Milking Shorthorn

Shorthorns were the first cattle of consequence in the young United States, exported to Maryland and Virginia from 1783. An American herd book covering all Shorthorns arrived in 1846 and a breeders' association in 1882. The dairy wing organized itself as the Milking Shorthorn Club in 1912, and the American Milking Shorthorn Society was founded in 1948; the North American population has developed as its own breed since.

The English parent, the Dairy Shorthorn, goes back further still: the Coates Herd Book of 1822 opened with 850 cows and 710 bulls.

Red, red and white, roan or white, in both horned and polled lines. Cows run about 1,500 lb and bulls about 2,200. The British Dairy Shorthorn averages about 15,400 lb of milk in a 305-day lactation at 3.5 to 4.0 percent fat and 3.0 to 3.5 percent protein, which is the productive neighborhood the breed lives in.

Docile is the American Milking Shorthorn Society's word for the cows, and the reputation is an old one. Michigan State University Extension says the cattle's calm disposition, along with their versatility, is what made Shorthorns popular with settlers. Oklahoma State University lists ease of calving and ease of management among the breed's attributes.

Take extra care around a cow with a newborn calf, and around any dairy bull. Extension safety guidance says dairy bulls are often considered more dangerous than beef bulls, and that a bull bottle-fed as a calf can still grow aggressive with age.

They are a moderate dairy cow rather than a specialist one, and their case rests on that. They give useful volume with good components, but they also carry meat on them, so a cull cow and a bull calf are worth something instead of being a disposal problem.

They graze well, calve easily, and last, which is why they hold their place on pasture-based dairies and on farms selling into a smaller local market. A grazing operation is their natural home; a confinement barn was built for a different cow.

The trade is volume. Against a Holstein in a confinement system they do not compete on liters, and any farm paid purely on volume will feel that difference every month.

Purity is the other question. The US population was estimated around 25,000 in 2016, 15,000 of them registered cows, and fewer than 1,000 of those cows were purebred, so ask the American Milking Shorthorn Society paperwork whether you are looking at a purebred or an upgraded animal, and price accordingly.

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