Top 10 Strange, Rare and Unusual Breeds of Cow
To understand where I am coming from with this post, we need to ignore 2 things. The first is that most of these cows are raised for human consumption, and secondly that some of these are bulls, not cows. But to me they are all cows, just very unusual and rare ones…
Top 10 Strange, Rare and Unusual Breeds of Cow
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Ankole-Watusi Cow
10 – Ankole-Watusi Cow
The heaviest and longest of all cattle breeds is the Watusi (also known as Ankole longhorn.) Those long horns are obviously used as a defense tool, but strangely they also help cool their blood!
Whitebred Shorthorn Cows
9 – Whitebred Shorthorn Cows
They might look like normal cows, but you are not going to see these on a plate anytime soon. These are Whitebred Shorthorns and they are one of the rarest breeds of cow in the world, in fact, they are rarer than the giant panda!
Buffalo Cows
8 – Buffalo Cows
These rather odd looking Bovid hybrids (often called “Beefalo”) are breed because they produce red meat that is lower in fat and cholesterol than beef.
Texas Longhorn Cows
7 – Texas Longhorn Cows
It’s pretty obvious how the breed got its name! Starlight here is the purest of all longhorn breeds and is used as a gene template rather than cattle usage.
Belted Galloway Cows
6 – Belted Galloway Cows
These are not Double Stuffed Oreo cows that most people call them, they originating from Galloway in southern Scotland and don’t produce Oreo flavored milk neither.
Highland Cows
5 – Highland Cows
The cow with the longest hair goes to the common Highland cow. I have been lucky enough to see and feel one of these breeds while on holiday to Scotland, and they are not quite as soft as they look, nor as clean haired as the ones in this picture.
Zebus Cows
4 – Zebus Cows
They might look like young calfs, but these are fully grown cows, but these are Zebus cows from Sri Lanka and they are the world’s smallest breed of cows.
Holstein Friesian Cows
3 – Holstein Friesian Cows
One of the most common breeds of cow is the Friesian and for most of us this is the breed of cow we see the most. But this is Blossom and she is a pure pedigree Holstein Friesian cow and officially the world’s tallest cow! Imagine walking into a field of these beasts!
Dexter Cows
2 – Dexter Cows
It might look like a birth defect, but these really are a breed rather than any DNA error. Said to be the smallest of the European cattle breeds they are a very rare breed that originated in Ireland.
Fluffy Cows
1 – Fluffy Cows
So we end with one of the cutest cows you will ever see. Raised for show displays rather than meat, they are groomed and blow-dried until they end up looking like cow shaped clouds! Do you think they produce woolly milk?!?