Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

THE AYRSIIIRES. 6l
Ayrshire cows capable of giving 900 gallons in the year, it would be
difficult to bring ten of them together ; and in stocks, the greater
number most carefully selected and liberally fed, from 650 to 700
gallons is the very highest produce of each in the year."
Mr. Rankine, on his own farm, the soil of an inferior nature, produced
about 550 gallons, and the receipts amounted to only £7 13s.
'
6d. per cow ;
.
We have entered at length into this, because it is of importance to
ascertain the real value and produce of this breed of cattle.
The Ayrshire cattle are not yet sufficiently known, and cannot be
procured cheap enough, or in adequate numbers, to undergo a fair
trial in the south. Some have been- tried in the London dairies. As
mere milkers, they could not compete with the long-established
metropolitan dairy cow, the short-horn. They yielded as much
milk, in proportion to size and food, but not in proportion to the
room occupied, and the increased trouble which they gave from
being more numerous, in order to supply the requisite quantity of
milk. They produced an unusual quantity of rich cream ; but there
was so much difficulty in procuring them, to keep up the stock, and
the price -asked so great, that they were compartively abandoned.
The fattening properties of the Ayrshire cattle we believe to be
exaggerated. They will feed kindly and profitably, and their meat
will be good. They will fatten on farms and in districts where others
could not, except supported* by artificial food. They unite, perhaps,
to a greater degree than any other breed, the supposed incompatible
properties of yielding a great deal of milk and beef. It is, however,
on tha inferior soil and the moist climate of Ayrshire, and the west
of Scotland, that their superiority as milkers is most remarkable. On
their natural food of poor quality they give milk abundantly and
long, and often until within a few days of calving ; but when they
are moved to richer pasture, their constitution changes, and they convert
their food more into beef. In their own country, a cow of a
fleshy make, and which seldom proves a good milker, may be easily
raised to 40 or 50 stones, and bullocks of three years old are brought
to weigh from 50 to 60 stones. There is a lurking tendency to fatten
about them which good pasture will bring forth ; so that when the
Ayrshire cow is sent to England she loses her superiority as a milker,
and begins to accumulate flesh. On this account it is that the
English dealers who purchase the Ayrshire cows generally select the
c6arsest animals, to avoid the consequence of the change of climate
and food. It is useless to exaggerate the qualities of any cattle, and
it cannot be denied that even in this tendency to fatten when their
milk begins to fail, or which often causes it to fail, the Ayrshires
must yield to their forefathers the Highlanders, and to their neighbors
the Galloways, when put on a poor soil ; and they will be left
considerably behind their short-horn sires when transplanted to