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Cattle:Wild | Musky Ox | Hârnic | Ivinian | Shorkein
Cattle
Cattle are rare on the island of Hârn and uncommon on North-western Lythia. They provide the most consistent source of good quality leather and meat. They are also the only domesticated animal to provide such a large volume of meat, leather and milk. But they also eat more than any other domesticated animal. Cattle must be fed on a mix of hay, silage, mixed grains and salt to remain healthy and calve well. The vast amount they eat limits their availability to river-bottom, plains and fertile but cleared land.
Before any cow can produce milk, she must calve. After each calving, a heifer can produce milk for about ten months if they are milked regularly. A calf only needs two to three months of suckling before it switches to fodder.If a heifer's diet is not varied and rich, she'll stop giving milk or milk production will become unpredictable.
A person who works cattle is called a drover. There is usually one drover for about every 20 beasts. They range through pastures and fallow land daily. Easily herded, the drover must watch for anything that would spook the cattle and make them stampede.
The manor lord often owns the bulls and the oxen, while a majority of the heifers are owned by the free farmers, with one or two cows owned by serfs. The manorial herd includes all the cows. The manor lord grants concessions to cow owners so that his herder can take the cows to forage on fallow land. Their manure is worked into the ground the following spring and in return they get to eat silage directly off the fallow ground.
Breeds of cattle are often interbred for appearance, milk or meat production and temperament. Hârnic cattle make the best oxen, but any cow can be trained to be a load-bearing animal. The seven recognized breeds include two wild breeds (the wild cattle and the musky ox), two breeds common in Hârn (the Hârnic cattle and the Ivinian cow) and the most popular breed in North-Western Lythia (the Shorkein cow).
A gestation of 284 days produces 1-2 calves in late summer. The calf can walk within minutes and grows to maturity in two years. The calf will suckle for 3-6 months, switching to grasses and fodder shortly there after. The only time a cow will become aggressive is in its protection of its calves. Some herds have two calvings a year, but the second calving produces much weaker beasts.
Both bulls and heifers have horns, although bull's horns are much larger. Heifer horns are often cut or blunted when the cow reaches maturity. The horns always grow out and away from the head. Bulls are culled regularly from the herd to avoid tension and random breeding. Those remaining have their horns blunted.
Bulls mate in the late autumn with as many heifers in the herd as they can. Most breeders select the bull that will be dominant in the herd and either geld or cull any other bulls. Excess bulls are gelded young and then slaughtered once they reach maturity. Cattle will rarely stray from good fodder and are easy to herd as they shy away from sharp movements and loud noises.
Add 1 point for every 4 feet of run a cow has to run before striking its opponent; up to a maximum of 24 feet (8 points). Each breed of cattle will react in a slightly different manner to an attack. See the sections pertaining to each breed, below, for details.
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Oxen
Oxen are cattle trained as draft animals for at least 4 years by a teamster. Oxen are used for plowing, transport, hauling, grain-girding and wagon drawing as well as log-pulling. A team of two (called a yoke) is trained together and, once trained, a yoke does not work well apart. Some heavy wagons are pulled by a span of yokes.
A wooden yoke is fastened about their necks so that the force of the draft is distributed across their shoulders. Oxen are chosen from calves with horns, since the horns hold the yoke in place when the oxen back up or slow down when going down hills.
Oxen can pull harder than horses, though not as fast and they are less prone to injury. The teamster walks alongside the lead yoke, regardless of their task. When on roads, the teamster is to the left of the lead yoke on Hârn, but on the right on the mainland. Oxen do not react well when approached by other yokes, so the teamster must move to interpose themselves between his yoke and passersby.
Oxen are not normally shod, unless they spend a great deal of time on the roads.
Since oxen don’t sweat, their teamsters release them near water and fodder to relax and cool down. Oxen work is best done early in the morning, or during the heat of the summer, at night under a harvest moon. Manors tend to have twice the number of oxen required to till the land, allowing the oxen to work in shifts in the cool of the day.
Price: +100d minimum.
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Livestock :: <<Previous | Table of Contents | Next>>
Cattle:Wild | Musky Ox | Hârnic | Ivinian | Shorkein
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