Milking Devon
History & heritage
One living story. Knowledge kept together.
Milking Devon cattle grazing at Mount Vernon, 2006. · Sean · CC BY-SA 2.0 · License terms
Follow the story behind the name.
Milking Devon conservation is closely tied to living-history farms in New England. Efforts to find historically appropriate cattle for the American Bicentennial helped expose the scarcity of a breed once valued for milk, meat and draft work.
Devons reached New England beginning in 1623. Preserving dairy and draft qualities became a distinct effort when other Devon breeders emphasized beef; the American Milking Devon Association formed in 1978.
Red coats and black-tipped pale horns accompany a genuinely triple-purpose tradition: milk, beef, and ox work. Compact bodies, forage use, and draft ability explain why living-history farms continue to value them.
Sources for general species learning
Sources behind the breed’s story.
The original history, identity and conservation teaching above draws on these cited accounts. Official links open the full material for further study.
Keep learning from official information.
These research portals help locate further material. A search link is a route for exploration; it is separate from the sources used for the article above. Domestic breed information, wild-species assessment, historical books and new research need their own context.
- FAO DAD-IS · Domestic breed information
- IUCN Red List · Species assessments
- Biodiversity Heritage Library · Historical literature search
- USDA National Agricultural Library · Research search
- Google Scholar · Scholarly literature search
- Open Library · Book catalogue search
- HathiTrust · Digitized catalogue search