Black Hereford (crossbreed)

The Black Hereford is a crossbreed of beef cattle produced in Britain and Ireland with Hereford beef bulls with Holstein-Friesian dairy cows.

Half of the purebred calves will, of course, be male – these are mostly not needed for breeding, and are generally unsuitable for beef; they may be reared for veal.

Purebred dairy calves are not needed from the rest of the herd, and a beef bull is run with the remaining females to produce crossbred calves suitable for beef – these females will be the poorer-quality cows, the heifers (first-time calvers), and any of the other cows which have not settled (become pregnant) successfully by a bull.

The beef bull in this system may be of almost any beef breed, but the Hereford is one of the most widely used – one reason for its popularity is that the white face from the Hereford makes it very easy to avoid confusion between the crossbred and purebred calves at birth.

Black Herefords are intermediate in type between their beef sires and dairy dams, making them hardy and healthy, and suitable for rearing on grass.