Ancient history domestication of cattle

Cattle were the first domestic animas capable of pulling a plough. The earliest evidence for the domestication of cattle, during the 8,000 BC, points toward the marshland and forest of the Middle Euphrates Basin. 

Humped Zebu (Bos indicus) are believed to have been domesticated around 7000 to 8000 years ago, in the Indus Valley region of modern Pakistan.

Early man used cattle for draft, meat and milk. Cattle were also a measure of wealth.

Several breeds of domesticated cattle were known by 2500 B.C. An interesting frieze from Ur, dating from 3000 B.C, shows that cows were then milked from the rear.

About this same time the fattening of cattle by forced feeding was practiced in Egypt.

In the late nineteenth century, Eduard Hahn has argued that domestication of cattle emerged from religious practices based on awe, fear and admiration of the great bulls, which sometimes stood two meters at the withers.

Modern cattle are descendants of Bos taurus and Bos indicus. Bos taurus are domestic cattle that came from either the Aurochs or the Celtic Shorthorn.
Ancient history domestication of cattle

Chronology of cattle in United States

Cattle are not native to the United States, Christopher Columbus brought cattle to the New World on his second voyage in 1493. Texas longhorn can be traced back when Christopher Columbus landed in Santo Domingo with Spanish cattle.

Cattle were essential to the survival of the Spaniards in Mexico; the animals furnished meat, leather, and tallow. Descendents of these cattle were brought to the United States from Mexico in 1521.

More cattle were brought by Portuguese traders in 1553. The English were the first to bring large numbers of cattle to the United States with the founding of the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1611.

The first cattle imported into New England form England were those brought over in 1620 for the Massachusetts Bay Company.

About the same time the Danes imported cattle from Denmark into New Hampshire and the Swedes made importations from Sweden, in Delaware as early as 1630.

In 1821, Mexico gained independence, homesteaders and ranchers from the United States poured into Texas, bringing their cattle with them. When Texas won its independence from Mexico 15 years later, thousands more American began moving south.

In 1900 the vast majority of beef cattle in the United States of America were Shorthorn, Hereford or Angus. The first meat packing plant in America was founded by William Pynchon in 1640 near Springfield.
Chronology of cattle in United States