Thrifty and enterprising farmers near Hereford
in the County of Herefordshire, England,
were determined to produce beef for the expanding food market created
by Britain's industrial revolution.
To succeed in Herefordshire, these early-day
cattlemen realized they must have cattle which could efficiently convert
their native grass to beef and do it at a profit.
There was no breed in existence at the time
to fill that need, so the farmers of Herefordshire founded the beef
breed that logically became known as Herefords.
These early Hereford breeders molded their
cattle with the idea in mind of a high yield of beef and efficiency
of production, and so firmly fixed these characteristics that they
remain today as outstanding characteristics of the breed.
Beginning in 1742 with a bull calf from the
cow Silver and two cows, Pidgeon and Mottle, inherited from his father's
estate, Benjamin Tomkins is credited with founding the Hereford breed.
This was 18 years before Robert Bakewell began
developing his theories of animal breeding. From the start, Mr. Tomkins
had as his goals economy in feeding, natural aptitude to grow and
gain from grass and grain, rustling ability, hardiness, early maturity
and prolificacy, traits that are still of primary importance today.
Other pioneering breeders were
to follow the Tomkins' lead and establish the world-wide renown for
the Herefordshire cattle causing their exportation from England to wherever
grass grows and beef production is possible.
Herefords in the 1700's and early 1800's in
England were much larger than today. Many mature Herefords of those
days weighed 3,000 pounds or more.
Cotmore, a winning show bull and noteworthy
sire, weighed 3,900 pounds when shown in 1839. Gradually, the type
and conformation changed to less extreme size and weight to get more
smoothness, quality and efficiency.
HEREFORD IMPORTATIONS
Herefords came to the United States in 1817
when the great statesman Henry Clay of Kentucky made the first importation
-- a bull and two females.
These cattle and their offspring attracted
considerable attention, but they were eventually absorbed by the local
cattle population and disappeared from permanent identity.
The first breeding herd in America is considered
to be one established in 1840 by William H. Sotham and Erastus Corning
of Albany, New York, and for practical purposes Herefords in the United
States date from the Sotham-Corning beginning.
The more densely populated eastern area of
the United States, including herds in New England, was the early home
of Herefords and from there they fanned out to the South and West
as the population expanded and the demand for beef increased.
Records of the New York State Fair reveal that
11 Herefords were exhibited there in 1844 and were highly praised.
Several breeders were active in exhibiting at fairs and exhibitions
in the East and Midwest where the Herefords met with great success.
Perhaps the greatest early interest in the
breed came from the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia where
T. L. Miller was awarded a medal for the first-prize herd.
HEREFORDS - THE GREAT IMPROVER
With the end of the Civil War and the coming
of the American Industrial Revolution, the westward expansion continued
and so did America's appetite for beef. Western ranching developed
from free land and local longhorned cattle originally brought to Mexico
by the Spanish conquerors and allowed to drift northward into what
is now America's great southwestern cattle country.
These cattle were tough and had the bred-in
ability to survive, a trait that enabled their being driven to railhead
shipping points and then transported by rail to slaughter at eastern
markets. It was on such cattle that Herefords proved the great improver.
They survived the rough ranching conditions and improved beef quality
in the process. Demand for Hereford bulls boomed.
DEMAND CAUSES INCREASE IN HEREFORD IMPORTATIONS
IN 1890's
To satisfy the growing market which developed
from the western area cattlemen, Hereford breeders expanded their
herds through heavy importations from Herefordshire.
Whereas only 200 head were imported up to 1880,
more than 3,500 head of Herefords came over during the 1880-1889 period.
During this time, breeders of Herefords led by such men as T. L. Miller,
C. M. Culbertson and Thomas Clark, all of Illinois, won hard-fought
battles for breed acceptance in the agricultural fairs and expositions
which furthered the use of Herefords in American beef production.
Early Hereford breeder promoters and exhibitors
in the 1870's and 1880's included such names as Earl, Stuart, Fowler,
Van Natta and Studebaker of Indiana, and the Swan Land and Cattle
Co., forerunner of the present Wyoming Hereford Ranch.
