History of "Red Poll Cattle"

The Red Poll was originally developed in the early 1800's as a dual-purpose breed in England by John Reeve, a tenet on the Earl of Leichester's Holkham Estate in Norfolk.   It was developed from a cross of the Norfolk Red Beef Cows and the Suffolk Dun Dairy Cows.  

They were originally called "Norfolk and Suffolk Red Polled".

They were officially recognized as a breed in 1846.  

The Red Poll Herd Book was published in 1874 by Henry Euren and was one of the earliest purebred documentation registries in England.
The First Red Poll cattle were imported into the United States in 1873 by G.F. Tabor of New York.  

Taber brought over a Bull and 3 heifers in 1873.  In 1875 he imported 4 more Cows followed by 3 bulls and 23 heifers in 1882.  

In 1882 a Bull and 10 females were imported by Messrs, Mead and Kimball of Randolph, Vermont.

300 Head of Red Poll cattle used to develop the US herds arrived between 1873 and 1900.  

In 1883 the breed became known as "The Red Polled".  That same year the first Red Poll Association was organized as the Red Poll Cattle Club of America.  The Association re-incorporated in Nebraska in 1947 and the name changed once again to the current name of American Red Poll Association in 1975.

The Red Poll Cattle Society was formed in 1888 in the U.K.

The Canadian Red Poll Cattle Association was incorporated in 1906.
New Zealand imported Red Polls in 1898.

Red Polls were introduced into Canada in the 1880's by the New Brunswick provincial government.

While the Red Poll may now be classified as a 'beef breed' since 1972 they are still suitable as a 'dual-purpose' breed and I personally fail to see the purpose of their reclassification to a single purpose breed.