Cattle were one of the originally domesticated breeds of livestock kept by the Neolithic settlers of the Shetland islands.

The smaller one seems to have been favoured and by the Iron Age, starting around 2,000 years ago, it is the only type occurring in the sites.

[2] This animal was just over one metre high at the shoulder and was described as “a short-legged, stocky, short-horned beast” descended from a small gene pool.

[4] Today the island cattle remain small, standing about 1.2 metres high at the withers, with a light bone structure, thin hide, fine hair and long tail with a white switch.

[4] Alexander Fenton,[5] citing Forsyth[6] and Shirreff[7] gives an estimate of just over 40,000 head of cattle in 1808 and less than half of that, circa 15,000 in 1814 due to the expansion in the human population.

As the Haaf fishery trade in salted, dried fish waned, the lairds cleared off many of their tenants in favour of sheep ranching and where possible heavier British breeds of cattle.

This short-lived renaissance was subsequently damaged by the UK Government determining that the new post-Second World War incentives of subsidies should not apply to Shetland cattle.

[11][12] Increasing the size of the cattle was attractive in the aftermath of John Boyd-Orr's influential studies in the 1930s, which revealed a deficiency in the "midst of plenty" among the United Kingdom's urban proletariat, whose diet lacked meat.

[14] By the time oil was discovered off Shetland, the breed was near extinction and was saved primarily through the efforts of people like T. A. U. Fraser (known as Tammy o da Glebe).

In recent years no financial support has been offered by either Governments or agencies leaving the breed's future in the hands of volunteers.

Many breeders see many desirable traits in Shetland cattle, such as easy calving and fast growing to adult size.

These cattle are usually kept on small-scale farms that rely on a high income from sales and low maintenance costs for feed.