Fehér György szerk.: A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum Közleményei 2001-2004 (Budapest, 2004)

TUDOMÁNYOS KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Körösi Andrea: A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum szürkemarha csontgyűjteménye

The collection of bones of Hungarian Grey cattle in the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture ANDREA KÖRÖSI Present paper describes the collection of bones of Hungarian Grey cattle within the bone collection of the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture. The collection, also known by experts as Matolcsi-collection, consists of skulls, complete skeletons, and metatarsal bones (metapodium). It comprises bones from 198 animals, 174 of this number being purebred. 4 skulls belong to crossovers of Hungarian Grey cattle and unknown varieties, 20 metatarsi belong to bulls from the first generation (Fl) of the crossing of Hungarian Grey cow with Kostroma bull. From among all the animals, there are 32 bulls, 33 oxen, 96 cows and 37 animals the sex of which can not be determined. Most animals got to the Museum from the stock of the Hortobágy State Farm. As far as possible, for a part of the animals various data were also recorded such as age, name, live weight, body measurements, weight of the individual organs, names of the parents, lactation results. These data provided important knowledge for scientific research work, resulting in several publications, too. Most part of the material was collected from slaughter-houses between 1946 and 1973, thus presenting a picture of the horn and skull forms of the Hungarian Grey cattle population of Hortobágy in the 1950s, '60s and early '70s. Exceptions are three animals which got to the collection in 1994. It is worth mentioning that one of them, a cow lived 32 years.