Heritage Shorthorn (Native)

The Shorthorn may be the most influential cattle breed in the history of farming, and this entry is the part of it that traces unbroken to the beginning.

Shorthorn-type cattle appear in records from the 1500s in County Durham in northern England, which is why the breed was long called the Durham. Dutch imports were crossed onto native stock and selected for both meat and milk. In the late 1700s Charles and Robert Colling applied Robert Bakewell's new selective breeding methods to them, and the breed's fame followed a traveling exhibit: the Durham Ox, calved in 1796, weighed over 3,500 pounds at ten years old. Red, white and roan Shorthorns dominate the farm art of the period.

The Shorthorn was the first breed anywhere to keep a herd book. George Coates compiled it in 1822, and every Heritage Shorthorn alive traces back into it.

That is the distinction you are buying. The Native or Heritage population is registered separately precisely because it traces into that original herd book, and this catalogue also lists Shorthorn and Milking Shorthorn. The three are not interchangeable, so check which herd book an animal is recorded in before you bid.