Your living Ivan Bykovich
The history of the origin of bulls and cows, from Ivan Bykovich
Modern, as we already know, the ancient ancestors of cows are aurochs. In other words, the tur was the progenitor of modern meat and dairy domestic animals, popularly called cows and their legal spouse, the bull.
Before taming the ancient cow (a strong and mighty aurochs), man had already become accustomed to taming other, once ownerless, stray and wild animals, such as goats, sheep and pigs (wild boar). These three species, which were quite amenable to training, gave ancient man food, warm woolen clothes (goats and sheep), milk (goats), and people liked the skin and fat of pigs so much that they are used to this day, that is, for many, many thousands of years.
It is necessary to note the following: goats, sheep, and especially pigs require quite little attention, are not aggressive towards humans and are easily controlled with the help of one shepherd and a whip. on the contrary, they were very strong, agile, and very cruel. This type of animal, for quite a long time, inspired fear, awe and respect in people (this can be read in many myths and legends about ancient bulls), who in some cases were even ancient gods.
Of course, goats, pigs, and even sheep grow quickly, multiply rapidly and do not pose a threat to humans. They gave people food and food, why did man domesticate the ancient aurochs (cows and bulls).
To get to the bottom of this complex issue we have to plunge into the historical past, into those distant times, in other words, turn to history.
So before there were two types of people - farmers and cattle breeders.
Cattle breeders (people who raise animals) were nomadic, that is, they moved from place to place, this is due to the gluttony of herbivores - they ate juicy grass, they had to be moved to new pastures. At the same time (in a colder climate) it was necessary to move to more fertile lands during the winter, or when the grass harvest failed, this is very convenient - after all, no one wanted to harvest the grass, dry it and protect it day and night from annoying forest herbivores and voracious mice.
But life for farmers was much more difficult; they constantly had to grow garden plants, care for them, dig and hill up the ground, cut down trees, uproot roots and develop more and more fertile arable land that would supply their rapidly multiplying population with their gifts.
This was far from an easy task, so people (farmers) urgently had to find a way out of the current situation, which was so difficult by those standards. They turned to astrologers for help, who at that time were the smartest, they were scientists. And then, after several sleepless nights, it dawned on one of the stargazers, he caught an insight. The astrologer gathered himself and quickly headed towards the people. He probably told people about the following words: “People, my dear farmers, how stupid you have been! It is necessary to use hired labor, the labor of strong animals. I decided - let it be (wild cows and bulls)!”
This is how it all happened: the ancient bulls were captured and forced to work hard. And in those distant times it was backbreaking work.
Who, where, why and when domesticated bulls and cows?
To this question, a number of scientists unequivocally, using geological and cultural finds in the form of writing on rocks, in caves and the miraculously surviving remains of ancient boards, are inclined to the conclusion - it was eight or nine thousand years ago. According to scientists' calculations, this happened in places where agriculture flourished especially strongly, and in these places people had high level birth rate, somewhere exactly there the astrologer mentioned above lived - in the valleys of the Euphrates, Tigris and Nile rivers, and a similar phenomenon was observed in the channels of fertile lands near the Yandza and Indus channels.
What did the ancient bulls and even their female companions, the cows, do in those years: they walked in circles all day long, moving a huge stone that was located above another large stone, the friction between the stones was very high, so they had a hard time. This mechanism was called a millstone, with the help of it people obtained flour from the grains they grew on arable land, which was later processed into bread. Of course, ancient bulls were not fed bread, they were practically not fed at all, since good food was the prerogative of wild animals and, of course, humans. Bulls were also used on arable land where grain seeds were grown, which were turned by cows using huge stone millstones. In those days, a plow was a log made from a tree trunk cut off on both sides; this log was driven into the ground to the very top, a strong rope was tied to a branch or hole (hollow) on the trunk, and the other side of the rope was tied to a bull (cow). After this, the bulls were beaten with all their might with whips or long sticks, forcing them to move by inertia in the direction of the vector - from the side of the blow to the opposite. Thus, carry out the following process: drag a log that has been driven in advance, don’t play around, into the depths of the earth. The log had to be dragged against the grain of the earth. Yes, it was hard for the bulls, but they were strong and coped with this task, for which they received a valuable reward - life.
Over time, having literally lowered the authority of the once deified bulls, people began to strive for waste-free production and began to use the spouses of bulls - cows, in full, that is, milk them, take them apart piece by piece and eat them.
Of course, not all people were so merciless; among many nations, eating, much less drinking, cows’ milk was considered an outrage, and disregard for these principles was punished very severely.
