Facts About Ayrshire Cows

Ayrshire cows are a breed of cattle native to Scotland. They are among the most popular breeds of dairy farming cattle, noted for their high milk yields and the ease with which herds can be managed. There are Ayrshire herds in many countries of the world, all of which take their lineage from the first individual cows bred in a single county of Scotland in the 17th century.

  1. History

    • The exact history of the Ayrshire cow is not known, but the breed originated in the Scottish county of Ayr at some point prior to 1800. It came about after cross-breeding with other species of cattle, such as Shorthorn and Holstein. According to the Ayrshires Cattle Society, the first official record of the breed was made in the 1870s, while 1877 saw the formation of the Ayrshire Cattle Society Herd Book, which is still used today to track breeding lineages, and contains details of over 250,000 animals.

    Physical Characteristics

    • A typical adult Ayrshire cow will weigh approximately 1,200 pounds and stand around 4 feet to the shoulder. Ayrshire cattle are white with red, the latter of which which can vary from light to very dark. There is no uniformity in the markings, some individual animals being almost all red and others virtually entirely white. Any markings are usually jagged at the edges. The breed is renowned for the strong formation of its udders, with its even arrangement of teats and smooth muscular ligature.

    Temperament

    • Ayrshire cattle have strong individual characters, are vigorous and efficient grazers, but are also very mild mannered. Ayrshires are a hardy breed, capable of surviving and thriving in cold or warm conditions and are noted for their relative lack of health problems. Their popularity as farm cows is in part due to the ease with which they can be managed.

    Milk

    • Ayrshire cows produce a good quality milk, averaging 3.9 percent butterfat and with a large amount of protein. They can produce good yields, and with good management a herd can produce around 12,000 pounds of milk per day. The record for milk yield from a single cow is held by an animal called Ida who, over 305 days produced 37,170 pounds of milk. Ayrshires are noted for still producing good quality milk on forage (whereby they only eat naturally occurring plants that they find for themselves, as opposed to synthetically produced grain and other feed given to them). Thus, they are a popular breed for organic farming.

    Locations

    • Apart from its native Scotland, and the rest of Great Britain where it eventually spread, farmed herds of Ayrshire cattle are found in many countries around the world, having been widely exported in the 19th century. Ayrshires were first imported into the United States in 1822 by a farmer named Henry W. Hills of Connecticut. The adaptability of the breed meant that herds were subsequently established across the country. Significant herds are also found in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Kenya, Brazil, Columbia, South Africa and Scandinavia. Ayrshires imported to Finland in 1845 were subsequently cross-bred with native cattle to create the Finnish Ayrshire which, by 1990, constituted 77 percent of all cattle in Finland.