Thomas Booth

Who was Thomas Booth?

Thomas Booth was a stock breeder and improver.

Booth was owner and farmer of the estate of Killerby near Catterick, Yorkshire, where, in 1790, he turned his particular attention to the breeding of shorthorns, selecting his cows from Mr. Broader of Fairholme, and the bulls from the stock of his contemporaries, Messrs. Robert and Charles Colling. His great aim was to raise a useful class of animals, that, besides possessing beauty of form, would milk copiously, fatten readily, and when slaughtered turn out satisfactorily to the butcher. With these views he sought to reduce the bone of the animal, especially the length and coarseness of the legs, the prominency of the hips, the heavy bones of the shoulders, and those unsightly projections called shoulder points, which previously were great defects in the unimproved shorthorns. In these efforts he was most successful, and his cows and bulls for many years carried away the highest prizes at the chief exhibitions of stock. About the period of 1814 he was considered to be the most enterprising and skilful improver of cattle in his district, if not of his day.