What is a Breed

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What is a Breed? Is There Really Such a Thing
as a Purebred? Harlan Ritchie, Michigan State
University Roy Wallace, Select Sires SimSeminar,
BIF 2006
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What is a Breed?
A breed of livestock is a group of animals that,
as a result of breeding and selection, have
certain distinguishable characteristics Hilton
Briggs, author Modern Breeds of Livestock A
purebred animal is an individual both of whose
parents are duly registered in a Registry
Association
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What is a Breed?
Attempts to improve cattle started in the British
Isles in the mid1700s when farmers began
recording ancestry and developing local breeds.
The same occurred later on the continent of
Europe.
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What is a Breed?
Early European cattle were used primarily for
draft and milk. They were extremely
largeframed, latematuring, lightmuscled and
slow to finish. When they went to market at 3-5
years of age, they were very rough and patchy.
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What is a Breed?
British Breeds Shorthorn Hereford Angus Red
Poll Galloway Scotch Highland
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What is a Breed?
Shorthorn-- from native short-horned cattle in
northeastern England and Galloway cattle
Hereford-- from native cattle of
Herefordshire (SW England) and Flemish cattle
from continental Europe
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What is a Breed?
Angus-- reported to have Shorthorn blood
introduced early in the breeds existence
Red Poll-- Originated in English countries of
Norfolk and Suffolk. Galloway and Devon found
their way into this breed
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What is a Breed?
2 British breeds appear to have remained free of
outside blood
Galloway-- Indigenous cattle in southwestern
Scotland
Scotch Highland-- Originated in the West Highland
region of western Scotland
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What is a Breed?
Continental Breeds Charolais Piedmontese Simme
ntal Belgian Blue Limousin Romagnola Maine
Anjou Marchigiana Salers Tarentaise Chiani
na Normande Gelbvieh
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What is a Breed?
Charolais-- Originally came to U.S. by way of
Mexico, not France, then crossed with other
breeds in the U.S. The breed today in the U.S. is
largely the result of a grading-up process where
Charolais bulls of French descent were used on
British cows, namely Angus, Hereford and
Shorthorn.
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What is a Breed?
In the 60s and 70s, a wave of Continental
breeds were brought through Canada and used in a
grading-up process on British breeds of
cows. These new breeds included Simmental,
Limousin, Maine Anjou, Salers, Gelbvieh,
Chianina, Peidmontese, Belgian Blue, Romagnola,
Marchigiana, Tarentaise, and Normande
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What is a Breed?
A note about purity of Continental breeds At
the end of WW II, the European continent was in
total disarray. Cattle were running loose in
many regions, resulting in a significant amount
of interbreeding taking place among breeds
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What is a Breed?
During the period of type change in the late 60s
and early 70s from small, fat cattle to growthy,
leaner types, there was some unethical infusion
of Holstein and Brown Swiss blood into the Angus
breed and Simmental blood into the Hereford
breed. Some were detected by blood-typing and
some were not.
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What is a Breed?
Is there really such a thing as a purebred? It
all depends upon how you define purebred

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