The sections provided for cattle are properly restricted to what may be termed the beef breeds; in the catalogue order they are Devon, South Devon, Hereford, Shorthorn, Sussex, Red Polled, Aberdeen-Angus, Galloway, Welsh, Highland, Cross-bred, Kerry and Dexter, and Small Cross-bred.
In the 1899 show, with 311 entries of cattle, and the age limited to three years, no beast reached the weight of a ton, the heaviest animal being a crossbred(Aberdeen-Angus and Shorthorn)which,at three years old, turned the scale at 19 cwt.
Amongst prize steers of two and a half to three years old, on the same occasion, the three highest daily average gains in live weight were 2.07 lb for an Aberdeen-Angus, 1.99 lb for a Shorthorn-Aberdeen cross-bred and 1.97 lb for a Sussex.
At the 1899 show, for example, the highest proportion of the carcase weight to live weight was 68% in the case of an Aberdeen-Angus steer and of a Cheviot wether, whilst the lowest was 61%, afforded alike by a Shorthorn-Sussex cross-bred heifer and a mountain lamb.
