On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 24

milkcopiouslyonfeedthatisotherwise
uselesstohumansandthatcanbestockpiled
asstraworsilage.Withoutthemtherewould
benodairying.
DairyAnimalsoftheWorld

Onlyasmallhandfulofanimalspecies
contributessignificantlytotheworld’smilk
supply.
The Cow, European and Indian The
immediate ancestor ofBos taurus, the
common dairy cow, wasBos primigenius, the
long-horned wild aurochs. This massive
animal, standing 6 ft/180 cm at the shoulder
and with horns 6.5 in/17 cm in diameter,
roamedAsia,Europe,andNorthAfricainthe
form of two overlapping races: a humpless
European-Africanform,andahumpedcentral
Asianform,thezebu.TheEuropeanracewas
domesticatedintheMiddleEastaround8000


BCE,

the heat- and parasite-tolerant zebu in
south-centralAsiaaroundthesametime,and
anAfricanvariantoftheEuropeanraceinthe
Sahara,probablysomewhatlater.
Initsprincipalhomeland,centraland
southIndia,thezebuhasbeenvaluedasmuch
foritsmusclepowerasitsmilk,andremains

rangyandlong-horned.TheEuropeandairy
cowhasbeenhighlyselectedformilk
productionatleastsince3000BCE,when
confinementtostallsinurbanMesopotamia
andpoorwinterfeedledtoareductionin
bodyandhornsize.Tothisday,theprized
dairybreeds—Jerseys,Guernseys,Brown
Swiss,Holsteins—areshort-hornedcattle
thatputtheirenergyintomakingmilkrather
thanmuscleandbone.Themodernzebuisnot
ascopiousaproducerastheEuropeanbreeds,
butitsmilkis25%richerinbutterfat.
The Buffalo The water buffalo is relatively
unfamiliarintheWestbutthemostimportant