 Coke 's big improvements came in two areas ; grasses and husbandry . He pioneered the use of cocksfoot and <unk> as grass and feed respectively , with the result that by 1793 he was claiming to have 2 @,@ 400 sheep in Holkham , as opposed to the 700 kept when he inherited the estates . The husbandry involved the milking comparisons of various types of cow , along with the first planting of Scottish turnips , which are " a good table vegetable being more palatable and nutritious and not so watery as the Norfolk variety " . His prime area of experimentation was on the selective breeding for sheep . The most common sheep in the area was the Norfolk Horn , which was long @-@ legged and slow to mature . Coke became a promoter of the English Leicester , a breed noted as fast @-@ maturing and excellent when fed turnips . Coke cross @-@ bred the two , with the resulting sheep being highly tame and superior to the pure Norfolk breed . Coke also bred cattle and used oxen for ploughing rather than horse , being the first to use them harnessed rather than yoked and winning a prize for his oxen in 1837 . 