As we know from history textbooks, science of that time also did not stand still, it developed intensively, looked for solutions, made new discoveries, and made numerous funny experiments. So, as a result, humanity came to the amazing discovery that cows' milk is a very nutritious and valuable product (bulls do not give milk, only cows are milked). These conclusions were reached after numerous hours, days, months, and possibly years. Philosophers and scientists asked the question: why are the bull and cow so strong and so hardy? The final conclusion made by a group of scientists amazed the masses: “This is thanks to the milk that a cow drinks and feeds her cubs!” This fatal news for cows quickly spread around the world, milk, which was once not consumed as food, jumped sharply in price, an incredible demand arose for it, an unprecedented panic arose on the ancient stock exchange, as a result of which many cow-holders became greatly enriched, and some even got rich. In those days, only very noble people could afford to drink milk, and this made even richer and more prosperous people of the upper class.
A person would not be a person if he did not have the ability to think perpendicularly. The price of milk was high, milk was in short supply, what to do? After all, we need to saturate the market and satisfy demand. Therefore, a new invention was made - diluting milk. It is not known for certain whether this was spontaneous, purposeful, or done secretly from others by a certain group (or one person) of cow-holders. Since then, milk has been diluted, diluted, diluted. As you might guess, they diluted it with simple and therefore free river water; over the years, the diluted milk became more and more, and as a result it became so much that it caused a drop in its value on the stock exchanges. Milk became available to almost everyone. Children, adults, and elderly people of varying status and family income began to drink it.
In parallel with this, another process was going on, this process is called milking of cows. Milkers and milkmaids of that time often turned to the cow's udder in order to strain expensive milk; over time, these manipulations had a significant effect. Initially, the cow gave milk no more than modern forest hedgehog, that is, exactly as much as was required to feed their young. This gave rise to a physiological restructuring of the cow’s body, its udder to constant production milk.
Let's digress a little from the topic, as it is not difficult to guess, cattle breeders could not allow some young cows to drink expensive milk, and replenishment in the ranks of such a valuable domestic animal was required. Accordingly, milk was diluted with water for calves (this is also one of the versions about how humanity came up with the idea of diluting natural milk), gave them something to drink. Of course, the cows and bulls did not become stronger, healthier and more resilient because of this, and yet they continued to be good, strong workers. But over time, the weakened genes, transmitted by inheritance, did their job - bulls and cows became much weaker than their ancestors, although at times individuals remained in decent physical condition, but this is not at all the same power that their ancestors - the ancient cows - had and bulls, especially tours. By the way, this is precisely why in the future humanity had to invent a combine harvester, a shrew machine, an automatic mill and other such popular mechanisms that have survived almost unchanged to this day. The bulls and cows could no longer cope with the tasks assigned to them... Neither whips nor sticks helped.
Finally, we read the article, which briefly learned about the history of domestication of cows and bulls. In the future, we will definitely return to the topic of cows more than once. We will touch on facts hidden from prying eyes, give examples, remember the mythology of various cultural lands, learn that bulls were gods, make a lot of discoveries, and much more, so you need to safely subscribe to the RSS subscription to stay informed, especially that soon this will be very relevant.
When copying an article in its entirety, part of it, quoting, cloning or other duplication, a direct, undistorted link to the original source, i.e. on
It is difficult to name a more familiar and familiar to man pet than cow. Now imagine the pens of the zoo, on which there are signs: “Cow”, “Pig”, “Goat”. Can't be! But such a zoo exists in Germany, and children willingly visit it - after all, for many this is the only opportunity to get acquainted with farm animals. A survey conducted among schoolchildren in the American city of Boston generally yielded incredible results: it turned out that most of the children had no idea what role a cow plays in milk production! They were convinced that the milk sold in stores in brightly colored bags was produced in a factory, like Coca-Cola. Of course, this case is exceptional, but let’s be honest, you and I often know much more about wild animals than about our breadwinner cows.
“Except for the king, there is nothing more important than the cow” - this is a saying among the Watussi Africans living in East Africa. And indeed, meat, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, butter - we owe all this to the cow. On average, she produces 3-5 thousand kilograms of milk per year, but there are also record holders who milk up to 20 thousand kilograms per year.
Although there are no world championships among cows, the names of record holders are well known. Today, the world record for milk production belongs to a Cuban cow named Ubre Blanca (White Udder). The champion gave 27,672 kilograms of milk in 365 days! On average, this cow produces 75.8 kilograms of milk per day. That's almost eight buckets! Ubre Blanca won the title of champion, breaking the previous world record held by the US cow Beener Arlinda Ellen. Interestingly, the new champion has an unusually kind disposition.
