COLUMBUS, Ohio – The “150 Years of Angus Celebration” kicked off the sesquicentennial of the breed’s arrival in the United States at an event on Jan. 6 at the Cattlemen’s Congress in Oklahoma City. The American Angus Association, and its affiliate The Angus Foundation, are running a year-long fundraising campaign as well as additional observances later in 2023.

Even though his vision never flourished, Scotsman George Grant’s imagination and aspiration enhanced the American cattle industry and laid the foundation for today’s most popular breed of beef cattle in the United States, Black Angus.

A nineteenth-century silk merchant, Grant envisioned an agricultural and livestock colony on 700,000 acres in central Kansas, populated by British and Scotch noblemen. Grant named the colony Victoria, in honor of the British monarch.

In 1873, as part of the settlement, Grant brought four Aberdeen-Angus bulls to Victoria to crossbreed with range cattle. This was the breed’s debut in the United States. In the 1942 Aberdeen-Angus Journal, Otto Battles wrote, “Those bulls probably were considered of minor importance to the entire undertaking, but they later proved to be the most lasting contribution of the colony to American agriculture and the means of giving the venture’s historical importance.”

Initially, the breed was met with little enthusiasm from a public only familiar with longhorns, the native breed, and shorthorns, which were imported in the early 1800s.

According to The American Angus Association, “When two of the George Grant bulls were exhibited in the fall of 1873 at the Kansas City (Missouri) Livestock Exposition, some considered them ‘freaks’ because of their polled (naturally hornless) heads and solid black color (Shorthorns were then the dominant breed). Grant, a forward thinker, crossed the bulls with native Texas longhorn cows, producing a large number of hornless black calves that survived well on the winter range. The Angus crosses wintered better and weighed more the next spring, the first demonstration of the breed’s value in their new homeland.”

In 1878, James Anderson and George Findlay imported one bull and five cows to Illinois, establishing the first Aberdeen-Angus herd in the United States. In A Cow’s Life, M.R. Montgomery emphasized the endeavor’s motivation, “the proximate, nay primal cause of this event was money.”

The duo hoped the breed’s popularity in European shows and expositions would garner the same financial rewards in the states. Although the Anderson & Findlay cattle never earned huge riches in exhibitions due to a lack of competitors, the breed showed well and gained broader acceptance among cattlemen.

In 1883, following a decade of heavy Angus importation from Scotland, The American Aberdeen-Angus Breeders Association was founded with 60 members. This group encouraged breeding, showing and selling registered Angus stock. The organization, which shortened its name to The American Angus Association in the 1950s, is the nation’s largest beef breed organization with more than 25,000 members in the United States and Canada.

With more than 350,000 Black Angus cattle registered in the United States, it is the largest cattle breed in the country and has impacted other breeds as well. The American Angus Association contends that generally 70 percent of U.S. cattle have Angus genetics in their background.

Angus are valued for their adaptability to weather extremes, easy calving, strong maternal instincts, fertility and stayability, high degree of marbling, and high return on investment.

Angus roots run deep in the Midwest. Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan have more than 3,000 American Angus Association members. According to NASS/USDA, these six states accounted for 9.09 percent (2.835 million head) of all U.S. beef cattle in 2022.

The American Angus Association values the breed’s history and acknowledges members with two awards. The Century Award recognizes members and their families who have been in continuous production of registered Angus cattle for at least 100 years and the Historic Angus Herd Award recognizes members who have been in continuous production of registered Angus cattle for 50 years or more.

The Midwest is well-represented in the development and growth of Angus cattle in the United States. Michigan State University in East Lansing, and Homestead Farm in Cedar Lake, Ind., have received the Century Award and over 70 Midwest breeders have been recognized with the Historic Angus Herd Award.

Cassell Angus Farm in Mount Vernon, Ohio, has been family owned since 1835 with registered Angus records dating to 1911.

Alan Cassell and his sons currently run the cattle operation. “We currently have 45 brood cows with them all registered Angus and some registered Simmental,” Cassell said.  “Angus and Angus/Simmental cross make excellent cows and are in high demand due to their maternal ability and superior carcass traits.

“I artificially breed the majority of the cows,” Cassell said. “We have a closed herd with every animal raised on our farm.”

The Cassell Angus Farm looks forward to its third century of operation as a family farm. “My grandson, 18-month-old Wyatt, is the eighth generation to live on the same farm,” Cassell said.

Robert Elliot & Sons Angus farm in Adams, Tenn., has been operating for nearly a century. “My father, Robert, started our herd in 1935,” Joe Elliott said.

In 1958, Robert Elliott enrolled his herd in a new program at the University of Tennessee called Tennessee Beef Cattle Improvement Records. He was the first Angus breeder to do so and the first to take birth weights on all his calves.

Joe, his brother, William, and Joe’s son Lake all attended the University of Tennessee after being involved in the operation from an early age. “I came back from college in 1971, my brother, William came back in 1976, and my son Lake, in 2004,” Elliott said.

Robert Elliott & Sons will breed 220 females this year. “Maternal instincts, end product merit and profit margin,” are what makes Angus the best choice for Elliott.

Robert Elliott & Sons’ byline, “Form Follows Function,” reflects a management style designed with the end goal in mind. “We believe in measuring economically important traits because you cannot manage what you do not measure and we have been doing both since the 1950s,” Robert Elliott & Sons website.

In addition to those farms that have been recognized for their longevity and loyalty to the breed, countless others are devoted to raising Angus cattle and have been doing so for generations.

With a national network dedicated to growing and marketing the brand, and farmers dedicated to data-driven breeding practices, Angus cattle continue to command the beef cattle industry.