . . . . He was attacked by a vicious and big Cocker Spaniel while he was on a long lead staked out in the front yard at Port.  The dog probably would have killed him were it not for a Labrador retriever named 'Bear' that was Fred's bud from down the street.  Bear heard the ruckus and showed up and attacked the cocker spaniel who ran off with his tail between his legs.  The cocker managed to completely shatter the brand new juvenile cataract in one of Fred's eyes - so it was a pretty rough attack.

. . . . . He jumped off the deck of our fishing cabin and landed in the water instead of the boat he was aiming for.  I was cooking inside and that sixth sense kicked in and I ran outside and there he was paddling for all he was worth in the Laguna Madre - staying like a miracle right there by the boat despite the current that should have carried him away. 

 . . . . . He survived a high speed, high impact rollover accident, along with me, that should have killed us both.  He was literally standing on all four feet after having been tossed through the window on the last roll.  We did lose our Ginger, and Fred howled in grief for her for many years.

. . . . . He fell about 20 feet from a porch to the concrete below and a little bitty BBQ pit broke his fall, and a tooth.  He went in to shock and almost died from that but for a very good vet in Beaumont.  Miraculously he only had a chipped tooth from the fall.

. . . . . He managed to walk the cattle guard and all the way across the front pasture and through the barbed wire fence and into the middle of the highway.  This was early one morning and poor Fred had been forgotten about after being put outside to do his business.  He was saved from sure death by a young family who left their camp on the lake early that Sunday morning to head home in time to go to church.  They stopped and picked him up.  It was a few hours before we found him -- he was at the police station in Woodville having a fried egg with the local cops for breakfast.

. . . . . He was snatched from my doorway by a visiting Rottweiler, literally snatched from where he stood at my feet.  His head was completely in the Rott's mouth and he was being swung back and forth, back and forth.  My Mom saved him from the Rott.  She threw herself on the dog and he dropped Fred.  All Fred had were two slits on either side of his neck that somehow managed to not hit major veins, and the shaking didn't break his neck or hardly even hurt him at all - the vet said he was indeed one lucky dog.

. . . . . He fell that same about 20 feet from the living room floor and straight down, glanced off the bottom stair we think, and hit the floor. We keep the upper stair railings roped off as they are widely spaced, something came undone and we hadn't noticed.  Anyway, Fred the Wonder Dog screamed on that fall, but didn't go into shock, and didn't break any bones or chip any teeth.

Just having problems with his lower back after all these accidents isn't so bad . . .

Forever Fred the Wonder, Born 10-28-91, AKC Registered Bichon Frise
Pictured here at 19 years old in June 2011 -
Lots of Napping may be the key to Longevity!

British White Cattle in Southeast Texas Pastures - Winter of 2012

J.West's Elvis - Having himself a lazy day in the sun . . .
Jan. 11, 2012

Lazy, I've been terribly blog lazy the past few weeks, but it's good to have some things set up and ready to post to give myself a little holiday vacation time from scratching my head about what to talk about.  Today has seen very sunny, cold and windy weather, at least compared to anything recently, and tonight it may well freeze.  I have to think the 18 plus inches of rain we've had the past couple of months, including the 3 and 7/10ths from a couple of days back, will be be of help for all the pasture plants and trees.  Did you know that the safest way for a plant in a pot to endure a freeze is to saturate the pot with water?  It actually helps protect the roots from the cold. 

I'm not sure yet just how many trees we lost in the drought, I'll wait until next spring before declaring anything for sure dead.  So if some hardwood trees that are suffering and still clinging to too many of their leaves (which means they are dead or sick) might just need the protection of wet soil to endure a freeze -- I'm mighty pleased the ground is brim full of water right now.

Limit feeding helps cut down on this sort of behavior as well!

This past summer of drought was a learning experience, but no less so has been this winter.  There have been many articles written over the past few months advising and alerting cattlemen how to manage their herds through a lean winter, and I made some changes in routine following their guidance. 