Cattle have been domesticated for a very long time. Of course, the ancestors of modern cows looked a little different than they do now. Two thousand years ago they were milked while standing - the height of the animals allowed this to be done. But the cows that Russian peasants kept in the 18th century were not much different in weight and size from today’s calves, and their milk yield was barely enough to feed their offspring. And the goal of animal husbandry was somewhat different: they tried to get as much manure as possible from the cow, rather than milk.
How to get a cow to quickly gain weight, give a lot of milk, be obedient and calm, and obey its owner! People began to think about these questions a long time ago.
Cows have lived next to humans for thousands of years. During this time, people not only accumulated a lot of information about its behavior, but also bred 960 new breeds of cattle. And it would seem that everything should be known about the cow. Is it so! Previously, when an individual peasant farm had one, sometimes two or three, cows, the owner knew well the disposition of each of them, which side to approach, when to drink, what to feed. The cows grazed in small herds and for a long time, so that they could eat plenty of green grass and drink water from the river. They milked by hand, and at home each of them had her own individual barn.
And now! A modern barn even appearance resembles a small factory rather than an old peasant barn. And more and more appear inside his machines and mechanisms that help people care for animals. There are devices for distributing feed, automatic drinkers, and special machines for collecting manure. There are several types of milking machines alone - “Herringbone”, “Carousel”, “Tandem”.
Even 20 - 30 years ago, it was difficult to imagine that cows could be looked after only in a white coat - but this is exactly what the overalls of a livestock complex operator look like now. The work of livestock farmers becomes easier and simpler every year, approaching the work of a city worker.
How do animals feel in modern buildings made of concrete among noisy cars, and most importantly - among many of their own kind! After all, even the smallest farm now has at least fifty cows. How to make them feel comfortable in modern cowsheds and calf barns and give them plenty of milk and meat! There is only one way out - when creating housing for cows and mechanisms for caring for them, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of animal behavior as much as possible. It was then that it became clear that a person does not know everything about a cow. Ethology, the science of animal behavior, came to the aid of livestock specialists, builders, and design engineers.
How cows eat and drink, how and how much they sleep, how they communicate with each other - scientists do not ignore a single detail of a cow’s life. And they discover a lot of interesting things. For example, it turned out that cows are partial to music! Moos like a cow - this is how we sometimes talk about tuneless singing. We speak and we offend the cow. Zoologists managed to count 11 different “melodies” in cow mooing. Just the way a cow addresses her calf has several shades. Cows and bulls distinguish sounds and noises well, and, in addition, they recognize music by rhythm. The “love of music” in cows can bring considerable benefits to humans. For example, one Japanese farmer taught his cows, wandering around the pasture, to return to their barns in the evening at the sound of a musical signal: he played recordings of popular pop songs.
The ability of cows to distinguish sound signals well and react to them was cleverly used by airport workers in Bombay. One day, a group of cows wandered onto the runway and began to interfere with the landing of planes. None of the employees dared to drive them away, because in India the cow is considered a sacred animal. Meanwhile, they circled in the air for more than an hour passenger aircraft. Then a tape recording of a tiger's growl was urgently brought from the zoo. Hearing the roar of the lord of the jungle, the cows immediately left the danger zone.
PETS
I want to talk about a domestic animal - a cow. A cow is a very useful animal for humans. Meat, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, butter - the cow gives us all this. A cow has horns, with which it defends itself when it senses danger. The cow also has an udder from which milk is expressed. A cow gives us 25 liters of milk per day, that’s almost three large buckets! Milk is very good for health: it contains a lot of vitamins. Cows communicate with each other by mooing, and they unmistakably find their way home.
In summer, cows eat lush grass, and in winter, hay.
A cow lives 15-18 years. Its age can be determined by its horns. With each birth of a calf, the cow gets a new ring on her horns.
If there are a lot of cows on a farm, then they all live in a barn. Cows sleep in it, and in winter they escape from frost and blizzards. Cowsheds are large, warm barns with thick walls, floors and ceilings. The light is always on in them. In the barn, each cow has its own separate “room”. There is a drinking bowl for water and a feeder for food. In summer, cows are taken to meadows (pastures), where they eat fresh grass.
