Conservation status | Least Concern |
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Country of origin | UK (England and Scotland) |
Use | Beef |
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The Beef Shorthorn breed of cattle was developed from the Shorthorn breed in England and Scotland around 1820. [1] The Shorthorn was originally developed as a dual-purpose breed, suitable for both dairy and beef production. However, different breeders opted to concentrate on one purpose rather than the other, and in 1958, the beef breeders started their own section of the herdbook. Since then, the Beef Shorthorns have been developed as a separate breed to the Dairy Shorthorns.
By the early 1970s, the Beef Shorthorn breeders were concerned their cattle were too small and lacked muscle, especially when compared with the continental breeds of cattle, such as the Charolais or Limousin - that were starting to be introduced to the UK. To help remedy this, in 1976, the Beef Shorthorn Cattle Society sanctioned the introduction of Maine-Anjou blood into the breed. The Maine-Anjou breed, developed in France, was descended from the same Durham cattle as the Shorthorn. The decision to introduce Maine-Anjou blood into the Beef Shorthorn breed was very controversial at the time, but most breeders now acknowledge it was a necessary step which saved the breed from irrelevance. The herd book was closed to Maine-Anjou blood lines in 2001, except by introduction through the Grading Register.
The Beef Shorthorn breed is not considered at risk by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, since more than 1,500 registered breeding females are found in the United Kingdom. [2]
The Red Poll is a dual-purpose breed of cattle developed in England in the latter half of the 19th century. The Red Poll is a cross of the Norfolk Red beef cattle and Suffolk Dun dairy cattle breeds.
The Aberdeen Angus, sometimes simply Angus, is a Scottish breed of small beef cattle. It derives from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine and Angus in north-eastern Scotland. In 2018 the breed accounted for over 17% of the beef production in the United Kingdom.
The Holstein Friesian is an international breed or group of breeds of dairy cattle. It originated in Frisia, stretching from the Dutch province of North Holland to the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the dominant breed in industrial dairy farming worldwide, and is found in more than 160 countries. It is known by many names, among them Holstein, Friesian and Black and White.
The Galloway is a Scottish breed of beef cattle, named after the Galloway region of Scotland, where it originated during the seventeenth century.
The Simmental or Swiss Fleckvieh is a Swiss breed of dual-purpose cattle. It is named after the Simmental – the valley of the Simme river – in the Bernese Oberland, in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The breed is typically reddish in colour with white markings, and is raised for both milk and meat.
The Dairy Shorthorn is a British breed of dairy cattle. It derives from the Shorthorn cattle of Teesside, in the North Riding of Yorkshire and in Northumbria in north-eastern England. The Shorthorn was for this reason at first known as the Durham or Teeswater.
The Afrikaner or Africander is an African breed of taurine-indicine cattle in the Sanga group of African cattle. It is derived from the cattle of the Khoikhoi (Hottentot) people which were already present in the area of modern South Africa when the Dutch East India Company established the Cape Colony in 1652.
The Belted Galloway is a traditional Scottish breed of beef cattle. It derives from the Galloway stock of the Galloway region of south-western Scotland, and was established as a separate breed in 1921. It is adapted to living on the poor upland pastures and windswept moorlands of the region. The exact origin of the breed is unclear, although the white belt for which they are named, and which distinguishes the breed from black Galloway cattle, is often surmised to be the result of cross-breeding with the similarly coloured Dutch Lakenvelder.
The Irish Moiled is a rare cattle breed from Ireland. It is a dual-purpose breed, reared for both beef and milk. It originated in County Leitrim, County Sligo, County Down, and County Donegal, but the breed is now found throughout Ireland.
The British White is a British breed of beef cattle. It is naturally polled and is colour-pointed – white with black or red points on the ears and muzzle. It has a confirmed history dating back to the seventeenth century.
The Shorthorn breed of cattle originated in the North East of England in the late eighteenth century. The breed was developed as dual-purpose, suitable for both dairy and beef production; however, certain blood lines within the breed always emphasised one quality or the other. Over time, these different lines diverged, and by the second half of the twentieth century, two separate breeds had developed – the Beef Shorthorn, and the Milking Shorthorn. All Shorthorn cattle are coloured red, white, or roan, although roan cattle are preferred by some, and completely white animals are not common. However, one type of Shorthorn has been bred to be consistently white – the Whitebred Shorthorn, which was developed to cross with black Galloway cattle to produce a popular blue roan crossbreed, the Blue Grey.
The White Park is a modern British breed of cattle. It was established in 1973 to include several herds or populations of colour-pointed white cattle – white-coated, with points of either red or black on the ears and feet. Such cattle have a long history in the British Isles, and the origins of some herds go back to the Middle Ages.
Glamorgan Cattle are a rare British cattle breed. Once common in the counties of Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Brecon, the breed was thought to have died out, until a remnant herd was found in the 1970s.
The Old Gloucester or Gloucester is a traditional British breed of cattle originating in Gloucestershire and surrounding areas in the West Country of England. It was originally a triple-purpose breed, reared for milk, for beef and for draught use; it is now a dual-purpose animal. It is an endangered breed, and its conservation status is listed as "priority" by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.
The Maine-Anjou is a French breed of domestic cattle, raised mainly in the Pays de la Loire region in north-western France. It was created in the nineteenth century in the historic province of Maine by cross-breeding the local Mancelle dairy cattle with Durham stock from Britain, and was at first called the Durham-Mancelle. In France it has been known since 2004 as the Rouge des Prés, but the Maine-Anjou name continues to be used elsewhere. It was formerly a dual-purpose animal, raised both for meat and for milk, but is now principally a beef breed.
The Sussex is a British breed of red beef cattle from the Weald of Sussex, Surrey and Kent, in south-eastern England. Its traditional use as a draught ox on the Weald continued into the twentieth century. From the late nineteenth century it began to be selectively bred for beef production. It has been exported to many countries of the world; the largest population is in South Africa, where there may be half a million head.
Whitebred Shorthorn is a British type of beef cattle originating in north west England and south west Scotland. It is derived from Shorthorn cattle, but is always white, rather than being the range of colours found in other Shorthorns. It has not undergone the specialisation seen in other Shorthorns, and so it remains as a more traditional hardy and thrifty cattle type. This favours its use for conservation grazing of hill pastures, grazing rank grass species to maintain a diverse flora.
The Droughtmaster is an Australian breed of beef cattle. It was developed from about 1915 in North Queensland by crossing zebuine cattle with cattle of British origin, principally the Beef Shorthorn. It was the first Australian taurindicine hybrid breed; it is approximately 50% Bos indicus and 50% Bos taurus.
The Lincoln Red is a British breed of red-coated beef cattle. It originates in, and is named for, the county of Lincolnshire in the eastern Midlands of England. It was selectively bred in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by crossing large local draught cattle of the region with Teeswater Shorthorns of medium size. It was at first known as the Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn, and was a dual-purpose breed, reared both for milk and for beef. The polling gene was introduced in the early twentieth century, and the cattle are now usually polled; the word 'shorthorn' was dropped from the breed name in 1960. In the twenty-first century it is reared for beef.
The Blue Albion was a British breed of cattle with an unusual blue roan coat. It originated in the English Midlands in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, and was a dual-purpose breed, reared both for beef and for milk. It became extinct following the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 1967.