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."