Cattle Production in East Anglia— Past, Present and Future

Extract

In this short paper it is proposed in the first instance to give a brief outline of the history of crop production, since it is closely related to stock production. This will be followed by an outline of the cattle in East Anglia, and finally with the possible developments in the future.

If one looks back into the cropping of the arable areas of this country, and in this case, East Anglia, one finds that in the earliest farming the rotations consisted of really a three course rotation—wheat or rye, followed in the second year, with barley, oats, peas or beans and in the third year, fallow. There was little provision for winter feed for livestock when such rotations were followed, and consequently large numbers of animals were killed annually in the autumn. About the middle of the sixteenth century, one finds the first mention of turnips for feeding to cattle in the winter, and this suggestion was quickly followed by the announcement that cabbages, carrots and parsnips were also grown for stock feed.