These breeders were instrumental in the movement
of Herefords to Wyoming, other mountain states and the Northwest.
Gudgell and Simpson of Missouri made their start in 1877.
Four years later, they were to gain everlasting
renown in the Hereford world through importing and concentrating on
the great young sire Anxiety 4.
No other bull comes close to the stature of
Anxiety 4 for he is often credited as being the "Father of American
Herefords" and "the bull that gave Herefords hindquarters." Today,
he is the common ancestor of nearly all Hereford cattle in this country.
The Hereford industry in America
passed a great milestone of progress on June 22, 1881 , when a few breeders
met in Chicago at the Grand Pacific Hotel to lay the foundation for
the organization of the American Hereford Association, essentially for
the two-fold purpose of keeping the breed's records and promoting the
interests of Hereford breeders.
For over a century, the AHA has performed its duties with little change
in the original bylaws while providing leadership for the industry
that has seen Hereford cattle taken to every area, region and territory
of America and become the greatest influence in the nation's beef
production activity.
HEREFORDS BECOME DOMINANT
It was largely through shows and expositions
that Herefords gained their greatest acceptance among cattlemen of
this country and, no doubt, the first great impact was scored at the
1883 Chicago Fat Stock Show, the forerunner of the famous International
Livestock Exposition which, until closing after the 1975 event, was
the premier show for market animals in America.
At this show over a century ago, the Hereford
steer Roan Boy won the grand championship for his exhibitor, C. M.
Culbertson.
The steer's early maturity marked the beginning
of the end for the previously popular four-year-old steers -- the
big, rough, old fashioned kind. In 1886, a two-year-old Hereford was
grand champion and in 1903 Hereford yearlings won the carlot grand
championship.
Three years later a 336-day-old Hereford won
the show, the first ever at less than two years old.
Thus, Herefords led the way in revolutionizing
beef production in America, largely through the traits of doing ability
and early maturity -- getting fat at an early age and producing the
ideal in "baby beef."
While other traits in beef cattle continued
to be important in the cattle breeder's selection program during the
ensuing years, there is no doubt that early maturity and fattening
ability were of primary concern because (1) the market paid the highest
price for the cattle that fattened well on forage; thus (2) the preferred
breeding animals were those that demonstrated the ability to fatten
readily at a given age.
To get this early maturity, breeders in the
late 1930's and 1940's eagerly sought out the compact type of conformation
-- short, low set, wide and deep-bodied cattle -- as their preferred
breeding stock. By comparison, such cattle were naturally smaller.
Their success in achieving such an animal with
its abundance of fat and establishing that kind as the breed's "ideal"
proved to eventually be a detriment. The market changes that surfaced
in the 1960's caused such cattle to be penalized in price and discriminated
against.
DEMAND CHANGES HEREFORD TYPE
Following World War II and well into the 1950's,
the compact, fat, small type cattle continued to be favored in the
show ring, but quietly and almost unnoticed, there was a change taking
place in the meat-packing industry and in the basic American consumer's
diet which reflected on the demand and price of the favored kind up
to that time.
The commercial market for fat or beef tallow
declined, plus the fact that consumers were unwilling to buy the excess
fat on cuts from "over done" carcasses.
The result was that beef packers paid less
for the overfat cattle and suddenly there was a different type of
animal preferred by the industry -- a trimmer, leaner, less fat and
more red meat kind. The once preferred wide-backed, overfat and wastey
cattle were heavily docked in the market.
This change in market preference was first
expressed in Hereford circles at the National Hereford Conference
in Denver in 1963, voiced more loudly in 1967 at a conference in Kansas
City, and in the now famous 1969 conference in Wisconsin this change
was very conclusively demonstrated.
Economics in cost of production required faster
daily gain at less cost conversion of feed to muscle instead of fat,
and far less loss in offal waste in the desired market kind.
These requirements translated to more size
and a different style of conformation which, in turn, presented the
breeder with a tremendous challenge in modernizing the breed and turning
it around to a new kind of Hereford endowed with all the basic economical
traits to encompass total performance -- no desired trait achieved
at the expense of another.
