Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-07-14
THE HORNLESS
HEREFORDS.


B. O. Cannon, assistant secretary
OF the Polled Hereford association,
says Of hornless Hereford cattle:
Double standard Polled Hereford cat
de- the hornless strain OF pure bred
Herefords, are strictly an American
product They were originated and
first bred IN Iowa and have been de-
veloped and perfected almost wholly
within the confines of the United
States.
Some seven years ago, after having
experimental for a time with certain
lines Of cross breeding In an eDdeayor
to produce an animal Of the Hereford
type and markings, but naturally
polled or hOrnless, Mr.. Warren Gam
mon Of Des Moines, Ia, determined to
make a careful search among breeders
Of Herefords throughout the United
States and learn, If possible, whether
or not there were then ia existence
any freak Herefords that We're nat
urally hornless, though Of pure bred
horned pareLtage.
BY correspondence with Hereford
breeders he learned of fourteen such
freaks, ten females and four bulls. The
most Of these he purchased and with
them as foundation herd began
breeding for the hornless Hereford
He also mated the polled bulls with
horned Hereford cows in order to de
termine whether or not the progeny
would be polled. In both kinds Of mat
ings he was successful in getting
polled calves. He soon learned that
the freak polled cows and freak polled
bulls produced nearly all polled calves.
and the freak polled bulls and horned
cows produced about so per cent polled
progeny. From this beginning the new
strain or breed called double standard
Poled Herefords vas produced
II viii TINS be seen that double
standard Pooled Herefords are simply
pure bred Herefords that are naturally
free from horns or polled. They have
all the characteristics and qualities Of
the horned strain, including health,
yigor, prepotency, early maturity, feed
ing abilities, rustling qualities. prolific
acy, etc, and differ from them only in
being polled Since Polled Herefords
are so easily produced by using polled
bulls on horned cows, the breeders OF
the new breed have resorted very
largely 10 that method, selecting the
very best horned Hereford dams and
mating them with poIled bulls The
resulting progeny has been uniformly
high class, and the blood lines most
popular among horned Hereford breed
N.FarF hrsa, ss,t1
tically intact.
Since there Is such a widespread and
growing demand from every man who
has to do with beef cattle that steers
and feeding cattle shall lie hornless
this new departure met with great
favor from the first. Investigators
tell us that horned steers are being
Disseminated against by from % to 40
cents per 100 pounds In the feeder
markets Of this country, purely ON ac-
count Of the horns Naturally, then.
breeders are anxious to be able to fur
nish hornless cattle to supply this de
mand
Polled HerefOrds are more than or
dinarily high class in point OF individ-
udl merit, IoT iile reason tudl oulStdiiu-
ing individuality is quite largely the
result of careful feeding and favorable |
environment. The excellent demand
for breeding stock has resulted In a
very profitable scale Of prIcas Calves |
having comparatively high market |
value, are more carefully developed
and cared for than they would be
were the demand slack and prices low.
That few show records are yet avail
able is largely due to the fact that
most Polled Herefords have been sold