Red Poll

The Red Poll came out of eastern England in the early 1800s, from crossing two local breeds that each brought half the job. The Norfolk was small, hardy, horned and red-and-white, and made good beef. The Suffolk was a polled dairy cow, red, yellow or brindle. The cross was recognized in 1846 as the Norfolk and Suffolk Red Polled, got a herd book in 1874, and had its name shortened to Red Poll around 1880.

Breeders held it to both jobs and settled it into a consistent animal: dark red, and always polled.

It never spread far inside England, staying strongest in the two counties it came from, but it exported well. Americans started importing in the 1880s and kept going into the 1930s. The American Red Poll Association was founded in 1883, five years before the English breed society existed.

As a dairy cow it competed on profit over feed cost rather than on raw volume, and it lasted. Cows commonly gave 10,000 pounds of milk a year into their teens.

It suits rotational grazing and handles cold, wet country given shelter.