Milking Devon

Devons came from Devonshire in southwest England and reached New England with the Pilgrims in 1623. They were kept for three jobs at once: beef, rich milk for Devonshire cream, and ox work. They had a reputation as the fastest working oxen in Britain, said to trot at six miles an hour with an empty wagon, and Devon oxen pulled west on the Oregon Trail. Herd books have been published since 1855.

The Shorthorn displaced them through the late 1800s, and by 1900 Devons were rarely seen outside New England. In the mid-1900s the pressure was to specialize the survivors as beef animals. A small group of breeders refused, kept the dairy and draft traits, and formed the American Milking Devon Cattle Association in 1978. The beef population went its own way and is listed in this catalog as the Red Devon.

A medium-sized animal in a dark, glossy ruby red, with black-tipped white horns on both sexes. The Livestock Conservancy puts cows at an average of 1,100 lb and bulls around 1,600 lb, within an overall range of 1,000 to 1,800 lb.

The build is compact yet fine: a straight topline, square legs, and well-formed udders. Calves are small at birth and large and fat at weaning.

The Conservancy lists the temperament as alert, and notes they can be assertive. It rates the experience level intermediate to advanced, which is worth taking seriously alongside the breed's family-cow reputation: this is an intelligent working animal that responds to steady handling, not a beginner's first cow.

Both sexes carry horns, so gates, chutes and feeders need to allow for them.

The historic jobs were milk, beef and ox work from the same animal, and the modern ones are the same list at a smaller scale. The Conservancy calls the breed a good option for a family cow, and the ox heritage is alive: the historic sites that went looking for the breed in the 1970s wanted working oxen for a reason.

They are easy keepers that do well on rough forage, which is why they suit a small farm. The breed is noted for thriving in rough conditions on a low-input, high-forage diet.

The breed is ranked Critical on The Livestock Conservancy's Conservation Priority List. The population was estimated at about 500 animals in 2021, spread across 34 US states and Canada. With numbers that small, every registered breeding animal counts, and the herd book is what keeps the breed a breed.

The American Milking Devon Cattle Association holds the herd book. With around 500 animals alive, ask for the registration and the pedigree before anything else; an unregistered red cow is not a Milking Devon in any sense that matters to the breed's survival.

Ask what the animal has actually done. The breed's value is the three jobs, so it matters whether a cow's line has been milked and handled or run loose as beef stock.

The trade is that a triple-purpose animal is not the best at any one job. If you want maximum milk or maximum growth, a specialized breed beats it.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.