One I think that has lots of merit is limit feeding hay to your cattle.  Instead of having 24 hour access to the hay, I limit fed for several weeks, letting them in to the hay about 5PM and turning them out mid morning to eat their daily alfalfa on clean pasture.  Afterward, they would mosey around and graze a bit, nap a bit, then by about 4PM they'd begin to gather at the gate to the corral, waiting for me.  I definitely think that helped cut down hay consumption.  The premise is that some cows will just eat and eat and eat if its there, basically getting more than they need, leaving less for others who aren't so greedy. 

The other thing really hammered on by lots of the articles was the importance of adequate nutrition in that last trimester.  We all know they need to be on a good diet leading up to calving, but the problem this winter that the writers were focused on was the 'quality' of the hay being fed.  There is lots of really bad so-called 'hay' out there these days.  Even in my own very fortunate supplies of hay, I realized real quick that lots of it wasn't as good as it had been in the years past. 

So, I brought in Crystalyx mineral tubs again for the first time in a number of years.   The Crystal-Phos tubs are an excellent and reliable product, and it gives you a sense of relief having them out there, particularly through the past several weeks of lots of rain.  A dry loose mineral would have mostly been money down the drain for certain and the cows would have suffered for it I'm sure. 

J.West's El Presidente - Jan. 11 2012

The bulls on the other hand haven't seen much special treatment.  They have red mineral blocks and always the worst hay, but their daily alfalfa ration as well.  They have also begun to graze the pitiful rye grass finally coming on.  Not that I really want them to already!  But, of course I have way too many bulls on the place and they have to call some pasture home around here.  El Presidente doesn't look like he's suffering much, nor Elvis in the photo up top.  We're all getting along just fine for now (knock on wood) . . .

Shorthorn and white Park Cattle - Crossbreeding Experiment with Notable Results



Champion  White Shorthorn, A very large 19th century
bovine, or so it would appear in comparison to man and dog.

The following late 19th century account of the crossing of white Shorthorns with white Park cattle from the Chillingham herd is a very interesting read.  The heterosis from the cross was remarkable, resulting in at least a doubling of the harvest weight of the resulting steers; per some references, an almost tripling of harvest weight of a pure wild white steer. 

"This wild breed holds its own very strongly, and the first cross is not distinguishable from the pure breed in its colour or distinctive marks."  The Earl of Tankerville, ~1890, in reference to the cross breeding experiment with white Shorthorn cattle.

"The calves at birth are pure white, more creamy white afterwards, ears reddish-brown. The horns of the animals as they grow are white, with black tips; hoofs and noses black; eyes fringed with long eyelashes, which give them depth and character; bodies symmetrically formed; backs straight and level; shoulders fine, enabling them to trot like match horses with amazing rapidity. The average weights of wild (white) cattle killed from 1862 to 1889 were : bulls, 560 lbs. ; cows, 420 lbs.; and steers, 570 lbs." (Houseman, 1897)


WILD CATTLE.
Bruce Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 2485, 16 June 1893, Page 4

"Our readers have heard of the famous white cattle of Chillingham, Northumberland, supposed to be the descendants of the original "Bos primigenius," but much degenerated in size, that once roamed the plains and forests of Europe in prehistoric times. There is still a herd of these cattle at Chillingham, and a recent number of the 'Agricultural Gazette' publishes a chatty and interesting article about the animals and experiments with them and thusly proceeds:

"At the Royal Show at Kilburn and again at the Smithfield Club Show in 1888 the public were much interested in the specimens of white animals which Lord Tankerville exhibited, being a cross between his own famous white wild cattle at Chillingham Park and the pure Shorthorn. In 1876 an experiment was made in putting a wild bull on four pure-bred Shorthorn heifers; only two of them bred. One produced a heifer calf (Eve), which she in her turn, never bred, and the bull (Adam), whilst running with his dam, a fine white cow, Honored Guest, got her in calf, and the produce was another bull, called Cain. At three years old this animal showed great masculine character, with extraordinary hair and flesh, though retaining some of the wild nature.