Accomplishing, their objective
in a remarkably short time is a great tribute to the dedication of Hereford
breeders, the broad genetic base of the breed, and the ability of breeders
to utilize modern technology along with the practical application of
the breeder's art.
The 1960's saw the beginning of acceptance of
the performance era in Herefordom.
Breeders began giving concentrated attention
toward applying new-found tools such as performance testing, artificial
insemination, objective measures, embryo transfers, generation turnover,
and sire evaluation to effect more and more rapid genetic change in
the past 25 years than perhaps had been accomplished previously since
Benjamin Tomkins undertook his systematic efforts to make better beef
cattle from his native Herefords.
In 1963, the American Hereford Association
embarked on an experimental program to test sires under practical
feedlot conditions through their progeny in feedlot performance and
carcass yield.
That program was replaced by the current National
Reference Sire program to identify superior sires. This program led
the way for all breeds in sire testing.
The beginning of the American Hereford Association's
record keeping activity was expanded to include performance records
and initiation of the present Total Performance Records (TPR) service
in 1964.
Having been developed over some two decades,
often amended to utilize new technology and to provide maximum service
to breeders, the TPR program that has evolved has proven to be a great
service to individual breeders and the breed in general.
Presently, there are some two million records
of performance on file in the AHA computer, stored for use to assist
in selecting for improvements in future cattle generations.
The late 1960's found breeders
faced with overpowering evidence that the breed had too many cattle
that simply did not measure up in the modern measures of performance
and with great competition from European "exotic" breeds, Hereford followers
sought out breeders and bloodlines noted for cattle of substantial size
and performance.
It was fortunate for the breed that there was
an ample and broad genetic base from which to select when the demand
came for larger framed cattle. Breeders found the growth traits fairly
easy to select for. Both 205-day and yearling weights were accurate
measures of growth, fairly easy to obtain, and they were highly heritable.
Within herd selection was a long process when considering the rule
of thumb of cow generation being some seven years. Many breeders began
looking for short cuts. They searched the country for sires with more
frame and size, requesting and analyzing weaning and yearling weights.
Leaders in beef cattle education and research
stressed growth as a major criteria of performance, often ignoring
or de-emphasizing the most important economical trait of beef cattle
production, fertility.
Breeders often selected for frame
score and mature weight, and paid little heed to fertility, structural
soundness, feet and legs. The "yellow and mellow" coloring, a tic of
white in the back or extra white on the legs and underline became less
of a selection criteria. "If big enough, markings and color became less
important."
Where and in what bloodlines could these cattle be found to increase
the frame and weight of Herefords? Voices of the speakers at the Madison,
Wisconsin, conference in June, 1969, had barely quieted when breeders
started looking.
The frame 5 steers at the conference came from
the Northwest. That's where many breeders headed and they found some
bigger-than average framed bulls there. Many were of Evan Mischief,
Mark Donald and Real Prince Domino bloodlines.
Some breeders selected bigger framed cattle
in Canada, many of which traced to an American-bred Prince Domino
son, Real Prince Domino 109. Also about this time, breeders found
the Line One cattle developed by the U.S. Range and Research Station
at Miles City, Montana.
It was at the Miles City station
in 1934 that a selection program commenced and the development of inbreeding
several different lines with selection emphasis on yearling weights.
Of all the different lines developed at Miles City, the most prominent
to date has been the Line Ones.
The foundation cows for the Line Ones traced back to stock purchased
in 1926 from George M. Miles. The bulls used in the development of the
line were half-brothers, Advance Domino 20 and Advance Domino 54, purchased
in Colorado. These two foundation sires were strong in Prince Domino
blood.
Although the Line One cattle were developed at the Miles City station
and they have remained a prime source of seedstock, a number of other
breeders drew heavily on Line One sires starting in the 1940's, and
these breeders became suppliers of the Line One seedstock in the early
1970's.
The complete and universal acceptance of utilizing performance records
was a slow process and, even today, does not have universal appeal.
Different breeders place emphasis on different aspects.
Because of such difference in opinions in the past, the present, and
likely in the future, Hereford cattle will command the premier spot
in the beef cattle industry for years to come.
Reference:
Photographs:
Dr. Robert Kropp, Oklahoma State University
