White-Headed Ukrainian Cattle

White-Headed Ukrainian Cattle 

a dairy cattle breed created in the Ukraine at the end of the 19th century by crossing local Poles’e livestock with Dutch cattle. The body is extended and narrow, the back is insufficiently even, the rear is frequently drooping, roof-shaped, and narrowing, the skeleton is light, and the muscles are poorly developed. The color is red or black; the head, belly, legs, and tip of the tail are white. The live weight of bulls is 800–850 kg and reaches 1,100 kg; cows weigh 400–450 kg and reach 550 kg at the best farms. Milk production is 2,500–3,000 kg, with a record of 12,339 kg of milk during the lactation period. The fat content of the milk is 3.5–3.8 percent.

The strain is being bred to increase milk production and the fat content in milk and to correct exterior shortcomings. The livestock is primarily bred by autosexing; selective breeding has also been used with bulls of the black-spotted and Simmental breeds. The breeding regions are the Zhitomir, Kiev, Vinnitsa, and Khmel’nitskii oblasts. The leading breeding farms are the Antonin Breeding Farm in Khmel’nitskii Oblast and the Terezino Experimental Farm in Kiev Oblast.

REFERENCES

Kravchenko, M. A., and E. S. Biriukova. “Analiz pleminnoï roboty z khudoboiu bilogolovoï ukraïns’koi porody.” Naukovi pratsi: Kyïvs’ka doslidna stantsiia tvarynnytstva, 1960, vol.6.
Skotovodstvo: Krupnyi rogatyi skot, vol. 1. Moscow, 1961.

N. A. KRAVCHENKO