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The Hereford beef cattle was bred in County Hereford in Great Britain, historically one of the agricultural regions of England. The origin of the Herefords is not exactly known. There is a version that the ancestors of this cattle were medium-sized red bulls brought in by the Romans and large Welsh cattle, once bred in large numbers on the border between England and Wales.
The first mentions of Hereford cattle date back to the 1600s. From the beginning of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th, an official Hereford studbook was already kept. From the beginning, Hereford cattle were bred as beef animals. The selection of pedigree cattle was aimed at maximum meat productivity.
Attention! The first Herefords were much larger than today's representatives and weighed more than 1.5 tons.
Later, the size of the bulls was reduced in order to obtain better quality beef.
Initially, the Herefords were phenotypically very similar to other breeds of English cattle:
cattle from North Devon
and the Sussex breed of cows.
It is believed that the official history of the Hereford breed began in 1742 with three heads of cattle. The foundation of the breed is attributed to Benjamin Tomkins, the owner of two cows and a bull, who became the official ancestors of the Hereford breed of cows. In the process of breeding, Hereford cattle were infused with the blood of other breeds. Most often Shorthorns.
When breeding the breed, Tomkins aimed to obtain cattle that are undemanding to feed and capable of growing rapidly and fattening up weight on grass alone. In addition, the Hereford breed required disease resistance, early maturity and good fertility - traits that are very important in today's cattle breeding. Other breeders supported this direction of breeding, resulting in high quality beef cattle.
Distinctive features of the breed
Hereford cattle are prized for their productive and reproductive qualities. The reasons why the Hereford breed of cows has spread across all continents primarily lies in the fertility of this breed. Since the breed is generally medium-sized and small calves are born from Hereford bulls, calving in cows of other breeds is much easier.
Advantages of the breed for which it is valued in the world:
- fertility;
- easy calving in cows of other breeds, if they were covered with a Hereford bull;
- high quality meat;
- the ability to fatten and maintain weight on one grass, do not require special feeding rations;
- a high degree of adaptability to various climatic conditions;
- peaceful nature;
- The "brand" of the breed is a white head.
The breeders worked for a long time to make the white head a special feature of the Hereford breed, but Soviet geneticists did not give them such an opportunity, having bred the Kazakh white-headed breed of cows with the participation of the Herefords. For this reason, the Kazakh white-headed to some extent can be called another type of Hereford.
When spreading all over the world, any breed cannot but develop intra-breed types. The Herefords are no exception. There are no less than three types of Herefords, one of which already claims to be a breed.
Description of the intra-breed types of the Hereford breed
The main differences in the Hereford breed originated as a result of mutations and deliberate mixing of the Hereford with the Aberdeen Angus breed in order to obtain larger offspring. Also, some differences in Herefords are determined by the different climatic conditions of the countries in which they are bred.
Today the “classic” type of Hereford is preserved as a genetic bank for the selection of other cattle breeds.
General characteristics of the Hereford breed
An animal of the meat direction. The cattle are small in stature, but rather massive. Average height 125 cm at the withers. Chest circumference 197 cm. Oblique length 153 cm. Elongation index 122.5. The girth of the metacarpus is 20 cm. The bone index is 16. The bone is strong enough to support the weight of the muscles.
General appearance: a squat powerful animal with a barrel-shaped body. The chest is well developed. Hereford cows have a small udder.
The color of the "classic" Hereford is red-piebald. The main body color is red. The head is white. The pezhina on the lower part of the body often merges with the pezhina on the head. Sometimes there is a white stripe along the ridge.
Moreover, the horns of this type are often directed downward or forward.
Chunky type
It was split from the "classic" due to a mutation that provided the hereditary absence of horns. Today, it is this type that can be found more and more often due to the convenience of breeding and growing. When clarifying the relationship, neither bulls nor cows inflict serious injuries on each other. The rest of the hornless type does not differ from the "classic" one.
Black hereford
Since Herefords are often crossed with other breeds, the emergence of the black type of this breed of cattle, apparently, was natural. Black Hereford has a small admixture of Aberdeen Angus or Holstein breeds. In terms of its characteristics, this type is similar to the red Hereford. The color differs only in color. Instead of a red body, this type, as the name suggests, is black.
Judging by the exterior, the cow in the photo has an admixture of the dairy Holstein breed.
The bull most likely carries Aberdeen-Angus blood.
The black type of Hereford is larger than the red one. In this regard, breeders of beef cattle breeds prefer the black type for growing for meat.
If the animal carries 50% of the Hereford blood and 50% of the blood of the Aberdeen Angus breed, it is called the "black baldi".
Black baldi
Crossbreeding of Hereford cattle with Aberdeen Angus is used to obtain the maximum possible slaughter yield of meat from the carcass. As a result of heterosis, the calf from the Black Hereford and Aberdeen Angus grows larger than the parent breeds. But the second generation of these hybrids will already give splitting, so it makes no sense to breed them "in yourself".
