On a cold Massachusetts morning, state men rode up Winthrop Chenery's lane with rifles to shoot his Dutch cows. Rinderpest had come, but before the echoes faded, he ordered another shipment from Holland. This is the story of the men who imported black-and-whites in the 1850s and 1880s—not speculators, but orchardists, nurserymen, and farmers who bet big on a breed that would fill barns from Ontario to Oceania. Their barns are gone, their fortunes faded, but their cows are in every pedigree you own. (347 chars)

Key Moments:

• The rifles cracking at Chenery's Belmont farm—and the telegram to Holland sent the same day
• Gerrit Miller's Triple Crown: Johanna, Empress, and Ondine, two of whom built Elevation and Starbuck
• How a blind man at Brookside Farm felt his way to foundation cows whose blood is in 7. ...