Red Angus

The Red Angus is a breed of reddish-brown-coloured beef cattle. It derives from the population of Aberdeen Angus cattle and, apart from the coat colour, is identical to it. Red Angus are registered separately from black Angus cattle in Australia, Canada, and the United States.[3]

Red Angus
Cow and calf
Conservation statusFAO 2007: not at risk[1]:145
Country of origin
  • Australia
  • United States
Distribution
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • United States
Usebeef
Traits
Weight
  • Male:
    900 kg[2]:278
  • Female:
    635 kg[2]:278
Coatred
Horn statuspolled
  • Cattle
  • Bos (primigenius) taurus

History

The Scottish Angus is usually black, but red individuals occur; this may be the consequence of cross-breeding in the eighteenth century of the small Scottish cattle with larger English Longhorn stock, aimed at increasing their draught power.[4]

In the United States, these red individuals could until 1917 be registered in the herd-book of the American Angus Association. From about 1945, some herds consisting only of red stock were formed.[5]:238 In 1954 a breeders' association, the Red Angus Association of America, was established at a meeting in Fort Worth, Texas.[6]:14 The registered population in 2008 numbered about 47 000 head, making it the fifth beef breed by number in the United States; American Angus, Charolais, Hereford and Simmental were more numerous.[2]:278

In Australia, breeders of the red variant proposed a scheme for registration of their stock with the Angus Society of Australia; it was not accepted, and in 1970 they formed the Red Angus Society of Australia.[2]:278

Use

The Red Angus is a beef breed, and is reared only for that purpose.[3] Comparative trials have not identified any commercially-significant difference between it and the American Angus.[2]:278 Bulls have been used as sires for crossbreeding. The Red Angus is a parent breed to the Regus (cross-breeding with Hereford) and to the RX3 (a mixture of Hereford, Red Angus and Red Holstein).[2]:278

References
  1. Barbara Rischkowsky, D. Pilling (eds.) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Accessed January 2017.
  2. Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
  3. Marleen Felius (1995). Cattle Breeds: An Encyclopedia. Doetinchem, Netherlands: Misset. ISBN 9789054390176.
  4. The Origin of Red Angus. Red Angus Society of Australia. Accessed October 2018.
  5. Frank Flanders, James R. Gillespie (2015). Modern Livestock & Poultry Production. Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. ISBN 9781133283508.
  6. Bob Hough (2005). History of the Red Angus. Denton, Texas: Red Angus Association of America.
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