Seasonal calving in European Prehistoric cattle and its impacts on milk availability and cheese-making.

ABSTRACT: Present-day domestic cattle are reproductively active throughout the year, which is a major asset for dairy production. Large wild ungulates, in contrast, are seasonal breeders, as were the last historic representatives of the aurochs, the wild ancestors of cattle. Aseasonal reproduction in cattle is a consequence of domestication and herding, but exactly when this capacity developed in domestic cattle is still unknown and the extent to which early farming communities controlled the seasonality of reproduction is debated. Seasonal or aseasonal calving would have shaped the socio-economic practices of ancient farming societies differently, structuring the agropastoral calendar and determining milk availability where dairying is attested. In this study, we reconstruct the calving pattern thr

SUBMITTER: Balasse M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8046818 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature