Ungulates, primates and livestock

Livestock farming supplies people with milk, meat and fat, light industry with wool, leather and fur, provides work animals such as horses, donkeys and camels, and manure for fertiliser. Cattle came from a wild aurochs that is extinct (the last died in Poland in 1627); cattle were domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Near East. By use, breeds are dairy (Black-and-White, Yaroslavl, Bushuyev), dairy-beef (Simmental, Schwyz, Kostroma) and beef (Shorthorn, Hereford). A high-yield cow gives 4,000 litres of milk a year or more; beef breeds grow fast and heavy. Leather shoes and goods come from hides, glue and soap from slaughterhouse waste. Sheep came from the wild mouflon, domesticated about 10,000 years ago. By wool quality, breeds are fine-wool (merino: 10–12 kg of wool), semi-fine and coarse-wool; coarse-wool breeds are sheepskin-coat, karakul-pelt, meat-fat and meat-wool types. Karakul sheep are a famous breed of Uzbekistan (Bukhara) with valuable pelts (black, blue, grey, white); the Hissar sheep is a meat-fat type weighing up to 150 kg. Horses are kept for work in the high mountains and in villages, for sport, and for meat and kumis. Domestic horses were domesticated about 5,000 years ago by steppe peoples; the tarpan was considered one wild ancestor, but modern research traces them to wild horses of the Eurasian steppe. Breeds: heavy draught (Vladimir), riding (Karabair, Lokai, Akhal-Teke) and light harness (Orlov trotter). Safety and hygiene: do not drink raw milk unboiled (brucellosis risk), wash hands after working with animals, keep livestock under a vet’s control so ticks and lice do not multiply, and approach a horse carefully, never from behind or between its legs.