About the association
"The Swedish Hereford Association" was founded in1959. It is open for everybody. Norway, Denmark and Finland joined the Association in 1964, and the name became "The Nordic Hereford Association". In 1974 each country had a sufficient number of members to start its own Association, and finally our Association got its present name, " The Swedish Hereford Association".
The first Hereford cattle were imported to Sweden by Mr Sixten Fredin. They were offspring of English Herefords, imported to Norway in 1949 by Major Ole Sandberg, Hamar. He was the first to import Herefords to Scandinavia. The next year Mr Fredin bought 10 more heifers from Major Sandberg. From the very beginning the interest in Herefords was great and in 1954, with the support of the Swedish Department of Agriculture, 150 Herefords were imported from The British Isles. During the following 20 years many imports were made from England and Ireland, both privately and through the Association. In 1974 the first cattle from Canada came to Sweden. "Munka Hereford" bought 74 animals, and ever since Canada has been the biggest supplier of prime quality cattle to Sweden. Cattle of very good quality has also been sold to Sweden from Denmark, Finland and Norway.
Champion heifer, Wittey av Herrgölet and champion bull, Lamports Solid Rock
"The Swedish Hereford Association" celebrated its "50 years with Herefords" at the Julita Estate in 2002. Julita is a museum for Agriculture and goes back to the 18th century. At the same time there was the Swedish Agriculture Day being held. We had arranged a show with Bent Sörensen from Denmark as the judge. Some visitors came from different parts of the world, such as Australia and Canada.
In the more recent years, members of the association have exported Swedish bred herefords to the Baltic countries, Finland and Norway. These days it is almost impossible to import live cattle to Sweden because of all the rules and restrictions. However, several breeders have imported embryos from Canada. The use of frozen semen also from Canada, is frequent and thanks to this and embryos we have some of the best genetics available.
Today Hereford is the next largest pure breed in Sweden and very popular with mixed breed herds. We have over 300 members and approximately 1000 calves are registered yearly.