Ringmaster, owned by Leslie Smith St Cloud, Minn. The Shorthorn is a breed with wide limits, it takes in a number of distinct colors and types which in other branches of animal industry would be considered distinct breeds.

photo from: WHAT IS A BREED? MEANING OF PURE BRED BASED ON ARBITRARY DECISION OF BREEDERS, SOME STRANGE CONTRADICTIONS By ORREN LLOYD JONES, Associate Professor of Animal Husbandry Iowa State College Ames Iowa , The Field Illustrated, Volume XXVI, Number 9, 1916, page 758

THE LEGENDS:

text from:

ON THE INHERITANCE OF COAT COLOUR IN CATTLE , PART I, SHORTHORN CROSSES AND PURE SHORTHORNS
By Karl Pearson, Egon Sharpe Pearson, University College, London. Biometric Laboratory,Biometrika, Volume 4, 1905-1905, p.398

(this is only one of many opinions on this subject)

(a) The first cattle in Britain were of a large type, Bos primigenius, which became extinct here in the stone age, although possibly surviving later on the Continent. If they had anything to do with existing British cattle, which is extremely doubtful, the relationship is very remote and is only to be traced through later importations from the Continent.

(6) The next type to be noted in Britain is the Celtic shorthorn, Bos longifrons, a much smaller animal. Patches of hair have been found in the caves, and these are said to be of a dark colour. Professor Wilson is strongly of opinion that B. longifrom was mainly black. It has been said to be red or black.

(c) The next invasion, that of the Romans, brought the Roman white cattle, which probably had black markings. The Romans formed joint settlements with the British, and a Romano-British cattle resulted in the neighbourhood of Roman settlements, from crossing the Roman and Celtic types.

(d) In the next place we have a Saxon invasion, bringing with it Saxon cattle. There was probably some mixture of breeds on the Celtic and Saxon frontiers, but generally speaking Saxon cattle occupied the parts from which the Romano-British population had been expelled. These cattle were red.

(e) Following on the Anglo-Saxon was a Dutch invasion of cattle into the east of England. By Dutch we understand from the Low Countries. This invasion began in the middle ages and continued till a century ago, and again involved a certain amount of mixture. The Dutch cattle were probably flecked, the flecking being white with black, red, or brown. The Englishman developing a prejudice against black, we may suppose the reddish mixture to remain, and to have become the basis of roan.

Before, therefore, the beginning of pedigree cattle-breeding, or earlier in the sixteenth century say, we should expect a distribution of cattle races much as follows:

Wales and Scotland, Celtic or black cattle, with some of Roman descent and perhaps some whole reds.

Midland England, very mixed cattle, compounded of the following races in order: Celtic, Roman, Saxon and Dutch. The colours were black, white with black or brown points, red and flecked. Round the edges of the country the breeds were comparatively pure, but in the Midlands, where they all met, they were a mixture; the Romano-Celtic element probably prevailing.

Southern England, Anglo-Saxon, red.

Eastern England, Dutch cattle, flecked or roan.

The purest British cattle would thus be found in Wales, Scotland (and West Ireland), where black is the prevailing colour.

The Romano-British were up the west and middle of England, where they still survived to about a century ago. They were the old longhorn breeds.

The wild white cattle of Chillingham, Chartley, and elsewhere, are Roman cattle run wild owing to the unrest of the Anglo-Saxon, and later and more especially the Danish invasions. Traces of the Roman cross are still to be seen among Scottish, Welsh, and Irish cattle. The wild white cattle have black muzzles and black or brown points; that is their hair is brown, or dark at the ears, round the eyes and muzzle and often at and below the knees.

The Anglo-Saxon red cattle, which were once spread over the south of England, are still to be found in the red cattle of Norfolk, Sussex, Devon, and Hereford.

The Romano-British or longhoms were some black, some white, but mainly flecked, and were largely driven out by the flecked Dutch, although some mixture probably took place.

It will be seen that Professor Wilsons account differs to some extent from both those of Boyd Dawkins and McKenny Hughes.

Upon the ingredients just referred to the breeders had to work when pedigree cattle-breeding, which is scarcely more thau a century old, came into vogue. The shorthorn has possibly arisen from four races, the Celtic, a Romano-British, an Anglo-Saxon, and the Dutch*, and even some of these are mixtures.

Heck bull, a German attempt at re-breeding the Aurochs.

text from: Cattle: their breeds, management, feeding, products, diseases, and ... By James Sinclair, A. H. Archer, 1896, p.8

WILD WHITE CATTLE IN VAYNOL PARK

Photos from:Farm live stock of Great Britain, by Robert Wallace, Loudon M. Douglas, Primrose McConnell, W. B. Wale, 1907

WILD WHITE CATTLE IN CADZOW PARK

WILD WHITE BULL OF CHARTLEY PARK HERD IN CONFINEMENT

KYLOE CATTLE.

The Highlands and Islands of Scotland have a very mixed breed of cattle, known under the name of Kyloe, apparently descended of one common parentagethe diversity of breed being the result of food, climate, and management.

When the Romans first conquered Britain, the Celtic portion of the inhabitants were possessed of large herds of cattle, on the produce of which they lived, with what wild animals they could procure in addition from hunting. Some time prior to the landing of Caesar, the Belgsea Teutonic racewho occupied the southern provinces, having driven the aborigines with their flocks and herds into the interior, had introduced the culture of the soil; but the latter preferred and chiefly led a pastoral, hunting, and warlike life.

text from: The Farmers Magazine, Volume VII, April 1855, page 300

WEST HIGHLAND BULL

Photo from:Farm live stock of Great Britain, by Robert Wallace, Loudon M. Douglas, Primrose McConnell, W. B. Wale, 1907

Welsh Black and Galloway are Celtic breeds from farther South, differentiated by culture and topography.

WELSH BLACK BULL

WELSH BLACK BULL

WELSH BLACK BULL

WELSH WHITE BULL

photo: Sian Ioan
Gwartheg Hynafol Cymru - Ancient Cattle of Wales

text from: History of Hereford Cattle, By James Macdonald, James Sinclair, 1886, p.20

WHITE WELSH PEMBROKE OR CASTLE MARTIN COW AND CALF

photos from: Farm live stock of Great Britain By Robert Wallace, Loudon M. Douglas, Primrose McConnell, W. B. Wale, 1907, page 144.

GALLOWAY BULLS

photo from: BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY US DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BULLETIN NO 34 AMERICAN BREEDS OF BEEF CATTLE WITH REMARKS ON PEDIGREES, GEORGE M. ROMMEL, BSA, 1902, PLATE XII

photo from: Types and Breeds of Farm Animals, by Charles Sumner Plumb, 1906, 1920

Photo from:Farm live stock of Great Britain, by Robert Wallace, Loudon M. Douglas, Primrose McConnell, W. B. Wale, 1907

One can argue that Native Shorthorn or Scotch Shorthorn cattle derive their compact body type and carcass characteristics from early improvement with old Celtic genetics. That story is on the next page.

SCOTCH TYPE SHORTHORN BULL

photo from CATTLE BREEDS AND ORIGIN, David Roberts, 1916

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