Polled Hereford

Unlike the history of so many breeds of cattle, that of the Polled Hereford began in the U.S. and moved to England in the 1950s. England is the origin of most polled or homless breeds, which can be traced to indigenous varieties. However, early descriptions of Herefords from Herefordshire include references to horns. Certainly the polled gene existed and it is likely that these early breeders in Herefordshire selected away from animals born without horns.

Although the first recorded Herefords were imported to the U.S. in 1816 by the famed Kentucky Statesman Henry Clay, it was not until 1898 that the first serious breeding program of Polled Herefords began.

Warren Gammon, a lawyer from Des Moines, Iowa, started using registered Herefords exclusively, with the goal of producing Polled Herefords. Warren Gammon had seen polled cattle on exhibit at the Trans-Mississippi International Exhibition in Omaha, Neb. Warren Gammon developed his idea of breeding a homless strain of registered Hereford cattle by sending inquiries to 2,500 members of the American Hereford Association in 1900, trying to find naturally polled, purebred Herefords. He received 1,500 replies and bought four bulls and ten cows. Two cows were barren, one bull was eliminated and so it was from the remaining 11 animals that Gammon founded the Polled Hereford breed. The original 11 Polled Herefords were registered in the American Hereford Association but were not identified as being polled.

In 1901 the American Polled Hereford Cattle Club was formed to maintain separate records of purebred Polled Herefords. Headquarters for this organization was Gammon's home in Des Moines, Iowa, and he served as executive secretary until 1911. In these early days of the breed, Warren Gammon requested of the American Hereford Association that they include a provision to indicate "polled" ancestry on all pedigrees. This they refused to do, taking the stance that Herefords were Herefords.

A bull called Giant was the breed's foundation sire. He was born May 3, 1899, in the herd of OF. Nelson of Hiawatha, Kan., northwest of Kansas City. Giant was a scurred bull (meaning he had small imperfectly formed horns that were not attached to the skull), but most of his oftspring were polled. Nelson received an inquiry from Warren Gammon, in search of naturally hornless registered Herefords, shortly after the bull had been returner to Nelson by a commercial cattleman who was dissatisfied by the hornless trait in Giant and his offspring. Giant was used by Gammon for several years and then sold to G.E.Ricker of Ashland, Neb.

Another naturally polled bull, second only to Giant, was Variation 152699(14). He was bred in the herd 0f John G. Thomas of Harris, Mo., from horned parentage. Giant and Variation were the two most influential sires of the Polled Hereford breed.

Polled Herefords were recorded in all directions from Iowa. Hereford breeders in England imported one bull and five heifers from New Zealand in 1955. These polled animals were the first recognized by the Hereford Herd Book Society as pedigreed Hereford cattle. Next, the Ministry of Agriculture allowed an importation from the U.S. of 22 head of Polled Herefords in 1956. This was a reverse in direction for cattle traveling across the Atlantic.

In 1957, Oscar Colburn of Crickley Barrow, Cheltenhim, brought to England a bull called BPF Pawnee Perfect from John Royer's Bush Park in Woodbine, Md. This bull became one of the most successful breeding bulls in English Hereford history.

To date the American Polled Hereford Association has registered 5.5 million head of cattle.

We believe Hereford cattle that fit into the commercial cow herd must be very thick with an extreme amout of barrel (heart girth). These type Hereford cattle are very effecient grass converters.

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