Founder of the Polled Hereford cattle breed
1846-1923 | Artist: Unknown
Impact & Accomplishments
Although he was trained in law, Iowan Warren Gammon focused his energies on cattle breeding and made his mark as the founder of the Polled Hereford breed.
While visiting the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, 1898, Gammon became intrigued by polled Hereford crossbreeds on exhibit. His college-aged son introduced him to Charles Darwin’s writing in heredity, and those writings inspired him to contact the 2,500 breeders on the Hereford registry to locate purebreds exhibiting a hornless mutation. He obtained eleven animals and began breeding in 1902.
Warren Gammon established a separate Polled Hereford registry and served as executive secretary of the new breed organization for many years.
Did You Know?
By 1976, the Polled Hereford breed was numerically greater than the horned variety in the United States, and was about three-fourths of the Iowa's Hereford stock. The Iowa Polled Hereford Association erected a historical marker at the site. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Polled Hereford Breed Origin Site is a historic site located southwest of Indianola, Iowa, United States. Photo by Lowell Soike, August 1982.