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The Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society was set up as a specialist branch of the Highland and Agricultural Society in 1879. It was originally called the Polled Cattle Society, and the step to set up the society was taken after the establishment and first publication of the Herd Book for the breed in 1862: material had been collected for the Herd Book since 1840 but was lost in a fire at the Highland and Agricultural Society in 1851 and work had to begin again. The Society was founded by Sir George Macpherson Grant of Ballindalloch, supported by the Marquis of Huntly and the Earls of Strathmore and Airlie, all keen cattlebreeders. Dr. Alexander Ramsay, the owner of the Herd Book and the editor of the Banffshire Journal, was made secretary and treasurer. The Society was incorporated in 1879 and the first meeting was held in 1880. In 1881 Queen Victoria, herself interested in the breed, became patroness and was succeeded by King Edward VII in 1901. The name of the breed had been in dispute since at least 1874 but in 1886 the Herd Book was formally changed to the Aberdeen-Angus Herd Book, and in 1908 the Society itself changed its name. The Society still exists to support breeders of Aberdeen-Angus, to follow developments of the breed and to encourage competition. They are also the sole registrars of the breed in the United Kingdom, registering both bulls and cows.
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