The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds
The hardy, multipurpose Dominique chickens that came to the New World with the Pilgrims and later travelled in pioneer saddlebags to help settle the West were once too numerous to count, by 1990 a mere 500 hens survived. This is but a single example of the diminishing diversity of farm animals: half of once-common livestock breeds are endangered, others are already extinct. The need to preserve farm animal diversity is increasingly urgent, says the author of this definitive book on endangered breeds of livestock and poultry. Farmyard animals may hold critical keys for our survival, Jan Dohner warns, and with each extinction, genetic traits of potentially vital importance to our agricultural future or to medical progress are forever lost. This comprehensive book features: * complete information on the history, characteristics, qualities, and traits of 138 endangered livestock breeds (goats, sheep, swine, cattle, horses, other equines) and 53 poultry breeds (chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese) * where these breeds may be seen today * the degree of rarity of each breed in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada * information on feral livestock populations * 160 colour photographs and over 80 black and white photos and historical illustrations
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - robson663 - LibraryThingThis amazing work and Michael Ryder's Sheep and Man are the places I go first for overviews of sheep-breed history, a special interest of mine. Of course it doesn't cover all breeds; it would have ... Read full review
The encyclopedia of historic and endangered livestock and poultry breeds
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictWhy save the old, endangered breeds of livestock and poultry? Most would agree that maintaining genetic diversity is crucial, but there are other reasons as well. A librarian and researcher who ... Read full review
Contents
8 | |
20 | |
4 Sheep
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64 |
5 Swine
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160 |
6 Cattle
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200 |
7 Equines
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294 |
8 Poultry
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402 |
9 Preserving a Future
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476 |
Appendix 1 Selected Organizations and Journals
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487 |
Appendix 2 Where to See Rare and Historical Breeds
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490 |
493 | |
497 | |
Other editions - View all
The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds Janet Vorwald Dohner No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
agricultural Akhal-Teke ALBC American animals areas beef birds bred breeders Britain British brown Buff buffalo bull calves Canada cattle century chickens Cleveland Bay color cows crossbred crossbreeding crossed dairy Dartmoor developed Devon different difficult domestic donkeys ducks early efforts eggs England English Europe ewes Exmoor exported fainting goats farm farmers feathers feral fibers fig fine first fleece flocks foals forage Galloway geese genetic goats grazing Guernsey Hackney horses hardy hens herd book hogs horns horses imported Irish Draught island lamb land legs Lipizzan livestock Longhorn longwool mares meat Merino milk Mouflon mules native North America numbers off offspring percent Peter Jorgensen polled ponies popular population poultry pounds produce purebred raised rams rare breeds RBST Red Poll registered registry sheep Shetland Shire Shorthorn Spanish specific stallions Suffolk tail Tarpan tion traits turkey United weigh White Galloways wild wool