Allmogekor

Allmogekor; Allmoge cattle; singular Allmogeko [almuːjɛkuː] is a generic term for the old native breeds of cattle from Sweden.

Individual breeds

There are a number of individual Allmogeko breeds. Official herdbook keeper for most of them is the Föreningen Allmogekon, the Allmogeko Society.[1][2] For the time being it concentrates on maintaining three breeds and only keeps herdbooks for these three:[1]

For two distinct dairy breeds, Fjällko and Rödkulla [→ sv], the herdbook keeper is Svensk Mjölk, the Swedish Association of dairy farmers.[3]

On its Red List, the Swedish Samarbetsgruppen Lantrasforum (Cooperative Group Landrace Forum) ranks all five of these Allmogeko breeds in the highest risk level, "acutely threatened".[4]

Usage

These cattle are often hardy and well adapted for extensive production as they are good foragers, self-sufficient and very active. This makes them well suited for grazing on fields and woods in national parks, etc.[5] They were used as dual- to triple-purpose breeds , i. e. as breeds which served as draft animals , dairy cattle and beef suppliers. No longer able to compete with modern single-purpose breeds in terms of profit maximization, they are preserved as a cultural heritage, as living gene banks, and as extensive care cattle suited both for conservation projects [6] and for young Swedish back-to-the-country families.[1]

The name

Swedish ″kor″ (cows) is the plural form of ″ko″ (cow), ″allmoge″ is the farming class or rural class in a neutral sense; the name might thus be translated as ″farming class cattle″ , ″farmers’ cattle″ or simply ″country cattle″. The translation ″peasantry cattle″, used by Föreningen Allmogekon,[1] does not quite confer the Swedish sense, as the British term ″peasantry″ has a more negative ring to it (compare the articles on ″peasantry″ in both Wikipedia and wiktionary).

See also

External links

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Föreningen Allmogekon (accessed Mar-18-2013)
  2. ↑ Circa – a collaborative workspace with partners of the European Institutions: Breeding Organisations or Associations : bovine species (accessed Mar-18-2013)
  3. ↑ Swedish Wikipedia: Avelsförening, section Nötkreatur. (Swedish; accessed Mar-18-2013)
  4. ↑ Samarbetsgruppen Lantrasforum: Rödlistan. (Swedish; accessed Mar-18-2013)
  5. ↑ Oklahoma State University: Breeds of Livestock: Cattle (Bos): Allmogekor (accessed Mar-18-2013)
  6. ↑ see for example the usage of Väne cows in the nature reserve Hornborgasjön, in: Naturvårdsenheten på Länsstyrelsen i Västra Götalands län – Hornborgasjön: Lantrasdjuren. (Swedish; accessed Mar-18-2013)
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