In 1884 a second experiment was made the reverse way. Two wild heifers were crossed with the white Shorthorn bull, Baron Bruce 47,387; from one of these was born, on March 20th, 1885, a white heifer called Wild Rose, and on April 13th the following year the other heifer produced a white cow calf called Wild Blossom.  Both these have since been mated with purebred white bulls from Mr. Booth's herd, Wild Rose, still breeding, having produced five calves and Wild Blossom four.

Now the second calf of Wild Rose, a heifer calved in September, 1888, called Wild Rose 2nd, has produced in her turn two bulls, which, like the rest of the male calves, have been castrated. Altogether there are to be seen in the small paddocks outside the park and adjoining the farm the two original half-bred wild cows and their ten descendants, six being females and four steers.  

On a bright winter's morning at the close of the last year the wild herd appeared remarkably quiet and well; they were lying in "happy content" on the grassy plateau to the west of Ross Castle, high up under the woods, basking in the sun. Two or three, the stragglers of the herd, got up, stretched their legs, and picked a bit here and there, but the early morning graze was finished, and a quiet hour's look at the herd from the wood showed little of their individuality. 

The herd for many years past has been numbered, and during the last five years has exceeded the usual sixty, going up to seventy three in 1890. The females ranged in the five years from thirty-five to thirty-nine, but more bulls and fewer oxen have been kept of late years.  A bull was sent in 1886, at much risk of life and limb, to the Duke of Hamilton's wild herd at Cadzow Park, near Glasgow.

Champion White Shorthorn exhibited at Smithfield, Dec. 1874
Print available from Art.com

The half-breds are kept completely apart from the wild herd, and there is rich grazing and comfortable hammels in each paddock for them. Wild Rose and Wild Blossom, both by Baron Bruce but out of different original wild cows, though each have the short legs and long, curved, upward type of horn, are deeper in their bodies than their wild ancestors, but differ in general character.

Wild Rose, with red hairy ears and dingy nose, is of broad frame and comparatively tame, though her produce inherit the wildness of her ancestors; whilst, on the contrary, Wild Blossom retains the wild type of head and horn and wild nature of her race; her hind-quarters are drooping and plain, the udder is well shaped, and she is a good milker, yet her produce are singularly tame; her third calf, a heifer, Wild Blossom 2nd by Sir Reginald Studley 58,148, was calved on January 12th, 1891, in the snow, and rarely goes under cover.  

Wild Blossom's first calf by the Rajah was calved December 3rd, 1888, and steered. It ran in the paddocks, and had, in addition, hay, a few cut turnips, and a little cake. It was killed on December 17th, 1891, and weighed 112 stone of 14 lb live weight, and dressed to 70 stone, being sold for £36 19s 6d. This is a great increase of the weight of the wild steers, as many years ago "The Druid", when writing of the Chillingham herd says, the steers always grow larger horns, and weigh from 40 to 50 stones of  14 lb in their natural state. Four steers were feeding in the paddocks during November last, and two of them would have easily carried honors in the crossbred classes at the Smithfield Show, one of them, full brother to Wild Blossom's first calf, was sold on December 12th last year for £50, he weighed alive 130 stones, and dressed 81 stones 8 1b when just three years old.  

Wild Rose 2nd by Rajah out of Wild Rose by Baron Bruce, having two crosses Shorthorn blood, is more lengthy and broader in body than her dam, the head, horns, and eye assimilating more to the shorthorn. She was served in July, but came regularly in use and was served again until November, and yet she produced a bull calf in April to the first service. The three calves by Sir Reginald Studley running with their dams were of singular merit; although shy and galloping a short distance off when approached, they were remarkably full of abundant long white hair and thick flesh, such, indeed, as would astonish the public if exhibited in our show yards."