The Hereford is a British
breed of
beef cattle
Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk production). The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef.
In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf opera ...
originally from
Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...
in the
West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
of England. It has spread to many countries – there are more than five million
purebred
Purebreds are " cultivated varieties" of an animal species achieved through the process of selective breeding. When the lineage of a purebred animal is recorded, that animal is said to be "pedigreed". Purebreds breed true-to-type which means the ...
Hereford cattle in over fifty nations worldwide. The breed was first
export
An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...
ed from Britain in 1817, initially to
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
.
It spread across the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, through
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, to the great beef-raising countries of
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
. Today Herefords dominate from
Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...
to the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n
steppes
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grassland ...
, including
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
continental Europe and
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
, temperate parts of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, Canada, the United States,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, the centre and east of
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
,
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, where they make up the largest proportion of registered cattle. They are found all over
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and in some Southern African countries, notably
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
,
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
and
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
. Their original popularity among ranchers of the
American Southwest
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...
testified to the hardiness of a breed originating in cool, moist
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, but shown to thrive in harsher
climates
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorological ...
on nearly every
continent
A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...
. The
World Hereford Council
The World Hereford Council is the international breeding authority on Hereford cattle, existing for the promotion of breed excellence and the cultivation of global trade in Hereford genetics. Originally based in England, at the Hereford Cattle ...
, is based in Britain. There are currently 20 Hereford societies in 17 member-countries and a further eight in 10 non-member countries. In the United States, the official Hereford organization and breed registry is the
American Hereford Association
The American Hereford Association is an organization in the USA that promotes Hereford cattle.
It was founded in 1883 and operated out of the home of Charles Gudgel in Independence, Missouri.
In 1899, it hosted the Hereford Association Cattle Sho ...
, the second-largest society of its kind in the country.
History
![Illustrirte Zeitung (1843) 12 184 1 Hereford-Bulle des Herrn Jeffries](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Illustrirte_Zeitung_%281843%29_12_184_1_Hereford-Bulle_des_Herrn_Jeffries.PNG)
Until the 18th century, the cattle of Herefordshire resembled other cattle of southern England, being wholly red with a white switch, similar to the modern
North Devon and
Sussex breeds. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, other cattle (mainly
Shorthorn
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 emp ...
s) were used to create a new type of draught and beef cattle which at first varied in colour, with herds ranging from yellow to grey and light brown, and with varying amounts of white. By the end of the 18th century the white face characteristic of the modern breed was well established, as was the modern colour during the 19th century.
The Hereford is still seen in the Herefordshire countryside today and featured strongly at agricultural shows. The first imports of Herefords to the United States were made about 1817 by the politician
Henry Clay, with larger importation beginning in the 1840s.
Polled Hereford
The Polled Hereford is a hornless variant of Hereford with a
polled gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...
, a natural
genetic mutation
In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...
selected into a separate breed from 1889.
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
cattle rancher Warren Gammon capitalised on the idea of breeding Polled Herefords and started the
registry Registry may refer to:
Computing
* Container registry, an operating-system-level virtualization registry
* Domain name registry, a database of top-level internet domain names
* Local Internet registry
* Metadata registry, information system for re ...
with 11 naturally polled cattle. The American Polled Hereford Association (APHA) was formed in 1910. The American Polled Hereford and American Hereford breeds have been combined since 1995 under the same
American Hereford Association
The American Hereford Association is an organization in the USA that promotes Hereford cattle.
It was founded in 1883 and operated out of the home of Charles Gudgel in Independence, Missouri.
In 1899, it hosted the Hereford Association Cattle Sho ...
name.
In Australia the breed is known as the Poll Hereford.
Traditional Hereford
![Cow and calf K9486-1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Cow_and_calf_K9486-1.jpg)
Many strains of Hereford have used other cattle breeds to import desired characteristics, which has led to changes in the breed as a whole. However, some strains have been kept separate and retained characteristics of the earlier breed, such as hardiness and thriftiness. The Traditional Hereford is now treated as a minority breed of value for genetic conservation.
Health
![Hereford Calf Portrait, SC, Vic, 13](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Hereford_Calf_Portrait%2C_SC%2C_Vic%2C_13.10.2007_edit.jpg)
Eye cancer (ocular
squamous cell carcinoma) occurs in Herefords, notably in countries with continued bright sunlight and among those that prefer traits of low levels of red pigmentation round the eye. Studies of eye cancer in Hereford cattle in the US and Canada showed lid and corneoscleral pigment to be heritable and likely to decrease the risk of cancer.
Vaginal prolapse
Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is characterized by descent of pelvic organs from their normal positions. In women, the condition usually occurs when the pelvic floor collapses after gynecological cancer treatment, childbirth or heavy lifting.
In m ...
is considered a heritable problem, but may also be influenced by nutrition. Another problem is exposed skin on the udder being of light pigmentation and so vulnerable to
sunburn
Sunburn is a form of radiation burn that affects living tissue, such as skin, that results from an overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, usually from the Sun. Common symptoms in humans and animals include: red or reddish skin that is ho ...
.
Dwarfism is known to occur in Hereford cattle, caused by an autosomal recessive gene. Equal occurrence in heifers and bulls means that dwarfism is not considered a sex-linked characteristic.
[Jan M. Jones and R. D. Jolly. "Dwarfism in Hereford Cattle: A Genetic Morphological and Biochemical Study." ''New Zealand Veterinary Journal'' 30.12 (1982): 185-89.]
See also
*
Black Hereford (breed)
Black Baldy is a type of crossbred beef cattle produced by crossing Hereford cattle with a solid black breed, usually Aberdeen Angus. The term is particularly used in Australia and New Zealand. In North America, the term "Black Whiteface" is also ...
*
Hereford United F.C.
Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...
*
Hereford pig
*
List of cattle breeds
List of cattle breeds — Over 1000 breeds of cattle are recognized worldwide, some of which adapted to the local climate, others which were bred by humans for specialized uses.
Cattle breeds fall into two main types, which are regarded as eith ...
References
External links
World Hereford CouncilAmerican Hereford AssociationAustralian Hereford SocietyCanadian Hereford AssociationIrish Hereford Breed SocietyNew Zealand Hereford Association*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20130306111213/http://www.herefordamerica.com/associations.html#International List of Other International Hereford Associationsbr>
Polled Hereford Breed Information- Cattle.com
- Oklahoma State University
Romanian Hereford cattle Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hereford cattle
*
Beef cattle breeds
Cattle breeds originating in England
Animal breeds on the RBST Watchlist
Herefordshire