History of the Angus Breed

    Northern Scotland, although in a more northern latitude than the United States, as a more uniform temperature throughout the year. The Gulf Steam tempers the climate in the winter, and the summers remain cooler than weather commonly experienced in the United States.

    There are three distinct and well-defined breeds of polled cattle in the United Kingdom. These breeds are the Aberdeen-Angus, the Galloway, and the red polled Norfolk and Suffolk breed that is found in England. Polled cattle apparently existed in Scotland before recorded history because the likeness of such cattle is found in prehistoric carvings of Aberdeen and Angus. Historians state that there were hornless cattle in Siberia centuries earlier. A hornless race of cattle was depicted in Egypt  by sculptors and painters of that ancient civilization. Some historians feel that the Aberdeen-Angus breed and the other Scottish breeds sprang from the aboriginal cattle of the country and that the breeds as we find them today are indigenous to the districts in which they are still found.

Early Scottish Cattle. Although little is known about the early origin of the cattle that later became known as the Aberdeen-Angus breed, it is thought that the improvement of the original stock found in the area began in the last half of the 18^th century. The cattle found in northern Scotland were not of uniform color, and many of the cattle of the early days had varied color markings or broken color patterns. Many of the cattle were polled, but some few had horns. The characteristics we commonly call polled was often referred to in the old Scottish writings by the terms of "humble," "doddies," "humlies," or "homyl."

Two strains were used in the formation of what later became known s the Aberdeen-Angus breed of cattle. In the county of Angus, cattle had existed for some time that were known as Angus doddies. MacDonald and Sinclair quote the Rev. James Playfair as having written in 1797, "There are 1129 horned cattle of all ages and sexes in the parish. I have no other name to them; but many of them are dodded, wanting horns." This seems to be the first authentic reference to polled cattle in the county of Angus, apart from ancient sculptures. In the area of Aberdeenshire, other polled cattle were found and were called Buchan "humlies," Buchan being the principal agricultural district in Aberdeenshire. These cattle were apparently early valued as work oxen, as were most of the other strains of cattle that later acquired various breed names. MacDonald and Sinclair believed that polled cattle were found in Aberdeen in the 16^th century, and stated: ²

The presence of polled cattle in Aberdeenshire 400 years ago is proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, and it may generally be taked for granted that they were co-existent in various parts of northeastern Scotland, their purity being contingent on the degree of care exercised in breeding.

Improvement in Scottish Agriculture. Apparently little attention was given to the breeding of cattle before the middle of the 18^th century, but in the last half of that century, great progress was made in Scottish agriculture. It is not strange that, as farming practices were improved, men likewise sought to improve the livestock on their farms. It was only natural that breeders, in improving their cattle, would but cattle of similar kinds from adjacent areas, and as a result, the cattle of the Angus doddie strain and the Buchan humlie strain were crossed. Crossing and recrossing these strains of cattle eventually led to a distinct breed that was not far different from either type, since the two strains were originally of rather similar type and color pattern.

The Early Herds. By the beginning of the 19^th century, the polled cattle of the Buchan district had attained considerable favor as market cattle for the production of carcass beef. Among the polled herds of Aberdeenshire that were famous for such production in the early 1800s were those of Messrs. Williamson of St. John’s Wells and Robert Walker of Wester Fintray. The Williamson herd later supplied the herd of Tillyfour and, through it, the Ballindalloch herd with some of their humlies. In Angus, the herds of William Fullerton, Lord Panmure, Lord Southesk, and Alexander Bowie contributed many of the Angus doddies that later became prominent in the breed. Robert Walker of Portlethen seems to have been the principal cattle breeder in Kincardineshire.

The Contribution of Hugh Watson. If any one person can be singled out as the founder of a breed of livestock, Hugh Watson of Keillor, who lived in the vale of Strathmore in Angus, is worthy of that distinction. If not the first real improver of Aberdeen-Angus cattle, he was certainly the most systematic and successful. Both his father and grandfather had been buyers and breeders of the Angus doddies. The family is known to have owned cattle as early as 1735. Hugh Watson was born in 1789 and, in 1808, at the time he was 19 years of age, he became a tenant at Keillor.

