Aberdeen Angus Cattle: America's Most Popular Breed

The Aberdeen Angus, sometimes simply Angus, is a Scottish breed of small beef cattle. It derives from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeenshire and Angus in north-eastern Scotland. Aberdeen Angus cattle have been recorded in Scotland since at least the 16th century in the country’s northeast.

 

In America starting in 1873, Angus bulls were cross bred with native Texas longhorn cows, producing a large number of hornless black calves that survived well on the winter range. The Angus crosses wintered better and weighed more the next spring, the first demonstration of the breed’s value in their new homeland.

 

The first great herds of Angus beef cattle in America were built up by purchasing stock directly from Scotland. Twelve hundred cattle alone were imported, mostly to the Midwest, in a period of explosive growth between 1878 and 1883. Over the next quarter of a century these early owners, in turn, helped start other herds by breeding, showing, and selling their registered stock.

 

Starting in the early 2000s, the American fast food industry began running a public relations campaign to promote the supposedly superior quality of Angus beef. Today, Angus are America’s most popular cattle breed.

NOTE: the content of this post is taken directly from the Wikipedia page for “Angus Cattle”

The Aberdeen Angus, sometimes simply Angus, is a Scottish breed of small beef cattle. It derives from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeenshire and Angus in north-eastern Scotland.^[1]

The Angus is naturally polled and solid black or red, though the udder may be white. The native colour is black, but more recently red colours have emerged.^[2] The UK registers both in the same herd book, but in the United States they are regarded as two separate breeds – Red Angus and Black Angus. Black Angus is the most common breed of beef cattlein the United States, with 332,421 animals registered in 2017^[3]. In 2014, the British Cattle Movement Service named Angus the UK’s most popular native beef breed, and the second most popular beef breed overall.^[4]

The rest of the page can be seen here and also below as PDF.

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