Angus

Angus cattle come from Aberdeenshire and Angus in northeast Scotland, and they are naturally polled, which is to say born without horns. They arrived in Kansas in 1873 and became the most numerous beef breed in the United States.

The reasons are consistent: they marble well, they calve easily, the cows milk enough to raise a good calf, and the polled gene passes to crossbred calves so a commercial herd stops dehorning within a generation.

That dominance is also the thing to think about. Angus is the default, so the premium attached to the name belongs to the branded beef programs rather than to any individual animal, and meeting a program's spec is a separate exercise from owning a black cow.

The trade is climate. A black hide in Gulf Coast heat costs the animal something, which is exactly why the Brahman crosses below exist.