Lincoln Red

The Lincoln Red is a beef breed from Lincolnshire in eastern England. Red Lincolnshire cattle were being praised in print by 1695, and the modern breed came together in the 1700s and 1800s when those cows were crossed with Durham and York Shorthorn bulls. The result was the Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn, shortened to Lincoln Red in the 1960s. Breeders opened their own herd book in 1896.

It started as a dual-purpose animal and is now bred for beef. The British Board of Agriculture singled it out for how fast it finishes.

Here is the part that matters if you are buying in North America. When continental breeds arrived in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, most Lincoln Reds were crossed into them. The uncrossed remnant there is now called the Lincoln Red Original Population and is listed as critically endangered by the Rare Breed Survival Trust. The cattle imported to the US and Canada came over in the 1960s and early 1970s, just before that outcrossing began.

Expect a hardy, even-tempered animal that grows fast and does well in cooler country.