Often, Herefords are crossed with other beef breeds. The resulting offspring of black suit is also called "black baldi". In the photo there is a cross between a black Hereford and a Simmental cattle breed.
Productivity
The weight of adult representatives of Hereford cattle: cows from 650 to 850 kg, bulls from 900 to 1200 kg. In comparison with the size of adult animals, calves are born small: heifers 25-30, bulls 28-33 kg. But on fatty, nutrient-rich milk, calves quickly gain weight: from 0.8 to 1.5 kg per day. Slaughter meat yield from 58 to 62 percent. The maximum achievement is 70%.
Herefords produce very high quality marbled meat. Unfortunately, the Hereford cattle are not adapted to give milk. Initially selected for meat only, Hereford queens produce exactly the amount of milk needed to feed the calf. In addition, unlike dairy breeds, Hereford cattle are wild. There were attempts to milk the Hereford cow, but the amount of milk produced was not worth the effort spent on obtaining it.
Important! Calves are not weaned from the cow.
Health problems
There are quite serious hereditary diseases in Hereford cattle. Fortunately, it appears mostly in southern countries with hot sunshine and is associated with white markings.
This is how Hereford cows can develop ocular squamous cell carcinoma. This happens in an area where there is a long daylight hours with a bright sun. The most susceptible to the disease are animals that do not have dark "glasses" around the eyes.
There is usually no pigment in the skin under the white markings. And if on the muzzle the thick wool partially protects the skin from burns, then on the udder, where the wool is very sparse, Hereford cows often get udder burns. In this respect, black herefords and black baldi are in an advantageous position, since their skin under the white coat has a dark pigment.
Important! Often, sunburn can be caused by feeding livestock feed that increases sensitivity to ultraviolet light.
In the case of cows, buckwheat straw can lead to this effect, improving the quality of milk and increasing its volume.
Vaginal prolapse is also considered a hereditary problem in Hereford cows. There is a version that, in addition to heredity, the vagina may fall out due to an improper diet. Although, most likely, with abundant feeding, the calf in the womb grows too large, and the vagina falls out as a result of heavy calving.
Herefords also have a dwarf gene. Regularities of the appearance of dwarf individuals from the sex of the calf were not noticed, therefore it is believed that this characteristic is not associated with sex. But when breeding, you need to keep track of which of the cows gives dwarf calves in order to exclude it from further reproduction.
10 reasons the Irish Association thinks you should have a Hereford:
Hereford cattle owners reviews
Herefords are not popular among private owners due to their strictly meat orientation. Mostly they are kept by farmers who are focused on selling high quality beef.
Anna Voskoboinikova, s. Pochepskoe
When we decided to go into animal husbandry as a business, and chose the meat or dairy direction, I stood up for the meat with my chest. I just imagined that I would have to get up early in the morning to milk a whole herd of cows. Here, and milking machines will not save. Plus, they cost money too. It's easier with beef cattle. And there is a shortage of beef in Russia. Pork is much more common. When choosing a breed of cattle, they fluctuated between the traditional Simmental and the Hereford. But even here I have had fear since childhood. We had a Simmental bull on our collective farm. If he fell off the chain, everyone flew, some over the fences, some over the trees. And about the Herefords they say that they are good-natured. And in the video you can see how the owners walk next to the bull, and he does not pay attention to them. In general, we took several pregnant Hereford cows and gobies. One for the tribe, the rest for fattening. They turned out to be really amazingly calm and affectionate. But the cows do not agree to milk the cow. They just knock the bucket out or leave. So I had to get one dairy for myself. The gobies were handed over for meat, the revenue turned out to be decent due to the quality of the beef. Now, apparently, we will grow our own and expand slowly.
Victor Nevalyakhin, Staraya Stanitsa farm
I keep the cattle for myself. I only sell the surplus. Of course, there are a lot of raised bulls for me, so I am implementing something. Well, I can earn extra money by feeding, for example, a couple of bulls, and not one. I usually do that. I take 2-3 bulls, feed them and hand them over for meat. That year they offered me to take a new breed for us: the Hereford. It seems that they are fattening up quickly and you can get a lot of meat from them. Turned out to be quite expensive. As I learned the price, I almost turned around. Better to pick up twins from a neighboring farm for a bottle of gobies. But I was convinced. I took a couple of these Hereford bulls. "Affectionate as a calf" is about them. Then he almost cried when he sent him to the slaughterhouse. Their meat was also very tasty. I heard that there is so-called marbled beef, which is very expensive. But I didn't think I would have a chance to try. Now I will take one or two every year. If the price of meat does not suit me, I will keep it for myself. Maybe a manufacturer. For neighbors' cows.
Conclusion
Hereford cattle are well suited for the production of quality meat, but this makes it difficult to keep them in private farmsteads, where the owners want to receive not only meat, but also milk. It is better to keep a cross between a Hereford and a dairy breed of cows in the household. This can be achieved by artificially inseminating your cow with Hereford bull sperm.
