HSS now has Canadian members (see the International Members Page), reflecting the growing interest in Canada for finding and utilizing Heritage Shorthorn genetics. HSS has purchased ad space for 2021 in The Canadian Shorthorn Report. The first ad (see ad below) will be in the January issue.
If it’s been a while since you looked at the “Pictures from the Past” Page on the website, check out the latest additions. The most recent postings are at the top of the page.
A new article is posted in the “Cattle Viewpoints” Section. This article, contributed by Ralph Larson, was from a lecture given by Roy Beeby on the importance of selecting for maternal traits in your cow herd. It is an entertaining and thought-provoking read.
There is an online site (www.heritage-cattle.com) which highlights various heritage cattle breeds and allows posting of resource farm/ranch contact information. You may want to consider posting your information on their website under the Shorthorn section, by contacting their site.
HSS has looked into creating an online quarterly magazine which would feature an interesting mix of new articles, interesting articles from the 1940’s to 1980’s, links to cattle historical & modern resource information, advertising opportunities, and a variety of additional content. While the online magazine concept is very appealing as a way to widen the exposure of Heritage Shorthorns, it was concluded that HSS, by being an all volunteer effort, does not currently have the staff to produce a high quality quarterly magazine. For those members and non-members who had agreed to send articles, thank you so much for your willingness to contribute. The articles which would have been in the new magazine will instead be featured during this year and the coming years, either in a new or an already existing section of the HSS website.
For those of you who are interested in “facts & figures”: Since its founding in January 2018, the HSS website has continued to add more information, both about Heritage Shorthorn history and about the utilization of these cattle in today’s environments, which is attracting world-wide attention. In 2019 the total number of visitors to the website was 7,900 and the number of pages looked at was 24,000, which was a 25% increase over 2018. For 2020 the total number of visitors was 20,000 (150% increase from 2019), and the number of pages viewed was almost 46,000 (90% increase from 2019). The 8 most popular pages visited were: Home Page, Cattle for Sale, Cattle Viewpoints section, Breeders/Members Page, Heritage Shorthorn’s Impact on World Cattle Breeds, Breeder’s Ads, Semen for Sale, and the Classic Bulls Section.
