Measuring Height

[Louisa Gidney]

Kathleen, I do apologise. I missed your request. A brief summary may be found on page 902 of The Shapwick Project, Somerset. A Rural Landscape Explored. C. Gerrard with M. Aston. Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 25, 2007.
Do PM if you'd like me to email a copy of the relevant section of the archive report.
In brief, the dig found a pit full of cattle bodies which gave a medieval carbon14 date. The assumption is that it is a murrain pit. The tooth eruption and wear indicated that these were mature to elderly animals while the epiphysial fusion indicated young or sub-adults. If this was an episode of murrain deaths, the cattle are more likely to have been the live oxen working the manor, rather than the normal beasts selected for the butcher. Various studies, cited in the text, have shown that castration can delay epiphysial fusion but does not impact on tooth eruption or wear stages. This reinforces the hypothesis that the bones may be from the working oxen of the manor.

[marcus]

Not all people that show overfeed their animals.I show cattle, and the only thing I do differently with them is house them the night before the show and feed them hay thet evening, for obvious reasons!.
I think most dexter people do the same.