ROAN A SHORTHORN COLOUR.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 41, 29 May 1917, Page 7

ROAN A SHORTHORN COLOUR.

Shorthorns are red, white and roan, the mixture of the red and the white forming the roan. Wherever roan cattle are seen there of a certainty has a Shorthorn been also, because there is no other breed in which this peculiar blending of the red and white prevails. Sometimes specimens in the black and white breeds show up with the hairs of those colours so mingled as to offer a bluish tint, but that is not roan. Nor will a mixture of yellow or very light yellow and white make roan, as for instance in the old English longhorns. There is a peculiar richness about the roan tinge that bespeaks a mellow hide underneath, and that, too, is peculiar to the Shorthorn. White markings may be inserted on pelts otherwise roan in true Shorthorn colouring, but as a general thing the roan colour obliterates the racial markings of other breeds with which Shorthorn may be crossed. Crosses, with the whitefaces usually lose most of that characteristic, and the roan trademark bands the whole cattle breeding globe.