Pembroke cattle

Pembroke cattle were a breed of dual-purpose short-legged, hardy, black cattle native to Wales.^[1] A society was formed in 1867 to try to improve the breed, and the first register of Pembroke cattle was published in 1874. Pembroke cattle were registered with black cattle from North Wales in 1904, to create the Welsh Black breed.

Characteristics

Pembroke cattle were described as being coal black.^[2] William Youatt said some had white faces and white about the udder,^[3] but this was ascribed to cross-breeding by Read. The horns which at first incline outwards and forwards, and then bend somewhat upwards and inwards, are light coloured with black tips. They were reported to be good milk producers, with many being sold to London town dairies. Store cattle of the breed were favoured for grazing in Sussex and Kent, especially on the Pevensey Levels,^[4] and many also went to the English Midlands.

History

The ancient breed was indigenous to the old Welsh counties of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, and South Cardiganshire. There were distinct strains in the Castlemartin area of South Pembrokeshire and the Dewsland area of north Pembrokeshire. These cattle were locally regarded as hardier on the poor land than English dairy breeds such as the Shorthorn. Both types were later amalgamated into the Welsh Black breed for which a herdbook was opened in 1874.^[5] By the end of the 19th century some 25,000 black cattle from South Wales were being sold to England annually.

References

↑ Some Welsh Breeds of Cattle in the Nineteenth Century by J Colyer. p5
↑ C. S. Read, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England x, I849, p139
↑ W. Youatt, Cattle, their breeds, management and disease, 1834, pp. 72-3.
↑ J. Bannister. A synopsis of husbandry, I799, p. 47
↑ Some Welsh Breeds of Cattle in the Nineteenth Century by J Colyer. p6

Twm Elias, Welsh Farm Animals 1: Cattle, Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2000.

Livestock breeds of the British Isles

Cattle

Beef cattle	Angus Beef Shorthorn Belted Galloway Blue Grey Devon Dexter English Longhorn Galloway Hereford Highland Luing Shorthorn South Devon Sussex Welsh Black

Dairy cattle	Ayrshire Guernsey Jersey Milking Shorthorn

Dual purpose	British White Gloucester Pembroke Red Poll Shetland Whitebred Shorthorn

Primitive	Chillingham wild cattle Vaynol White Park cattle

Sheep

Extant	Beulah Speckled Face Bluefaced Leicester Border Leicester British Milk Cheviot Clun Forest Cotswold Dalesbred Derbyshire Gritstone Devon Closewool Devon Longwoolled Dorset Down English Leicester Exmoor Horn Galway Greyface Dartmoor Hampshire Herdwick Hill Radnor Kerry Hill Lincoln Llanwenog Lleyn Lonk Norfolk Horn Oxford Down Portland Romney Rough Fell Ryeland Scottish Blackface Shetland Shropshire Southdown sheep Suffolk Swaledale Teeswater Welsh Mountain Wensleydale Whitefaced Woodland Wiltshire Horn

Primitive	Boreray Castlemilk Moorit Hebridean Jacob Manx Loaghtan North Ronaldsay Soay

Extinct	Scottish Dunface

Pigs

Extant	Berkshire British Landrace British Lop British Saddleback Essex Gloucestershire Old Spots Hampshire Large Black Large White Middle White Oxford Sandy and Black Tamworth Welsh Wessex Saddleback

Extinct	Cumberland Grice Lincolnshire Curly-coated Small Black Small White Yorkshire Blue and White

Goats

Anglo-Nubian Bilberry British Alpine Golden Guernsey Irish

Poultry

Chickens	Cornish Derbyshire Redcap Dorking Ixworth Marsh Daisy Modern Game Modern Langshan Norfolk Grey Old English Game Old English Pheasant Fowl Orpington Rosecomb Scots Dumpy Scots Grey Sebright Sussex

Ducks	Abacot Ranger Aylesbury Orpington Khaki Campbell Magpie Shetland Welsh Harlequin

Geese	Brecon Buff Shetland

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