My Bó Riabhach calved, bull calf.

GreatOaktree

Yesterday there was only 8 cows and two bulls known to survive, today we have one more.

Bó Riabhach translates as the brindle cow. She is red with black stripes.

In folklore, the brindle cow complained to the month of March about the harshness of the weather so the month of March borrowed a few days from the month of April killing the brindle cow. This is known as the "borrowed days".

GreatOaktree

Here is the only pic I have at the min.

patsy_mccabe

Congrats. Always nice to have a healthy calf born. In your case, even more so.

mf240

Well done. I've heard the older farmers talking about the borrowed days that skinned the old cow. Never heard the original folklore of it before.

yellow50HX

GreatOaktree wrote: »

Yesterday there was only 8 cows and two bulls known to survive, today we have one more.

Bó Riabhach translates as the brindle cow. She is red with black stripes.

In folklore, the brindle cow complained to the month of March about the harshness of the weather so the month of March borrowed a few days from the month of April killing the brindle cow. This is known as the "borrowed days".

Never heard of the brindle cow, you'll have to tell us more?

Teyla Emmagan

Congratulations!!! That is huge!!

keepalive213

There's an old pisreog here in deepest darkest Mayo, about a certain type of weather supposedly experienced towards the end of March. The older folks call them "Riabhach days" ....nice to know the origin.

FeelTheBern

keepalive213 wrote: »

There's an old pisreog here in deepest darkest Mayo, about a certain type of weather supposedly experienced towards the end of March. The older folks call them "Riabhach days" ....nice to know the origin.

My grandfather in west tipp used to often talk about the winter never being over until the last of the Riabhach days at the beginning of April.

Esel

Riabhach also means gloomy, dismal. Example given is aimsir riabhach dismal weather!

Say my name

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

Congratulations!!! That is huge!!

I think that's a picture of the cow not the new arrival.

Congratulations op.

Did you ever get any DNA tests or samples taken on your stock.
It would be interesting to see if they're related to the Icelandic cow.

carrollsno1

Always known as the skinning of the aul cow in my part, never was sure of the folklore before.

greysides

Hearty congratulations. I hope it's the first calf of many.

From acorns....

Odelay

Well done, it's something to be very proud of. Looking forward to more pics and updates.

squinn2912

This is fantastic! I think I saw you posting about rare breeds before? Great to hear you landed a healthy calf. Would love to know more. How did you get into the breed?

Genghis Cant

Say my name wrote: »

Did you ever get any DNA tests or samples taken on your stock.
It would be interesting to see if they're related to the Icelandic cow.

The use of DNA nowadays gives us a real insight into any breed or species.
The costs involved have dropped to make it affordable.
For a rare breed I think it would be a great tool even to help identify potential matings.

I wish I knew more about the whole thing but it could be something for you to explore.

furandfeather

Super stuff. Would a bull or heifer calf be more help to keep the breed going?

patsy_mccabe

Can you realistically grow a population from 8 cows and 3 bulls?

Say my name

Genghis Cant wrote: »

The use of DNA nowadays gives us a real insight into any breed or species.
The costs involved have dropped to make it affordable.
For a rare breed I think it would be a great tool even to help identify potential matings.

I wish I knew more about the whole thing but it could be something for you to explore.

I think it's the equine centre in kildare that are the specialists in this DNA testing business?

The breed looks very like the Icelandic breed.
I'd say there must be a link especially as it seems that there was a rock solid trading link between Ireland and Iceland with the Kerry Bog pony being related to the Icelandic pony. It's only a boat ride after all between Ireland and Iceland.

whelan2

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Can you realistically grow a population from 8 cows and 3 bulls?

embryo transfer

Buford T. Justice XIX

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Can you realistically grow a population from 8 cows and 3 bulls?

You'd like to have more foundation animals but bringing in some 15/16th bred animals and allowing their progeny as purebred or something similar to increase the base looks more likely to succeed.

patsy_mccabe

It's the DNA and inbreeding problems I was thinking of.