Discover the Moo-st Amazing: Top 11 Fun Facts About Angus Cattle!

1. World Travelers

When the going gets tough, the tough get going – and no one knows that better than the resilient and hardy Aberdeen-Angus cattle: Descendants of a purer stock, this breed has weathered Scotland's blistering winters since the 16th century, boasting a dedicated society formed in 1879 to preserve their superiority. But they're not all brawn and no bite; with their beef admired for its marbling qualities, they're a culinary delight across Japan, the UK, and Australia, while also lending their prized genes to crossbreeding for easier calvings and polled progeny.
Source => southforkangus.com.au

2. The Tale of Angus

Rumor has it that Angus cattle were named after a Scot who just could not decide what to wear for the evening: kilt or skinny jeans. Turns out, it's not about the county or the style conundrum man: Angus cattle actually got their name from Hugh Watson of Keillor, Angus, who developed the breed from local Scottish cattle known as "doddies" and "hummlies". Nowadays, these beefy bovines hold the title of the most popular beef breed in the United States and can be found gallivanting in countries like Australia, Canada, Argentina, and New Zealand.
Source => thecattlesite.com

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=> Fun Facts about Cows

3. The Wild West Connection

Who says you can't make a silk purse out of a longhorn's ear? Well, that's precisely what George Grant did when he introduced Angus cattle to the wild west! Yeehaw, cowboy!: This audacious foray into breeding began in 1873 when Grant imported Angus cattle to Kansas, hoping to start a colony of wealthy British stock-raisers. After his demise, these Angus bulls were crossbred with native Texas longhorns to create valuable hornless black calves that could weather the ruthless winter range. Now, saddle up your trivia knowledge, partner, because the American Angus Association has become the world's largest beef breed registry association, recording over 10 million cattle in its first century!
Source => angus.org

4. Beef Quality Debunked

If you thought Angus beef was the Rolls Royce of bovine cuisine, prepare to have your steak-loving world rocked: Angus breed doesn't automatically equate to superior beef quality. In fact, it's the USDA grade - ranging from Prime, to Choice, to Select - that's the real MVP. However, the Certified Angus Beef brand does hold the key to the meaty kingdom, meeting 10 strict delectable standards for marbling, tenderness, and appearance that make it a cut above other Angus wannabes.
Source => greatist.com

5. Bovine Matchmaking

Behold, the love lives of Angus cattle: a comical tango of bovine matchmaking as they "swipe right" for optimal mates! Shockingly, Angus cattle have relatively low heritability for fertility traits like pregnancy rate and calving day. However, selective breeding based on these traits can still enhance female fertility, with breeding values for heifers and sires showing a range of fertility levels. Age at first calving has a higher heritability, yet selecting based on it can favor heifers born later in the season. To sum up, Angus cattle's reproductive traits deserve a well-thought-out strategy, coupled with genetic models, to nab that ideal mate!
Source => dr.lib.iastate.edu

6. Black-tie Bovines

What do fashionable Scottish cows wear to a black-tie event? A chic, all-black ensemble, and their meat is just as high-class: Angus cattle, originating from Scotland, are coveted for their black coloring and muscular physique, which result in well-marbled, scrumptious beef that also comes in red and hornless varieties.
Source => en.wiktionary.org

7. No More Horn Wars

No need for horn-stashing cattle rogues and bovine headgear bandits: Thanks to genome-editing technology, painful dehorning procedures are becoming a thing of the past. A UC Davis study found that six offspring of a genome-edited bull developed with no horns, paving the way for safer, happier cow communities without any of the side effects caused by unwanted gene-editing souvenirs.
Source => ucdavis.edu

8. Red vs. Black Angus

Once upon a moo, in a land where Angus cattle color wars raged on, red anguses fought for their right to have their beefiness taken as seriously as their black brethren: In reality, red Angus cattle were once eliminated from the official breed registry to prioritize a pure black breed in the United States, but this decision irked farmers who noted no difference in performance, and eventually, the Red Cattle Registry was reinstated, granting red Angus equal respect and beef quality as their black counterparts.
Source => karpaten-meat.com

9. Hornless Unicorns

Behold the Angus: the unicorns of the cow world! These magical bovines don't sport any horns and thus remain injury-proof from a good old-fashioned head-butting contest: The Angus cattle possess a natural polled gene, meaning they're hornless by birth, which significantly lessens the chances of hurting themselves or others through roughhousing or accidental tussles.
Source => southforkangus.com.au

10. Culinary Throwdown

You gotta fight for your right to pâté: the Certified Angus Beef ® Annual Conference is an international throwdown of six restaurant titans, whose kitchens churn out the crème de la crème of premium steaks and dishes, all using the highest-quality Certified Angus Beef ®. Through endless collaborations with family Angus cattle ranchers, suppliers, and culinary aficionados, these culinary gladiators are sharpening their beef expertise and expanding their repertoires just to ensure there's always something at "steak."
Source => perishablenews.com

11. McJob for Angus Beef

Did you hear about the beef that got a McJob? It turns out, the Angus cow had a resume better than most: Angus Australia used to verify all the beef used in McDonald's Angus burger range, ensuring customers chomped down on genuine Angus patties and setting a benchmark for product integrity. However, the cow's been shown the door recently, as McDonald's chose to quit the verification program.
Source => beefcentral.com