Black Hereford

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Black Hereford is an informal term used in the British Isles for a type of beef cattle produced by crossing a Hereford beef bull, usually with Holstein-Friesian dairy cows.

The Black Hereford has a white face like the Hereford, but the red body colour of the Hereford is replaced by black from the Holstein-Friesian – white face and black coat colour are both genetically dominant in cattle. The pied pattern of the Holstein-Friesian does not appear in the offspring.

In dairy herds, the best adult milking cows will normally be got in calf to a dairy bull (usually by artificial insemination, or AI). The female pure-bred dairy calves from these will go on to become replacement dairy cows. However, pure-bred dairy calves are not needed from the rest of the herd. For the poorer-quality cows and the heifers (first-time females), and for any of the other cows which have not successfully got in calf to the dairy bull, a beef bull (or terminal sire) will be used to produce cross-bred beef calves – these will readily produce much more beef than pure dairy animals would. The Hereford is a suitable breed for this purpose, and the most widely used; one reason for its popularity is that the white face from the Hereford bull makes it very easy to distinguish the cross-bred calves from the pure-bred diary calves.

Black Herefords are intermediate in type between their beef sire and dairy dam, making them hardy and healthy, and suitable for rearing on grass. When adult, any females not needed for beef may be crossed with a beef breed, and they are then allowed to rear their own calves on grass for beef – such cows are called single sucklers. Black Hereford single sucklers are one of the commonest types of cattle in beef-producing areas of the British Isles.

Black Herefords are not usually maintained from generation to generation, but are constantly produced as a useful byproduct of dairy farming.

The Black Hereford is similar in pattern and colour to the type called Black Baldy in North America. The pattern will be produced whenever a white-faced cattle breed is crossed with a solid or pied black one.