I bet they HAD beef cattle, those longhorns in Texas, for one thing, were not raised to produce milk, nor was their milk ever utilized. However I really think that the average poor farmer had just one or two cows, and each year the cow would have a calf, having been impregnated by teh bull down the road, and the calf was fattened up and eventually butchered. The cow produced milk as a result of having a calf and that also fed the family. I wonder if at times cattle also helped pull the family plow. Yours, Dora Smith Austin, TX tiggernut24@yahoo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcia Payne" <etexgal@webtv.net> To: <MAWORCES-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 2:14 PM Subject: [MAWORCES] Very crazy question > > I'm sort of embarassed to ask, but the beef they slaughtered to eat, was > it a Dairy cow ? Or did they have Beef cattle back then...I really don't > know and just thought about it...ugh. > > Marcia > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message