Cattle : DAIRY SHORTHORN

Species:

Country of origin: Britain

Australian Status:

International status: Critically rare globally. 

Arrived in Australia: Colonial times.

Australian Population: 2018-2019; Females - 124.  Comprising 102 A class, 7 B class, 4 C class and 11 D class. Kindly supplied by the Dairy Shorthorn Association of Australia.

Distribution:throughout eastern states of Australia 

History: Once also known as Durhams. In fact created from Durham and Teeswater cattle in north east England. Anglo Saxons had brought red Germanic cattle in, and the Dutch brought in flecked, big framed cattle which had gone into the mix with native celtic cattle.

Oldest recorded breed in the world. Known from the 1500's and by the 1700's  as "for beef or for the pail." By 1822 they had a herdbook, established by George Coates. Also known as draught animals, "The Durham Ox" being a favourite for draught in Britain; popular in Australian in pioneer days for draught work.

Once simply called the Shorthorn. Basically, beef lines went that way and milking lines remained dual purpose; hence took the name Dairy Shorthorn in the UK and Australia, and Milking Shorthorn in Canada and America. Hence, the Dairy Shorthorn is pretty much a Shorthorn, only selected for milking as well as beef lines.

In the late 1700's brothers Charles and Robert Colling began to establish and record the Shorthorn using Bakewell's inbreeding principles. Among others they bred Duchess, Cherry, Strawberry and Old Favourite, which by 1783 were identified as their four best cows, along with the progeny of a bull named Hubback they'd bought in. Hubback was yellowish (dun?) and mossy haired, possibly with one parent a kyloe (Highland) type. It was noticed the mossy coated animals fattened far more quickly. These bloodlines led to the birth of a bull named Comet bred in 1804. His progeny exceeded, and in 1810 he became the first bull of any breed to sell for 1,000 guineas. He proved a top bull, and left a great line. Charlie Colling had bred to a red Galloway in an outcross, and got a bull named Bolingbroke - Bolingbroke was the sire of Comet. Purists derided the line for the Galloway input (using the term 'alloy' as an insult for this line) however they performed exceptionally well and gained top prices. 

At that time others also established the traits of the Shorthorn - Thomas Booth and his sons Richard and John, and Thomas Bates. Bates bought Colling's Duchess and established a famous milking line. In fact the Duchess line became so sought after, it was a frenzy at the time to get an animal of that line and giant prices exchanged hands - farmers said it was “Bates for the pail and Booth for the butcher" (ref. Heritage Shorthorn site), although Booths did breed dual purpose. It seemed Bates, who accused others of 'alloy' did the same himself only more so -  using Galloway and black kyloes in outcrosses (ref. Pure Grass Beef website, below). Galloway is recorded as entering the breed with several lines. Later, in the 1920's, Amos Cruickshank took up the breed in Scotland and outcrossed to get hardiness, especially for a Scottish climate, and old fashioned traits such as fattening on grass, longevity etc. He bred outstanding Shorthorns, but for beef only. Those wanting milk cattle looked for the famous Duchess lines. Those solely wanting beef selected the "Scotch Shorthorn" viz Scottish lines.

Shorthorns became the most common cattle breed in the world during the 1900's and twentieth century.

They remained a dual purpose breed until beef breeders decided to forsake the dual purpose animal. Shorthorns for beef became known as Shorthorns, and those for dual purpose as Dairy Shorthorns - their herdbook begun in 1958-9 in Britain. In America, the disagreements over beef or dairy as a use grew so intense that litigation took place in 1949, and two separate registries were formed there, the American Milking Shorthorn Society started in 1948; those who believe in the old dual purpose type can register with both. In fact from 1912 a Milking Shorthorn Club had been run within the American studbook to identify those of good milk lines. The beef side went through fashion trends there, becoming miniature with several serious problems, then over-correcting to too big and framey, and were brought back to the breed standard by Australian genetics from Mandalong. They had also decided to breed only solid red during the mid to late 1800's as any white - roan, speckles - looked as if they had Texas Longhorn blood, which was despised. This bizarre colour prejudice led to the decimation of many dairy lines. Outcrossing there has been done, which some agree with and others don't; ironically the Illawarra was used with some of the Milking Shorthorn lines to improve them, but from 1998 they have striven to remain pure and keep old lines and original traits (further reading in the Heritage Shorthorn link below this listing). 

By 1970 as dairy use was prevalent, outside dairy blood was allowed into the Dairy Shorthorn by the UK studbook. Some disagreed with this and stayed with the old lines. That is where a difference in types came in. Perhaps the outcrossing was necessary to avoid inbreeding depression - inbreeding causes a drop in performance of desired traits and is detrimental to all round survival traits, such as reproduction, thriftiness, conformation and so on. In Canada, a small amount of crossbreeding, to dairy and to beef breeds occurs with their Milking Shorthorn to maintain genetic health without inbreeding (ref. Canadian Dairy Network, 2013 paper on crossbreeding

Used widely to improve and create many other breeds. The Illawarra Shorthorn of Australia has a lot of Dairy Shorthorn in the genes.  Also used as foundation females for many breeds coming to Australia such as South Devon, Limousin, Charolais, Maine-Anjou and others. 

One of the first cattle breeds brought to Australia, a favourite over generations, the first cattle on many farms here; this once beloved breed faces extinction in Australia and world wide.

Breed traits: Calve easily. Some are polled, some horned. Big frame and solid beefy bodies. Lovely roans, patches and speckles of red and white. Can be all white or all red. Good doers, excellent, highly efficient converters of feed to milk and beef.

Dual purpose - beef and milk. On dairies the bull calves are valued as they can be sold profitably as beef, unlike most pure dairy breeds. 

Docile temperament - in a Canadian study, the quietest of all dairy cows there (Canadian Dairy Network)

Resistance to eye cancer, which the breed is famous for. Useful for crossbreeding to produce better milk in beef shorthorns and other beef breeds, and for faster growing male calves. Beefy enough as a breed for that purpose. Long-lived and productive for a long time. Great legs and feet.

High milk yield and milk is high protein. Adaptable to a range of climate and happy in a cold climate. Milk makes excellent cheeses. Their milk has the best protein-fat ratio of all dairy breeds for cheese making. Famously, cheddar cheese - arguably the world's most popular - was originally made from Shorthorn milk.

The beef is tender and marbled. Shorthorn-Highland crosses were once popular in Britain for fast finishing, hardy beef animals.

Lowest somatic cell counts (in Canadian and American studies ref. Michigan State University Extension, Animal Science blog Milking Shorthorn by Melissa Elischer, 2017).

Organisation: The Dairy Shorthorn Association of Australia Inc http://dairyshorthorn.com/  

The Dairy Site (internet) was used for some information above.

This comprehensive report by Lawrence Alderson shows the precarious state of the breed
https://rarebreedstrustofaustralia.tidyhq.com/ public/storage/f/4c51456ce73b97903481731c 2cf8fa2d/Dairy-Shorthorn-report-2018-RBI-Alderson.pdf

Further reading :
The Heritage Shorthorn Society
Grass Beef - Celtic Shorthorn legacy page.
there are several good books about the Shorthorn.

Additional Notes:

Photo : Dairy Shorthorns at Tullamore Show, County Offaly, Ireland, by Finnegas, WikiMedia Commons

Page by Janet Lane

 

---

 

Back to Cattle