THBC 2026 census highlights at-risk cow family lines

Summary of the 2026 data

A 2026 census conducted by the Traditional Hereford Breeders' Club (THBC) has recorded a 6% decline to 1,230 pedigree registered Traditional Hereford breeding females, though tracking slightly better than the national cattle herd decline of 9% in the same period. There were 327 Traditional Hereford calves registered in this census year, which included a positive 2% increase in female calf registrations.

Further research revealved that 695 of the 1,230 breeding females were residing in herds actively registering pedigree calves with the Breed Society, making up roughly half of the total UK female population, with a further 378 in non-registering commercial herds, and the remaining 157 females alive but currently residing in herds of unknown, non-registering ownership.

Several rare female lines, such as the Maria, Lively, Pearl, and Daisy families, have fallen to single digits, prompting the THBC to set its latest goal to increase these lines into double digits for genetic preservation.

Club members are working hard to trace these cattle and build relationships with owners, to encourage the breeding and registration of more pedigree Traditional Hereford calves to preserve and populate these rare female lines. Efforts include embryo collection projects and securing funding support, as well as disseminating this information to members to encourage responsible breeding and the importance of pedigree calf registrations.

Background

One of the most important duties of the Traditional Hereford Breeders' Club is to monitor and analyse the frequency and distribution of the remaining Original Population descendants of the Hereford female families, as recorded in the early Hereford Herd Books. Club Census recorder Willem Van Beele has kindly put together the below table which shows the number of females, residing in England, Scotland or Wales, pedigree registered with the Hereford Cattle Society and alive at time of searching, whose pedigrees trace back along the female line to the families shown. Census data reveals that there are now nine families (residing in England, Scotland or Wales) each with fewer than 20 registered females remaining, a further eight families each with between 20 and 100 registered females, and four families with more than 100 and below 350.

	2026	2025	2024	2023	2022
Total cows	1230	1309	1346	1468	1607
% change on year	-6%	-2.5%	-9%	-9%	+12%
Maria	1	1	1	1	1
Lively	2	2	2	2	3
Pearl	4	8	9	11	13
Daisy	5	5	5	4	5
Oyster Girl	12	9	10	10	11
Linnet	13	11	9	10	11
Silk	10	14	16	18	16
Countess	19	18	17	18	18
Dainty	19	18	20	21	23
Plum (inc. Potency)	27	32	44	39	46
Gaymaid	37	40	45	48	54
Silver Lot	39	35	32	33	34
Regina	39	47	50	54	64
Dowager	46	54	48	61	62
Pitt Families (inc. Prettymaid, Judy)	46	47	54	61	57
Gaudy (inc. Firlands "L", Freetown "C", Grace)	62	65	68	75	71
Amorous	84	88	86	106	117
Curly	124	132	135	142	168
Julia	125	130	136	149	163
Tudge's Beauties (inc. Laura, Model, Spotlight, Venus)	186	197	189	209	231
Silver (inc. Amethyst, Cilla, Ruby, Sapphire, Sophia, Sylvia)	331	357	374	396	440

Overseas Herds

In addition to the table above, Australian data provided by AUS breeder Peter Hall showed a further 91 females over 2 years of age, 8 females aged 1-2 years, and 26 females younger than 1 year (as at the end of March 2025), with the breakdown of females families represented as follows:

3 Bracelet, 8 Careless, 7 Dowky, 21 Gaudy, 6 Gaymaid, 16 Gipsy, 7 Lively, 18 Mayflower, 3 Old Silk, 1 Orange Blossom, 4 Pretty, 6 Prunella, 11 Silver, 1 Star, 13 Venus.

Further information on numbers of other overseas populations of OP Herefords would also be welcomed, please email: sarah@traditionalherefords.net.

Why is this important?

For all breeds, retaining a wide genetic base is useful to enable farmers a greater choice when selecting animals to use in their breeding program, to make available all of the traits which exist within the breed, and to prevent the likelihood of animals becoming too closely related. When it comes to genetic diversity, the Traditional Hereford breed is in a fortunate position, having once been highly populous, becoming successful in many parts of the world, and having stored semen from a large number of bulls across several decades.

Since the importation of Hereford genetics into the UK became popular, however, some of that diversity within the Traditional Hereford breed was unfortunately lost, as many farmers began to breed their OP Hereford cows to bulls with overseas genetics. Those cows would eventually have made their way out of production leaving no OP progeny to replace them, and as such many of the original female families have only a few OP descendants remaining, some with none at all.

Whilst the Hereford does of course stand in a strong position in the marketplace and remains popular with consumers, the Original Population of the breed must continue to develop as a resource, not only to represent the Traditional Hereford phenotype, but to hold onto the whole cross-section of those valuable characteristics which are important to beef producers and graziers around the world.

What can breeders do?

Breeders already owning females represented in the above table, particularly those in categories with the lowest numbers, can help to perpetuate the continued revival of those families by ensuring that females are bred to an Original Population bull and, where possible, take action to ensure their protection against disease. Bovine TB (bTB) remains a major concern in many areas of the UK, and rare bloodlines represented by animals residing in bTB hotspots are extremely vulnerable to being lost. Breeders in this situation could look at the possibility of moving individual animals to herds in other areas in order to mitigate this risk, and the THBC are keen to offer help where needed in connecting breeders who might like to work together or to buy/sell. The Club is continually working to identify where animals from the rarest families reside, and to make the owners of those animals aware of their importance.

The THBC supports embryo collection/IVF from the rarest females to help fast-track the regrowth of these bloodlines, and the Club welcomes the participation of any breeder interested in undertaking this work by offering rare females for embryo collection/IVF (particularly as a final consideration prior to culling), or providing recipients and rearing progeny. In addition, the THBC also continues to work to re-introduce further lines now only in existence overseas, and are also looking into the possibility of assessing mitochondrial DNA to distinguish between or within these recognised families.

Start here - get in touch

Most importantly, if any individuals or organisations are interested in what could be done to increase numbers of some of these rare families, they should contact the Traditional Hereford Breeders' Club to discuss.

Learn more about Hereford cow tribes

Want to know the background and history of the Hereford female families? Click here for article