A good milk flow was also considered important
in selecting breeding stock in the development of the breed in its
native land.
The counties of Suffolk and Norfolk in England
are the original homes of the Red Poll. These counties, which lie
in a low rather marshy section of England, border the North Sea and
have soil that is generally lacking in fertility.
The first general agricultural records of England
record a great interest in dairy, particularly in Suffolk County.
However, the farmers did not specialize in dairy animals but preferred
cattle with a combination of milk production and high quality carcasses.
No one knows when the first cattle were
introduced into Suffolk, but it was thought that cattle were brought
to that area by the Romans.
In discussing the cattle of Suffolk in
1794, Rev. Arthur Young, in his book The General View of Agriculture
of the County of Norfolk, reported:
This breed is universally polled, that is
without horns; the size small, few rise when fat to above fifty
stones (fourteen pounds). . . .
If I were to describe the points of certain individuals . . . a
clean throat with little dewlap; a thin clean snake head; thin legs;
a very large carcase; ribs tolerably springing from the centre of
the back but with a heavy belley; backbone ridged; chine thin and
hollow; loin narrow; udder large, loose and creased when empty;
milk-veins remarkably large, and rising in knotted puffs to the
eye . . .
Many of these beasts will fatten remarkably well; the flesh of a
fine quality; and in that state will feel well enough to satisfy
the touch of skillful butchers. The best milkers I have known, have
either been red, brindle, or yellowish cream coloured . . . the
quality of milk is very considerable indeed.
The cattle of Norfolk were described in 1782
by Marshall (as quoted in the Red Polled Herd Book, vol 1,
American ed., 1891) as:
a small, hardy, thriving race; fattening
as freely and finishing as highly at three years old as cattle in
general do at four or five.
They are small boned, short legged, round barrelled, well-loined,
thin-thighed, clean chapped; the head, in general, fine, and the
horns clean, middle sized and bent forward; the favorite colour
a blood-red with a white mottled face . . . and if the London butchers
be judges of beef, there are no better beasts sent to Smithfield
market.
The two qualifications, namely the superior quality of their flesh,
and their fattening freely at an early age, do away with every solid
objection to their size and form.
It is not definitely known when the two breeds
were first crossed, or what infusions of blood may have been from
other breeds. Galloway Cattle and Devons were brought into the area,
and, no doubt, some of this breeding found its way into what later
was called the Red Polled Breed.
Reference:
Briggs, H.M. & D.M. Briggs. Modern
Breeds of Livestock. Fourth Edition. Macmillan Publishing Co. 1980
Promotional materials. American Red
Poll Association acquired by Dr. Michael L. Thonney, Professor of
Animal Science, Cornell University.
