Till the Cows Come Home: The Story of Our Eternal Dependence

by Philip Walling

'A vital, thorough and accessible history that everyone who cares about the past or the future should read.' Rosamund Young, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Cows
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The story of the relationship between humankind and cattle, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Counting Sheep .
To tell the story of the relationship between humankind and cattle is to tell the story of civilisation itself. Since the beginning, cattle have tilled our soils, borne our burdens, fed and clothed us and been our loyal and uncomplaining servants in the work of taming the wilderness and wresting a living from the land.
There has never been a time when we have not depended on cattle. As human societies have migrated from the country to the city, the things they have needed from their cattle may have changed, but the fundamental human dependence remains.
Blending personal experience, recollection, interviews with farmers, butchers and cattle breeders and studding the narrative with little-known nuggets of technical detail, Philip Walling entertainingly reveals the central importance of cattle to all our lives.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Animals, Natural History

420 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2019

Reviews

[Ken Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[21 Oct 2021] This is an unusual premise for a book aimed at the general reader. But this well written account of Cattle and their connection to the human race is an easy-read, informative and based on, one imagines, a considerable degree of research. Its logically presented, even if the choice of chapters appears idiosyncratic. He takes you through the modern dairy industry and then into previously popular breeds such as the Shorthorn - The Gloucester is there as it was perhaps the first to be acknowledged as a rare breed and to be preserved as such. Then chapters jump around to London dairies, Channel Islands, the Black & White Breeds, Herefords, etc - before he launches into the Texas Longhorn, US Industrial feedlots, Spanish Fighting Bulls and the Sacred Cows.

All very interesting and enjoyable to read about. I particularly liked the chapter on the EU subsidies and the Milk Marketing Board and how one took over from the other and saws thousands of smaller diary farmers leave the industry. I also enjoyed his description of how early settlers imposed their cattle on the prairies and how this pretty much eradicated the native Buffalo. The Spanish bull fighting industry was sensitively described, but his neutral tone, while laudable, was irritating in what is essentially animal cruelty. He also tries to be balanced about US industrial farming, but fails to convince, I think, that he finds it objectionable. The sacred cows of India were also very briefly covered.

This is a skilled, technically well written book. Informative and accessible to the general reader. It takes you to a part of the human existence that seldom gets a mention - our strange relationship with out cattle. There are some good photographs and it is well referenced and indexed.

[David Rudin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this follow up to "Counting Sheep" Walling focuses again on the UK and its breeds but then travels farther afield to the US and Spain amongst other countries to tell the history of man’s relationship with and domestication of cattle.
For those interested in cattle this is a great tour of the various dairy and meat breeds, the histories of their domestication and refinement and the role they played in the UK and beyond. Once again the UK has played an outsized role in developing breeds that have spread throughout the world.
As in "Counting Sheep", Walling ends the work in a peculiar and discordant fashion, ranting against rewilding and then belaboring a section on legends, history and India’s views of cows as sacred. Unfortunately he leaves it late on the summary, adding on a few paragraphs that don’t provide the appropriate closure for an otherwise entertaining book.

[Kayleigh McMillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right on the 4.5-5* border but genuinely can't stop thinking about cows, the dairy industry, the beef industry and farming since reading this. I had thought it would be a little dense but somehow the author makes the story of various key breeds of cow tell the history of humankind's interaction with cattle and how this has impacted history from ancient times to the present day.

[Jeremy Butterfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this as background reading ('research') for a project. I enjoyed the historical information and the writing style was straightforward and informative. Now I know why there are so many pubs called the Durham Ox! I have not, however, become an avid breed nerd.