#yakutian cattle

[bovineblogger]

If you had to design a bovine for an environment they don't exist in naturally, like the arctic circle, what would you like them to look like and where would you place em?

fun fact! yakutian cattle already live in the arctic circle!!! theyre completely covered with fur--even their udders are furry--to keep them nice and and toasty in the sakha republic, siberia!

the sakha republic is in red on this map! the arctic circle goes through the top of it :3

however... if i was designing them... id make them fluffier. more fur. More

[mostly-history]

Cattle breeding in the Eveno-Bytantaysky District in Sakha Republic (Russia, 2013).

Yakutian cattle are a cattle landrace – a species variety that has adapted over time to local conditions, with isolation from other populations contributing to its development.  In the case of Yakutian cattle, this development has led to their extreme hardiness and tolerance in the freezing temperatures of the Arctic Circle.

The purest of the Yakutian cattle are raised in the Eveno-Bytantaysky District, under the directorship of Peter Gorokhov (second from the right in the second photo).  These cows give milk with a 5-9% fat content.

Although Kustur (the rural locality where the cattle are kept) has plenty of pasture and grassland, most of it is not well-developed. Workers mow the grass manually, and transport it to a dry place.  In winter, they carry hay in the Urals for 70 kilometres.

The first photo shows Ulyana Nikitina, an experienced livestock breeder who worked for 43 years, 33 of them as a milkmaid.  She used to work on the Leninsky state farm, where seven milkmaids would be responsible for 7-8 cows.  She was highly-regarded as a milkmaid, and was once put forward for a medal for her work, although she did not receive it.

[1coweveryday]

12/8/21🐄

[eco-nnect]

Radical Rewilding in the Arctic to save us from thawing permafrost

Deep in the Russian tundra, where woolly-mammoths used to roam and temperatures reach -50°C, an eccentric Russian scientist has been studying the Arctic’s permafrost for the last 40 years. Sergei Zimov moved to the edge of Russia, namely Chersky, with his wife Galina in 1980. Chersky is located on the banks of the Kolyma river, further East than Japan, and further north than Iceland, its location was suitable for Gulags—and not much else.

By the etime the Zimovs moved, the camps had shut down. Their remoteness was what they wanted: freedom from the vigilant eye of the Communist Party.

“To be a prophet, you must live in the desert.”—Mr Zimov.

A geophysicist and contrarian, Zimov founded the Northeast Science Station (NESS) for Arctic research, and several insights on permafrost and melting Arctic-ice are drawn from his studies.

Understanding the Permafrost Thaw

As global temperatures rise, the Arctic temperatures rise faster, in some areas registering 8°C warmer than only a decade ago. The real issue is once Arctic permafrost (a thick layer of frozen soil) begins to melt, its million year old deposits of minerals (carcasses, and plant material) are exposed, becoming food for microbes, which convert it into CO2 and methane—greenhouse gases. As we know, these gases in turn accelerate the planet’s warming, and therefore also accelerate the thawing of the permafrost, creating a vicious feedback loop with possibly catastrophic consequences.

“It’s not anything we’re doing directly, and that makes it far harder to control.”—Robert Max Holmes, deputy director of the Woodwell Climate Research Centre

Northern Permafrost contains 1.600bn tonnes of carbon—twice as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere. The issue with thawing, is that there is no consensus on how it will actually thaw: eg. all at once, or gradually, or creating lakes that attract more microbes…“The more permafrost is studied, the more scientists find surprises out there that they don’t know enough about”—the Economist.

Zimov’s Solution: Radical Rewilding at the Pleistocene Park

“Every scientist now appreciates the importance of the carbon in the permafrost, a lot of that can be traced to Zimov.”—Max Holmes, deputy director of the Woodwell Climate Research Centre

Zimov, albeit a polarising figure, remains a leading scientist in understanding permafrost thaw. Today, his research center NESS has become a global hub.

His solution involves returning the Arctic to the Pleistocene epoch’s ecosystem: a grassland known as the Mammoth Steppe—back when woolly mammoths, bisons, reindeers, lions, and wolves roamed the icy north. His project would be to radically rewild the Siberian tundra in order to bring back the grass. The reintroduction of large mammals would tamp down moss, knock down tress, and churn up the soil, allowing the grass to flourish again. Grass in turn reflects more light and reduces the amount of heat absorbed by the soil.

Most importantly, the animals would also compress the winter snow, which creates a thick layer that does not allow the cold temperatures to reach the permafrost below. The thinner layer of snow would cool the permafrost more in the winter months, ensuring that it does not thaw in the summer.

