Angus

Before it was a breed it was a local type, called Angus Doddies in one county and Buchan Humlies in the other, both names meaning hornless. Oklahoma State University names Hugh Watson of Keillor as the breed's founder and William McCombie of Tillyfour, who took it up in the 1820s, as its great improver, and the breed was recognized in 1835; the Scottish breed society dates from 1879.

George Grant brought four Angus bulls to Victoria, Kansas in 1873, and the American Angus Association was founded in Chicago on November 21, 1883. The breed now runs on every inhabited continent.

Black and always polled. The American Angus Association registers only black cattle and has barred reds since 1917; red Angus register separately, with the Red Angus Association of America. Cows run about 1,430 lb and 53 inches; bulls about 2,200 lb and 57 inches. The breed is hardy enough to winter in Scottish weather, matures earlier than most other British natives, and its marbled beef is the trait the whole brand economy is built on.

Generally docile is the American Angus Association's description, and it does not rely on the reputation. Breeders score yearlings for temperament from 1, docile, to 6, very aggressive, and the association began releasing research docility EPDs on sires in 2008; a higher number predicts calmer yearlings. Docility is also one of the traits weighted in its maternal selection index.

There is money in it. In Certified Angus Beef data the association quoted in 2010, calves reported as docile returned an average profit of $46.63 a head, against $7.62 for their nervous to very aggressive counterparts. Ask for the docility EPD on any bull you buy.

Cornell's general guidance on beef cattle safety holds here too: a cow with a newborn calf can be very aggressive, so avoid walking between her and the calf, and no bull can be trusted.

Beef, and for consistent reasons: they marble well, they calve easily, the cows milk enough to raise a good calf, and the polled gene passes to crossbred calves so a commercial herd stops dehorning within a generation.

The trade is climate. A black hide in Gulf Coast heat costs the animal something, which is exactly why the Brahman crosses exist. North of that line, the breed's needs are ordinary: it was built on Scottish winters and modest forage.

The American Angus Association is the largest beef breed registry in the country, and that size is the thing to think about. The extra money attached to the name belongs to the branded beef programs rather than to any individual animal, and meeting a program's spec is a separate exercise from owning a black cow.

Papers are cheap to verify; ask for the registration number, and if branded-program eligibility is the plan, ask which requirements the calves would actually have to meet.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.