Hereford cattle seemed to have descended from the small red cattle of Roman Briton and a large Welsh breed.
They are considered one the oldest English breeds, taking their name from the Herefordshire country of England, where they have evolved into the high beef yielding, red coloured animals with their characteristic white head.
Evidence exists of farmers, who kept production records of the breeds as far back as the early 1700s, with high meat yield and production efficiency being a high priority even then. The early animals were actually much bigger than the modern Herefords, with records existing of a show bull, called Cotmore, that weighed over 1 760 kg.
Today, the size of the animals largely depends on production conditions, with the ones in South Africa being typically medium-framed, with an average weight ranging between 900 kg and 1100 kg for a bull. The cows have excellent reproductive traits, with the South African Hereford for the past two decades having the lowest inter calving periods, which refers to the number of days it takes for a cow to reproduce, of all major breeds in the country.
The Hereford Herd Book was opened in England in 1846. The book has since been closed to any animal whose sire and dam had not been recorded up until 1886, to protect the purity of the breed.
Hereford cattle are a large breed of South Africa's beef production. The origin of the Hereford breed is uncertain...