    When Hugh Watson started his farming activities at Keillor, he received from his father’s herd six of the best and blackest cows, as well as a bull. That same summer, he visited some of the leading Scottish cattle markets and purchased the 10 best heifers and the best bull that he could find that showed characteristics of the Angus cattle that he was striving to breed. The females were of various colors, but the bull was black; Watson decided that the color of his herd should be black and he started selecting in that direction.

    Mr. Watson’s favorite bull was Old Jock 126 (1), ³ who was awarded the number "1" in the Herd Book at the time it was founded. The bull was bred by Watson in 1842 and was sired by Grey-Breasted Jock 113 (2). The bull apparently was used very heavily in the herd from 1843 until 1852 and was awarded the sweepstakes for bulls at the Highland Society Show at Perth in 1852, when he was 11 years old.

    A very famous cow also made considerable history in the herd at Keillor. This cow was Old Granny 125 (1), who was calved in 1824 and was killed by lightning when past 35 years of age. She is reported to have produced a total of 29 calves, 11 of which were registered in the Herd Book. A very large percentage of our living Aberdeen-Angus cattle trace to either Old Granny or Old Jock, or both of these very famous foundation animals, and most would trace many times if their pedigrees were extended to the foundation of the breed.

    Hugh Watson practiced the fitting and showing of his cattle more than was common by other breeders of his day. He made his first exhibition at the Highland Agricultural Society Show at Perth in 1829. During his long show career, he is said to have won over 500 prizes with his cattle and did a great deal to increase the popularity of the black polled cattle over the British Isles.

Other Early Contributors. Lord Panmure established a herd of polled cattle in 1835, and not only operated a private herd but also encouraged his tenants to breed good doddies. William Fullerton, who was born in 1810, began to breed cattle in 1833. His most important early purchase was that of another Aberdeen cow named Black Meg. Black Meg 43 (766) is sometimes referred to as the founder of the breed, since more cattle trace to her than to any other female used in the origin of the breed. ⁴ She is the only cow to surpass Old Granny in this respect. Robert Walker of Porlethen founded his herd in 1818 and continued to breed cattle successfully until his death in 1874.

Shorthorn Breed Threatens the Aberdeen-Angus. In 1810, the Colling brothers of England sold the famous Shorthorn bull Comet at $5,000. The publicity resulting from this sale naturally spread throughout Scotland, and many breeders looked with favor upon the use of Shorthorn blood in improving the native cattle. Subsequently good herds of Shorthorn cattle were established in Scotland, and the cattle were used in the improvement of native stock. The use of the Shorthorn cattle on the black native cows was a very common practice of the period for the raising of commercial stock. This practice of crossbreeding threatened the Aberdeen-Angus breed with extinction.

    It is often suggested that some Shorthorn blood found its way into the Aberdeen-Angus breed prior to the time the Herd Book was closed. Alexander Keith, secretary of the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society from 1944 to 1955, takes exception to this opinion by writing:

The statement has been frequently made that shorthorn blood was introduced into the Aberdeen-Angus breed at an early stage of its existence. There is no foundation whatever for such a statement. The tribes from which the Aberdeen-Angus breed were drawn were supplying England with beef cattle for generations before what became the beef Shorthorn was taken across the Border into Scotland and improved into what is known as the Scotch Shorthorn. Of the Aberdeen-Angus pioneers, Hugh Watson had a certain number of Shorthorn cattle, but it is quite evident from his won remarks and his insistence upon the blackness of his Aberdeen-Angus cattle that he would never have permitted mixing them. And McCombie: when one or two farmers introduced the Teeswater or Shorthorn breed into his neighborhood he drove them out by completely dominating the local shows with his Aberdeen-Angus black polls. The feeling of the early improvers of Aberdeen-Angus cattle may be gathered from the fact that my own grandfather, who was one of McCombie’s friends and associates, would not allow anything but a black beast on his farm and in his old age when I was a young boy he would insist that if I ever became a farmer and wished to be a successful feeder of cattle I must stick rigidly to the Blacks.