Founded in 1872, the American Shorthorn Association is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, making it the oldest U.S. beef breed association. Simultaneously, the world Shorthorn community is celebrating the United Kingdom’s 200th year of the “Coates Shorthorn Herd Book,” the first private beef breed herd book in the world. It is hard to comprehend just how dominant Shorthorn have been historically, but for perspective, they have been implicated in the formation of 30 other breeds.
The Shorthorn’s yearlong celebration started at last fall’s annual meeting with the release of the coffee-table book “Shorthorn and the American Cattle Industry.” The celebration will continue at the Shorthorn Junior Show and the World Shorthorn Conference, both this summer, and wrap up at the North American International Livestock Exposition this fall.
Shorthorn became the first improved breed in North America when it arrived in 1783: the same year the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending hostilities between the United Kingdom and the newly minted United States of America. Considering the treaty wasn’t actually ratified until 1784, it is impressive they were able to import the cattle at all.
The early Shorthorns were tripurpose cattle, so they could improve the various unimproved “scrub” cattle that existed in America if they had weakness in beef production, milk yield or as draft animals. Shorthorns were like a Swiss Army knife in the U.S. cattle industry because they could do almost everything. They made the ultimate farm cows, producing milk, meat and power.
They also pulled settlers’ wagons across the continent in the 1840s to the new Oregon Territory. In the Great Plains, Shorthorn was the first breed used to improve the vast herds of Longhorns that grazed the American West. Shorthorns were everywhere and did everything.
The Shorthorns were so versatile that they had no real competition in the U.S. from other breeds until the 1880s. Interest was so great by Shorthorn breeders that in 1846, Lewis Allen printed the first cattle breed herd book in the U.S.—“The American Shorthorn Herd Book.”
After the Civil War, there developed a purebred fad around the late English breeder Thomas Bates’ dual-purpose Duchess bloodline cattle. By the early 1870s, one person had cornered the market on all remaining pure Duchess females. In what became known as the “sensation of ’73,” these remaining 11 females were sold at auction in 1873, averaging $21,709 per head, with the top selling cow going for a record $40,600—a landmark in the seedstock history.
However, the Bates fad actually hurt the breed in the end. Shorthorn breeders could profitably market all the red bulls they could produce to the Western market. Because of the Bates fad, they were sending dual-purpose bulls to Western range customers instead of the beef Shorthorns they needed. The U.S. had also started the American Fat Stock Show at the Chicago Union Stock Yards in the 1870s, where large, aged, dual-purpose Shorthorn steers first dominated. Then, everything changed.
In the West, the size and production potential of the large dual-purpose Shorthorns outstripped the available feed resources in dry years. When the historically bad winter of 1886-87 occurred, the dual-purpose cattle fared poorly compared to Herefords, in what became known as the “big die up.” The better survivability of the Herefords allowed them to take over the market.
The American Fat Stock Show also had a type change in the late 1880s, away from aged, dual-purpose type steers to earlier maturing (2-year-old), blocky beef-type cattle. In total, the high dollar dual-purpose Shorthorn market totally collapsed.
Despite these setbacks, U.S. Shorthorn breeders were quick to adapt to the changing times. They sourced Booth bloodline beef Shorthorns that had long been popular in Canada, as well as Scottish beef-type Shorthorns, especially those of Cruickshank breeding. Breeders retooled the Shorthorn population so quickly that they readily regained the favor of feeders and packers.
The breed also reinvented itself with polled Durham/Shorthorn, and the U.S. became the source for the top polled Shorthorn genetics worldwide. Today, approximately 90 percent of U.S. Shorthorns are polled.
In 1900, the Chicago Stock Yards started the International Livestock Exposition, and the newly retooled Scotch Shorthorns and polled Shorthorns were crowd-pleasers from the beginning. The Shorthorn’s high profile drew many wealthy people to become breeders, particularly at their estates outside the cities where they worked. This resulted in Shorthorn peaking in registrations in the U.S. in 1918 with 118,039 head.
Shorthorns always had a natural advantage over the other British breeds in terms of size and performance, but after World War II, the seedstock industry experienced a fad of selecting compressed cattle in what became known as the “belt buckle era,” in which Shorthorns were full participants. The end result was that when the type changed to larger framed, faster growing cattle in the late 1960s, Shorthorn’s 150-year natural advantage in size and performance over the other British breeds had been lost.
Shorthorn breeders quickly moved to change type in the show ring. The decision was eventually made that the fastest way to catch up was through an open herd book. This changed the cattle quickly, but the breed had to work out some inconsistencies in the cattle. After the frame race of the 1980s, common sense size and consistency returned to the breed.
Another milestone for the breed was in 1968, when the American Junior Shorthorn Association was formed, making it the oldest national junior beef association in the U.S. It is not only the first, but it is also the largest, with 6,950 current members. For many Shorthorn people, the annual Junior Show and Youth Conference is the highlight of the year, and the breed prides itself on being a family-friendly breed.
As the American Shorthorn Association celebrates its 150th anniversary, the breed is flourishing, with membership up 7.4 percent over the previous year and registrations rising 13 percent over the previous fiscal year.
Shorthorn is experiencing improved demand from commercial producers, which can be traced back to many sources, but one of the primary reasons was the American Shorthorn Association moving its genetic evaluation to International Genetic Solutions in 2013. Now, American Shorthorns are in a multibreed analysis with 14 other breed associations, which ensures that all EPDs are on the same base and scale, making them comparable when designing a crossbreeding system.
To help celebrate its 150th anniversary, the association commissioned a coffee-table book chronicling its history, “Shorthorn and the American Cattle Industry,” by Drs. Bob Hough and Bert Moore, which can be purchased at the association. It is a story of both triumphs and setbacks, as well as the constant drive to make Shorthorns the preferred British alternative in commercial crossbreeding systems.
Whether it is 200 years of the “Coates Herd Book” or the 150-year anniversary of the American Shorthorn Association, 2022 is certainly a year of Shorthorn celebration. — Dr. Bob Hough, WLJ correspondent
