The cow that went global
A MAJOR milestone of the agricultural revolution is in danger of being overlooked in this year of anniversaries. In 1822, George Coates of Carlton, near Pontefract, Yorkshire, published the world’s first herd book of pedigree cattle, and the shorthorn, arguably the most globally influential breed of cattle, was formally born.
Ten years earlier, a pioneering group of North Country farmers, mostly from Co Durham, had met at Wynyard, home of Sir Henry Vane Tempest, to decide on a project to register the best of the ‘improved Durham breed’. They were undoubtedly influenced by the publishing of the General Stud Book for Thoroughbreds