Post prepared by Artem Dolgushin, 1st grade student
Municipal educational institution secondary school No. 43, Magnitogorsk
Women bodenushka, ptrusenya, etc. affection. female cattle: the male is a bull, and the lighter one is an ox; up to a year calf, calf: heifers or bulls. male body; chick, chick, heifer, female calf. Yalovka, a young cow that has not yet calved;... ... Dictionary Dahl
COW, cows, women. 1. Female cattle, domestic dairy animal, female bull. Cash cow. Dairy cow. Cows moo. Lively cow. Polled cow. || The female of some other horned animals, e.g. moose 2. transfer... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Like a cow's saddle, stick like a cow's saddle, cream from a mad cow, pregnant cow... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and similar expressions. under. ed. N. Abramova, M.: Russian Dictionaries, 1999. cow cow, stand, Santa Gertrude, heifer,... ... Dictionary of synonyms
In many ancient and archaic religions, it is a symbol of fertility, abundance, and prosperity. In one version of the Egyptian myth, the solar god Ra rises from the ocean on the heavenly K. (sometimes identified with Nut), which rose from the water (where her double ... Encyclopedia of Mythology
cow- COW, s, f. 1. A large, awkward, stupid woman. 2. An extra person who does not fit into the team; burden. 3. Helicopter (more often about MI 26); a compartment in a helicopter designed for cargo. 2. Wed. ug. “cow” a prisoner who is taken along with... ... Dictionary of Russian argot
COW, s, female. 1. Female of large ruminant artiodactyl animals of the family. bovids (bulls), as well as some other artiodactyls (eg, elk, deer). 2. Domestic dairy animal, female domestic bull. Thoroughbred. Herd of cows. The cow has milk for... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
cow- COW, soft, affectionate. Burenka, colloquial nurse, colloquial chick, colloquial reduction variegation reduced caress. COW, reduced caress. burenushka, reduce. caress. heifer, smaller caress. heifer, trad. poet., caress. cow CALF, book. Taurus, obsolete... ... Dictionary-thesaurus of synonyms of Russian speech
cow- Calving female cattle. [GOST 16020 70] cow Female cattle after calving [GOST 27773 88] Topics livestock for slaughter General terms cattle EN cow DE Kuh FR vache ... Technical Translator's Guide
See Cattle... Brockhaus Biblical Encyclopedia
- “COW”, USSR, VIDEO/PILOT/Sverdlovsk Film Studio, 1989, color, 10 min. By story of the same name Andrey Platonov. Director: Alexander Petrov (see PETROV Alexander). Scriptwriter: Alexander Petrov (see PETROV Alexander). Artist… … Encyclopedia of Cinema
- - gas station attendant. EdwART. Dictionary of automotive jargon, 2009 ... Automobile dictionary
Books
- Cow, Andrey Platonov. “A gray steppe cow of the Cherkasy breed lived alone in a barn. This shed, made of boards painted on the outside, stood in the small yard of a railway track guard. In the barn, next to...
The domestic cow has been used as a species for many millennia, but who was the ancestor of the cow, since all domesticated animal species once had wild ancestors and brothers?! What the ancestor of all cows looked like and where he lived is described in this article.
What species is a cow?
The common domestic cow belongs to the artiodactyl family of ruminants, and the name comes from the ancient Greek "keros", which means "horned". A cow is a female ordinary bull, which was tamed and domesticated by human ancestors many thousands of years ago. It is interesting that this type of animal is at different ages has different names:
A cow is an adult female that has already given birth.
A calf is a baby of a cow up to 8-10 months old.
A heifer or heifer is the name given to a future cow that has reached puberty and is ready for mating, or an individual that has already been inseminated.
A bull is an adult male who is also a heifer.
Ox is intended for meat.
When were cows domesticated?
Who were the ancestors of the domestic cow, has anyone wondered? After all, initially all types of animals and birds were wild, and domestic species appeared thanks to the efforts of our ancestors. Cows, or rather its ancestors, already lived on the planet during the Neolithic period, from approximately the eighth century BC.
Ancient people domesticated this animal after goats and pigs, because in those days people began to gather in large tribes and lead a sedentary lifestyle. Most likely, they were seduced by the power of the cow's ancestors: the first domesticated animals were used as draft power, and later the ability to always have fresh milk for food became another significant factor for the domestication of cattle. Therefore, a person’s gaze fell on the then-living aurochs, a wild bull from the bovid family that lived in what is now Central Asia.
Wild ancestor of the domestic cow
The aurochs is a powerful artiodactyl, which reached a height of 180 cm (at the withers) and had a weight, often reaching up to a ton, but the body was muscular and not swollen with fat. This ancestor of the cow usually had a black color in bulls, and females were more often brownish or red in color, but individuals of mixed colors were also found. The head of the aurochs was set high on a powerful neck, the horns were sharp and quite long: often more than a meter in length and weighing about 12 kg, they curved like a lyre and rushed forward at the enemy.
