HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF ESTONIAN CATTLE BREEDS
HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF ESTONIAN CATTLE BREEDS

Summary/Abstract: The cattle breeds that have been exploited in European countries have evolved through centuries. The characteristics of specific breeds have been determined by their habitation, i.e. by the surrounding natural and geographical environment. This determined the nutrition, the anatomic features, the milk yield, the fat content in milk, the muscle mass etc. The present article will show that in addition to the natural conditions also administrative division may lead to different cattle breeds being bred on a territory with relatively similar vegetation as well as climatic, geographic and demographic conditions. One of such territories is the area inhabited by Estonians that became a part of the Russian Empire in 1721 as the Provinces of Estonia and Livonia (the Northern part of the latter). The province was unified after the February revolution in 1917, and in 1918 the Republic of Estonia was born. The insight into the history of cattle breeding in Estonia, illustrated by distribution maps of main cattle breeds, will show that even today these administrative boundaries that ceased to exist long ago, still have an impact on cattle breeding in Estonia.

• Details
• Contents