Miniature cattle are found in various parts of the world. Some, such as the Dexter of Ireland and the

Vechur Vechoor is a village in Vaikom taluk, Kottayam district in the state of Kerala, India. Vechoor is a short drive away from one of Kerala's tourist destinations, Kumarakom. The Vechur Cow breed of cattle is named after this village. Geograp ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, India, are traditional

breeds A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slight ...

; others have been recently created by

selective breeding Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant mal ...

. The

Australian Lowline The Australian Lowline is a modern Australian breed of small, polled beef cattle. It was the result of a selective breeding experiment using black Aberdeen Angus cattle at the Agricultural Research Centre of the Department of Agriculture of N ...

was the unexpected result of a scientific experiment. Some, but not all, miniature breeds display

achondroplasia Achondroplasia is a genetic disorder with an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance whose primary feature is dwarfism. In those with the condition, the arms and legs are short, while the torso is typically of normal length. Those affected ha ...

, or dwarfism. Compared to larger

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

, miniature cattle require less space and less feed, and may be easier to handle. They do less damage to pasture land, do not need such high or strong fencing, and do not produce as much

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

Breeds

An American breeder, Richard Gradwohl, has developed eighteen different strains of miniature cattle. Miniature

Galloway Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. A native or i ...

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

and

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

have been bred. In the United States, small

zebuine The zebu (; ''Bos indicus'' or ''Bos taurus indicus''), sometimes known in the plural as indicine cattle or humped cattle, is a species or subspecies of domestic cattle originating in the Indian sub-continent. Zebu are characterised by a fatty h ...

cattle deriving from stock imported from Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Sweden may be registered as "

Miniature Zebu The Miniature Zebu is a modern American breed of zebuine miniature cattle. A breed association was established in 1991. History India has numerous traditional breeds of very small zebuine cattle, such as the Vechur breed of southern Kerala. T ...

"; in Australia, similar cattle may be known as "Nadudana". In the United States,

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

cattle of the original island type may be known as "Miniature Jersey"; Jersey cows stand about and weigh some . The Ethiopian Goffa and Guraghe breeds in the Abyssinian Shorthorned Zebu group are also small.

References

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