The Curious Compendium 2023 Tour Finale: Frenchies!

Beautiful!!!

Thank you!

Merino, Scottish black-faced, and Shropshire sheep!
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Shropshire were developed in the 1840s by local shire farmers crossing native black faces sheep to leicester and southdown breed stock. This breed has a dark face and legs, cherry red skin, and pale wool, in addition to being polled (hornless). This is a dual purpose breed; they grow quickly and produce elastic and dense wool. A ram can give a 10-14 lbs fleece while a ewe is closer to 10-11lbs. One intriguing thing I learned is that this is the only (to my reading anyhow) breed that does not eat trees. This has made them popular on properties that grow Christmas trees or orchards of fruit as they don't harm those agriproducts but maintain grasses and fertilize young saplings.

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Simmental!
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This is another famous breed known for its existence since the middle ages and its value as a breed used to develop new breeds and crosses around the world. Originally a tri purpose animal, it is now largely used for either dairy or beef. The traditional animals are only red or yellow with white markings, but there are newer strains of them that can be solid black or red (though not considered purebred in all countries). The animals are now widespread and popular on each continent! The most intriguing crosses I came by however were from Russia! There are 6 unique strains there:
Steppe simmental (russian cattle X simmental)
Ukrainian simmental (grey steppe cattle X simmental)
Volga simmental (central russian kalmyk/kazakh cattle X simmental)
Ural simmental (siberian/kazakh cattle X simmental)
Siberian simmental (siberian/buryat cattle X simmental)
Far Eastern simmental (transbikail/yakutian cattle X simmental)

I see our sheep

Thank you Ken! They are truly lovely figures!

Chickens! (no particular breed)
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Chickens are smarter than most people think; they can remember 100 faces (chicken or human!). A single chicken can have up to 300+ eggs a year and hens will rotate their eggs throughout the day (the presumption is so that the embryo doesn't attach to the egg wall). The record number of eggs laid in a day is 7 and the record in a year 371! There are more chickens on earth than humans- 25 BILLION. They were first domesticated in China circa 6,000 B.C. The most yolks in one egg is an astounding 9 and the biggest egg recorded was 12 oz and had 2 yolks. There are so many more facts to share but I have to digress!

Other nice group, my favorite figure is Papo chicks with two yellow and one black.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Thank you!

Merino, Scottish black-faced, and Shropshire sheep!
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Shropshire were developed in the 1840s by local shire farmers crossing native black faces sheep to leicester and southdown breed stock. This breed has a dark face and legs, cherry red skin, and pale wool, in addition to being polled (hornless). This is a dual purpose breed; they grow quickly and produce elastic and dense wool. A ram can give a 10-14 lbs fleece while a ewe is closer to 10-11lbs. One intriguing thing I learned is that this is the only (to my reading anyhow) breed that does not eat trees. This has made them popular on properties that grow Christmas trees or orchards of fruit as they don't harm those agriproducts but maintain grasses and fertilize young saplings.

Do animal collectors dream of toy sheep?

This one does! Just like Andreas' reply! 1... 2... 3.....

Mixed cattle! Salers, Ayrshire, Montbeliarde, Galloway, and Limousin!
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Salers cattle hail from Auvergne France. They are an old breed, depicted in cave paintings from 16,500 years ago! This distinctive red breed has a thick coat of hair and dark pigmentation compared to many breeds that helps with sunburns and chapping. They are easy calvers as they have a large pelvic area and a shorter than usual gestation period. One of their widely lauded characteristics is their efficient use of forage rather than fodder, and are another triple use breed (though they better known for dairy nowadays rather than beef or draught).

Another set of mixed cattle! Black baldy, Maine Anjou, Allgau, and Blonde d'Aquitaine.
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Black baldy is not considered its own breed just yet, but it is often culturally treated as one. This mixture of cattle is produced (typically) by breeding a Hereford bull to Angus cows, or (less often) an Angus bull to hereford cows. The resulting calves will be black bodied with white faces and variable markings. These animals are currently highly valued in the beef industry for their "heterosis" or "hybrid vigor"; showing several favorable traits from both parents including the poll gene (hornless), more robust immune systems and over all health, and fast growth rates compared to "straightbred" or pure line calves. This mixture is highly popular in Australia and New Zealand as well as North America. This breed differs from the black hereford but often gets mistaken for it; this mixed breed is from crossing Hereford bulls with Friesian cows, and this currently the most common mix breed cow in Britain. The baldy is a type of cow I also grew up with and have fond memories of. Their uniquely colored calves are some of the most darling ones I have seen!

