Hereford eye pigment

[KNERSIE]

Here is an interesting bit of history regarding eye pigment and raccoon eyes in herefords.

This is a quote from page 40 of "A History of Hereford Cattle"

'Red hair around the eyes is also sometimes seen* This is objected to by some, but for no valid reason. It is a mere matter of taste'

As a footnote on the same page
*'"Brown-eyed" calves were always great favourites of certain leading American feeders, among others the late John Steward, one of the most intelligent men ever identified with American Hereford breeding and a successfull showman'

What makes this significant is the fact that this was written in 1914

 

[novatech]

I was watching an old western movie a few nights ago, is was made in 1955. They were driving a herd of herfords into a corral. I noticed that a lot of them were brown eyed.
I remember grandad would put black shoe polish around the eyes of some herfords when he thought they were getting pink eye.

 

[smnherf]

If anyone goes to the AHA office in Kansas City, if you look at some of the archived pictures of some of the old Herfords in England, several of them have lots of red on them. Red on face, neck and legs. These were in the 1800's. Somewhere along the line though someone decided that red necks and legs wasn't of breed character and growing up I know several breeders saying that they casterated all the red neck bulls. Same goes for eye set. At one time I remember being taught that a bolder eye was better. No reason particularily. I personally always hated those buggy eyed cattle of any breed.

There are still those that if you have a red necked red eyed red legged Hereford bull, they figure he must be a crossbred.

Brian

 

[KNERSIE]

If anyone goes to the AHA office in Kansas City, if you look at some of the archived pictures of some of the old Herfords in England, several of them have lots of red on them. Red on face, neck and legs. These were in the 1800's. Somewhere along the line though someone decided that red necks and legs wasn't of breed character and growing up I know several breeders saying that they casterated all the red neck bulls. Same goes for eye set. At one time I remember being taught that a bolder eye was better. No reason particularily. I personally always hated those buggy eyed cattle of any breed.

There are still those that if you have a red necked red eyed red legged Hereford bull, they figure he must be a crossbred.

On the same page there was a brief description of the standards of the day. Although they weren't as strict as that of the UK at the time, it did state that rednecks is still acceptable, but very much unwanted, same goes for linebacks.

Pale yellows were also discriminated against as was very dark reds as it was usually asociated were coarse wire-y hair that denoted a poorer feeder and weaker constitution.

In my herd today, and we pay very close attention to hair quality, I am yet to see a lighter coloured red with coarse hair, they are invariably the darker cherry reds. The darker cattle also seem to shed their wintercoats later from my observations.

What is interesting as well is that there are several old photos and sketches of cattle with lots of pigment. As soon as I figure out how I'll try and post some, its in a PDF file and I am computer challenged when it comes to anything but a normal jpeg

Brian

 

[leeshy]

One of the reasons linebacks and rednecks were not excepted was because in the past the bylaws said a red neck or lineback could not win a national show. However in todays world them red neck dark eyed cattle will bring you a couple a hundred more.