Some 30 years ago, BBC Television made an irresistible demand on our leisure time by presenting the first of 90 episodes of All Creatures Great and Small, based on the best-selling books by a vet named James Herriot, who in real life was Alf Wight.

Remember the jingling, foot-tapping signature tune? And a glimpse of the vet's little old car crossing a bridge over Arkle Beck before negotiating a moorland watersplash? The series proved how photogenic are the lean uplands. And how independent and spirited were the hill farmers of the time. Siegfried Farnon, Herriot's boss in the stories, described them as a race apart.

Alf, qualifying as a vet in 1939, entered the farming world with a special knowledge of five species of animal – and cattle were not one of them. He found himself ministering to the Shorthorn, which was the dalesman's cow before the breed was usurped by the black-and-white Friesian.

The Shorthorn was dual purpose, originally bred for dairy and beef production. It occurred in red, white and a blend known as roan.

When the BBC needed Shorthorns for filming All Creatures Great and Small, most of the remaining Dales cows had been de-horned. A herd of the old-fashioned, horned type was located in Baldersdale, and with the farmer's co-operation, several were were transported into Wensleydale for filming.

When I last chatted with Alf Wight, at his home near Thirsk, we were soon discussing Shorthorns, which he attended to on his Dales rounds. These "pretty, gentle animals" were subject to "all those awful old treatments".

A cow went down. The farmer would say it had a worm in its tail. The cow couldn't get up. So they cut off its tail.

Another farmer kept a billy goat (which stank) in the shippon to prevent contagious abortion. "He thought the smell would help to cure the complaint." Abortion hit a herd only once; the animals developed an immunity. The billy goat got the credit.

The Shorthorn suited the upper dales, being hardy, healthy and long-lived. With its cock horns nicely turned up, it looked sprightly and young. It was thrifty, giving milk without being fed a lot of keep. Before the boom in milk production, milk was converted into butter and cheese, then into cash. Farmers' wives, carrying butter in large baskets, attended Dales market.

Many young in-calf cows were bought by the cow-keepers of Liverpool, who were closely related to farming families living in the upper dales. The Liverpool comedian, Tommy Handley, had a Dales background.
His family originally hailed from Garsdale.

The last time I saw a Shorthorn being milked by hand was at high-lying Bordley. After tea, the farmer slurred his chair on the flagged floor of the kitchen and rose to announce that he was "bahn to milk". I followed him into a tiny shippon where, sitting on the traditional three-legged stool, he coaxed milk from the "house cow". It was like a scene from a Herriot film.

My favourite version of All Creatures Great and Small was a cinema production of 1975, featuring Anthony Hopkins as Siegfried and Simon Ward as James Herriot. The Shorthorn had a prominent supporting role.

The film ended with James and Helen, on their honeymoon, which in real life was at Carperby in Wensleydale. They had agreed to TB test cows in an upland herd. When the operation was completed, the credits began to roll. A happy couple rested their elbows on a field gate and let their eyes take in a glorious sweep of dale-country.

Sunderland-born Alf Wight died in 1995, two years after being given the title of honorary Yorkshireman.