Nice again! I don't know why but I like when breeds have tags/bells or other accessories on them. Brings them to life a bit more

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Another set of mixed cattle! Black baldy, Maine Anjou,  Allgau, and Blonde d'Aquitaine.
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very nice models Paige!
it's nice to see these different cows here.

And regarding your chickens above - didn't you also paint a couple of them in a different breed pattern? I think I remember that from a while ago?

Six nice figures, congrats

Was the maine Anjou made by Ertl ?

Thank you everyone!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], I did but those were different species of Junglefowl, the original wild form of domestic chickens (like wolves vs dogs).

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], yes you are right!

Alpaca!
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They can live to be about 20 years old, oldest known was 27! After about 8 years though their fleece quality begins to decrease. Their fiber is a popular choice; because it lacks the oil lanolin it is hypoallergenic. It is also nonflammable and water resistant! They were domesticates about 6,000 years ago. Their babies, a cria, are in gestation for 330 days! There are two types of alpaca; the huacaya (crimped, dense fiber) and suri (longer and more valuable wool). They can also hybridize with llamas- creating a llalpaca/huarizo from a male llama and female alpaca pairing.

Thank you Taylor. :)

Just a heads up for this week, starting 7/24-7/29 posts will be sparse if not nonexistent here; I have a family event to attend and its going to be rather busy and hectic. I am going to *try* to post at least a few times but... I can't make promises on this. But after its all over we will wrap up livestock and move on to the category!

Here we have another favorite bovid of mine; Rodeo bucking bulls!
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These are animals similar to the Spanish fighting bulls in that they are bred foe performance, not for a product or look. They often have Brahma in their pedigree, but they really can be any kind of admixture from there. Just like with show dogs or equine athletes (race horses, jumpers, dressage, etc.) they have a long pedigree for each animal thay can be traced back for decades. Your average bull weighs in at 1,200 lbs to 2,000 lbs. But there have been famous bulls with slighter builds (i.e. Blueberry Wine) or even larger builds (Bodacious). It may come as a surprise however that while some of these fierce competitors are truly ornery, most of them are actually just entertainers at heart. Many of the most famous bulls in the American circuit were known to be gladiators in the ring but turn into big puppy dogs at home or once they got down the chute back to their holding pen at events. If nothing else, they are amazing athletes performing gravity defying stunts at their size, and each and every single bull has a different tactic to unseat his rider. Upon retirement, these bulls are kept in great health and shape until their natural passing.

As a small tribute to some of the most famous, I will list a few of my favorites here: Little Yellow Jacket, Bones, Mudslinger, Dillinger, Hotel California, Lucky Strike, Voodoo, Nightlife, Ugly, Neon Nights, and I could go on...

Sadly, Bushwacker, a highly successful athlete himself, passed away earlier this month at the age of 18.

Great collection of beautiful bulls!!!

Generic sheep!
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Sheep can remember up to 50 faces (human and animal) for 2 years! Their rectangular pupila help them detect movement in a wider range of vision. They are often the livestock animal of choice for research studies (digestion of ruminants, farming effects on landscape, etc.). As they grow up, they develop 2 teeth at a time until they have 32 total, this takes about 4 years to do. Lastly, a one year old sheep is called a "hogget".

Finally back! Thank you my friends.

The last of the cattle, just the ones who don't fit into one distinct breed.
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Cattle are very social animals and will make close bonds with 20-30 other individuals in their herd. Cattle cannot see the color red, it is supposed to appear as yellow or gray to them (sorry matadors). Cattle chew their feed up to 40,000 times a day! Their 4 chambered stomach (the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum), is an amazing structure. The reticulum is what produces the cud (a soft taffy-like material they regurgitate to rechew), the rumen is the fermenting tank that uses bacteria to break down their food, the omasum is primarily used to absorb water from the food, the abomasum (the "true" stomach) is the final and most vital part of digestion where enzymes are produced to create the final digestible product for the animal.