Kuhanspannung in Mitteleuropa: Ein vergessenes Element der Agrarrevolution?

Cow traction was a major source of energy in the agriculture of various European countries deep into the 1950s. As the losses in milk yields were by far outstripped by energy gains, a great number of continental smallholders preferred cows to horses and oxen regardless of a negative impact on labour productivity. However, the triple use of cows (milk, meat and traction) became widespread only after 1800 in accordance with an increasing availability of fodder resources. In this sense the expansion of cow traction can be considered as that part of the agricultural revolution which contributed to the protracted survival of smallholder economies in countries like Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany and Switzerland.