Luing

What do Luing cattle look like?

Luings are taurine beef animals of middling build, with no hump. A mature cow stands about 130 cm at the withers, the ridge between the shoulder blades, and weighs around 500 kg; bulls are larger at roughly 140 cm and 950 kg. The coat comes in two colours, red or dun, and the hair is of medium length, giving shelter against driving rain and wind. Beneath the coat the shape is that of a beef worker rather than a dairy animal. Bloodlines hold three quarters Beef Shorthorn and one quarter Highland, a blend chosen so the cow could feed and guard a calf outdoors through poor weather. Cows are built to last, and many stay in production long enough to rear about ten calves apiece.

Where does the Luing come from?

The breed began in 1947 on Luing, an island in Scotland's Inner Hebrides, where Ralph, Denis and Shane Cadzow set out to make a beef cow suited to their Atlantic ground. They put Highland heifers to a Beef Shorthorn bull, then mated the daughters to Beef Shorthorns again. Animals carrying three quarters Shorthorn and one quarter Highland blood became the fixed type. The Highland parent was picked for toughness; the Shorthorn for the flesh it lays on and the taste of its meat. No new cattle breed had been made in Britain for more than a century beforehand. In 1965 the United Kingdom government granted the Luings formal standing, and the founding family still farms on the island today.

What the Luing is known for

Toughness is what Luings are known for. They cope with cold, wet weather that would trouble many beef cows, calving and suckling their young outside through it, and the Highland share of their inheritance gets the credit for this stamina. They also live a long working life: a cow commonly rears about ten calves before she is done, which lowers the cost of replacing breeding stock. Handlers find them straightforward to manage, and the beef they finish carries fine marbling, the streaks of fat within the lean that eaters prize.

How the Luing is bred and kept

The founding recipe was simple. Highland heifers went to a Beef Shorthorn bull, and the heifer calves from that match were bred back to Beef Shorthorns, fixing animals with three quarters Shorthorn and one quarter Highland blood. Selection since has centred on the mother cow: keeping condition, rearing a calf on exposed ground, and holding the Shorthorn gifts of a well-filled carcase and tasty meat. In Britain the breed has its own society, the Luing Cattle Society, and the Cadzow family still run cattle on the island where the work began. Because cows stay fertile for many seasons, keepers can hold proven mothers and grow herds without buying in stock.

What the Luing is kept for

Meat is the whole point of the breed. Luings were planned as beef mothers: a cow that would carry and rear a calf on rough pasture through bad weather, without heavy feeding. The beef shows its Shorthorn side, finishing well and noted for marbling, meaning thin seams of fat run through the lean, alongside the flavour that made the founding brothers choose that parent in the first place. Herds are found mainly across Scotland, and stock has been sent to breeders overseas, so the same hardy beef cow now works in countries such as Canada and New Zealand.

The land and climate of the Luing

Home ground is the wet, windy Atlantic fringe. Luing and its neighbours Scarba and Torsa lie off Scotland's west coast, where grass grows slowly and the weather turns rough, and the breed was made for those conditions from the outset. The same toughness travels well: exported stock has settled in Canada and New Zealand, lands with harsh seasons of their own. Medium-length hair and a constitution drawn from Highland ancestors let the cows live outdoors and mother their calves without shelter in ordinary weather.

Who keeps the Luing

Three brothers, Ralph, Denis and Shane Cadzow, made the breed, and their family has stayed on the island where it began, farming Luings to this day. Around them the cattle are a familiar sight across the southern Inner Hebrides, with herds on nearby Scarba and Torsa as well as Luing itself. Beyond Scotland the breed has drawn keepers in Canada and New Zealand, and German followers have a group of their own. Most keep Luings for the same reasons: a cow that needs little shelter, handles calmly, and rears about ten calves across her life.

Keeping Luing cattle

Handling is easy by design; the breed is noted for it. Cows need little cover in poor weather and are expected to mother their calves outside. A long breeding life means a female may produce about ten calves, so keepers can plan around fewer replacements. The same hardiness that lets them winter in the open keeps day-to-day upkeep light.

Related breeds and crosses

The Highland and the Beef Shorthorn are the two parent breeds. Toughness came from the Highland, while the Shorthorn supplied a body that fills out well and meat with flavour. Modern Luings carry those shares in fixed proportions, three quarters Shorthorn to one quarter Highland, making them close kin to both parents yet distinct from either.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

When the British authorities gave Luings official breed standing in 1965, it was the first time in more than a hundred years that a new cattle breed had been made in Britain. The breed remains established, with most herds in Scotland and others spread worldwide. Overseas interest shows in a New Zealand rare-breeds listing and in a German keepers' group. The Luing Cattle Society serves as the breed's home organisation, and the founding Cadzow family still keep cattle where the breed began.

Questions people ask about Luing

Good reading and sources

• Luing cattle on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data