In order to achieve this, Zimov has created the Pleistocene Park, rewilding a mixture of Pleistocene surviving herbivores: Yakutian horses, bisons, musk oxen, elk, reeindeers, sheep, yak and kalmyk cattle. The reintroduction of these animals has in fact turned the mossy and wet tundra into grassland.

So far, Zimov’s results are promising. The animals have helped grasslands re-emerge. The average annual soil temperatures in grazed area are 2.2°C cooler than in the tundra, and carbon is being sequestred by the grassland too.

Zimov hopes to scale his project to other areas in the Arctic. Their long-term dream is to host woolly mammoths again one day, forming a partnershing with George Church, of Harvard University, who is researching how to revive these ancient beasts using CRISPR gene-editing technology.

Source: One Russian scientist hopes to slow the thawing of the Arctic, the Economist.

[nurmesiandesign]

kyyttö kuvioinen takki ”(Karjan) Geneettisessä tutkimuksessa on paljastunut, että lähes kaikki (uhanalaisen) kyytön itäsuomenkarjan isälinjat periytyvät Volgan mutkasta, minne ne vuorostaan ovat tulleet Kaukasuksen suunnalta. Yksi itäsuomenkarjan isälinja on jo muinoin päätynyt Itä-Siperiaan, sikäläiseen jakutiankarjaan. Itäsuomenkarja edustaa Euroopassa nykyään harvinaista aronautojen perimää, johon liittyy paitsi erityinen sitkeys myös niukka maidontuotto.” fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyytt%C3… eastern finncattle print jacket "(Livestock’s) Genetic studies have revealed that almost all of (endangered) Eastern Finncattle (aka. Kyyttö) inherited sire lines from the Volga bend, where they in turn have come from the Caucasus direction. One of the Eastern Finncattle sire line has already been in ancient times Eastern Siberia, ended up to local Yakutian cattle. Eastern Finncattle represented in Europe nowadays rare steppe cattle heritage, which involves special toughness also meager milk yield."

[bovineblogger]

VIDEOGAMECOWS ULTIMATE COW BREED SHOWDOWN: ROUND 1 POLL 2

BLUE GREY CATTLE

rare hybrid cattle from scotland and england! they graze very lightly but still produce heaps of milk, so are often used to foster calves!

YAKUTIAN CATTLE

small but hardy cattle from russia! they are super strong and can withstand freezing temperatures, even their udders are covered in fur!

[bovineblogger]

VIDEOGAMECOWS ULTIMATE COW BREED SHOWDOWN: ROUND 2 POLL 1

CHILLINGHAM WILD CATTLE

feral cattle that are descended from the ancient forest-dwelling cattle of britain! they still look exactly the same as the old paintings of their ancestors!

YAKUTIAN CATTLE

small but hardy cattle from russia! they are super strong and can withstand freezing temperatures, even their udders are covered in fur!

[bovineblogger]

VIDEOGAMECOWS ULTIMATE COW BREED SHOWDOWN: ROUND 3 POLL 1

YAKUTIAN CATTLE

small but hardy cattle from russia! they are super strong and can withstand freezing temperatures, even their udders are covered in fur!

NGUNI CATTLE

medium sized, disease resistant cattle from south africa! they're a beautiful and colorful breed that have been around for centuries!

[mostly-history]

Opening of a new livestock breeding complex of the Bytantay farm for 120 Yakutian cattle, in the village of Batagay-Alta (Sakha Republic, Russia, 2018).

The Eveno-Bytantaysky District is the only region where Yakutian cattle are kept in genetic purity.  Their remote location has helped to keep the breed pure.

Yakutian cattle are relatively small, and they can survive at very low temperatures.  They grow subcutaneous fat very quickly during the short pasture season, and can survive through the poor feed conditions of winter.  Other adaptations to the cold are a thick winter coat, a fur-covered udder or scrotum, and low metabolic rates at low temperatures.

The Yakuts people brought their cattle with them when they migrated from the southern Baikal regions to the lower reaches of the Lena, Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma Rivers in the 1200s.  They also brought with them the Yakutian horse, which along with the cattle formed the basis of the Sakha culture of meat and dairy livestock.

Yakutian cattle remained purebred until 1929, when there was extensive crossbreeding with other breeds.  Many other cattle varieties were lost due to this, but the Yakutian breed was saved thanks to traditional cattle breeders and scientists.  Today, there are about 1200 pure Yakutian cattle in the Sakha Republic, most of them in the Eveno-Bytantaysky District.