These animals ate mainly leaves and young shoots of bushes and trees, grass and fallen fruits of fruit trees, lived in small groups, but in winter they often gathered in larger herds, although most predators were not scary for this animal: aggressive disposition, powerful muscles and large horns resisted anyone. Only individuals weakened by disease or age could become the target of attacks by wolves, lions and other wild animals.
Where did they live?
In ancient times, the ancestor of the cow was found throughout Europe, Asia Minor and even in the Caucasus and North Africa, but by the third century BC. e. in Africa has already been exterminated by man. The meat and skin of the aurochs appealed to the most dangerous predator on the planet, so by 600 BC there were no aurochs in Mesopotamia either.
Are aurochs now found in nature?
Intensive deforestation in the 9th -11th centuries AD in Europe led to the fact that the aurochs as a species decreased significantly and gradually disappeared, in the territory modern Ukraine aurochs were still found until the 12th century, and by 1550 they remained only on the territory of Poland, and then thanks to the decree of Sigismund the Third, who wished to preserve aurochs as a species in his reserve. As of 1564, only 30 individuals survived in this place, and in 1620 - only one female.
The wild ancestor of the cow as a species ceased to exist in 1627, when the last cow died; a monolithic boulder with an inscription was erected in her honor in Yaktorov (Ukraine). The cause of death of an isolated herd is considered to be a banal degradation of genes when closely related individuals (father and daughter, mother and son, brother and sister) interbreed. It was obvious that the herd had no chance.
Historians believe that the cause of the mass extinction of aurochs throughout the planet was active and ruthless human activity: on the one hand, economic activity - deforestation, plowing of land for fields, as well as hunting for this animal, because in the Middle Ages it was considered prestigious to get the head of this animal. Having survived Ice age and over a million years of evolution, this majestic animal fell under the pressure of an individual several times its size.
How did a tour become a pet?
During the process of domestication, the tur as a species gradually mutated into a smaller individual, but milk production increased, which was one of the decisive factors in the selection of sires. The height of the animals became smaller by a good half a meter, the weight also decreased by 300-350 kg, and the horns gradually became shorter, since people often sawed off their too sharp peaks. At the same time genetic research Scientists have proven that cows had more than one ancestor, and in different areas of the planet, domestication began in parallel from several groups.
The memory of the cow’s ancestor, the auroch, still lives among the peoples of Ukraine; there is a proverb “He has a nature like the auroch,” reflecting the aggressive and restive disposition of a person who is not afraid of anything. Also, a person is reminded of this animal by the word “turn”, that is, to push hard, “out” - a push followed by the fall of the opponent. According to some versions, a tour in chess is a piece named after a wild animal, famous for its power and strength. Large has become one of the symbols of wealth.
Who else is related to the tour?
Scientists consider the Lydian fighting bull, which is used in bullfights in Spain and Portugal, as the closest in phenotype to the ancestor of the cow, as well as the Heck bull, which was bred by breeders in the 1920s and 30s in Germany. The Heck bull is named after the Heck brothers: Heinz and Lutz, who, at the request of Hitler, were engaged in breeding a breed as similar as possible to the ancient aurochs. The project was closed during the war, and they tried to exterminate the “fascist cows”. Fortunately, a few individuals survived in zoos, which again became the object of research after 1970.
Also considered close relatives of the tur are gray Ukrainian cattle, Watussi - African cattle, as well as zebu - now living in the territory of Hindustan and nearby lands.
It is a mistake to believe that the living and quite common buffaloes are also descendants of the aurochs; in fact, they are separate species. The tur belongs to the order Boliformes, and buffalos belong to the order of the same name, since their morphological differences do not allow reproduction of offspring: bulls have 60 chromosomes per cell, and buffaloes have only 58.
Should the tour be a clone?
In one of the caves in Derbyshire, in central England, the remains of a cow's ancestor were found, which are more than six thousand years old. Several leading institutions in the UK and Ireland carried out a thorough analysis of the genetic material and produced the first strand of tur DNA. Polish scientists intend to use these data to clone the animal; their desire is actively supported by the Polish Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Scientists do not advertise whether this procedure is needed by society and whether it will entail mass cloning of long-extinct animals and birds, and there are suspicions that these experiments have long been carried out under the heading “secret”, so as not to disturb the unstable minds of people.