Why You Should Care about Heritage Breeds

Image Gallery Both the American Buff goose (foreground) and Pilgrim gander are included on the “critical” list of heritage breeds by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. TROY GRIEPENTROG

What color are the cows that produce the milk you drink? White with black spots? Maybe white with brown spots? What about black with a white stripe in the middle? Or a blue-gray speckled pattern? All those variations represent different breeds, but odds are that the milk you drink comes from Holsteins (white with black or brown spots). According to the Holstein Association, the group that registers pedigrees of purebred Holstein cattle, “nine out of 10 dairy producers [in the United States] milk Holsteins.” (By the way, the color of the cow does not affect the color of the milk she gives.)

Biodiversity

Because Holsteins are such a popular breed, will other breeds become extinct in 50 or 100 years? What if other breeds of cattle produced milk with more desirable qualities? If groups such as the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) are successful, we’ll have as many breeds of livestock 100 years from now as we do today. The ALBC maintains a list of rare and endangered breeds of domesticated animals and promotes their preservation.

The ALBC’s watchlist for endangered livestock classifies rare breeds as “critical” (global population less than 2,000), “threatened,” “watch” and “recovering.” The system is slightly different for rabbits and poultry. In addition to numbers of animals, there are other criteria for the classifications.

Each breed of livestock has unique traits, though they may not be as productive as breeds that industrial agriculture depends most heavily on. “The productive life of a Holstein cow is between three and four years,” according to the Holstein association. But many heritage breeds, such as Dutch Belted cows, are often productive into their teen years. Dutch Belted cows are efficient milk producers on a grass-based diet with little additional grain. And grass-fed cattle produce milk with important health benefits to humans. Click here and here for more information.