Shetlanders and their livestock. As the Haaf fishery trade in salted, dried fish waned, the lairds cleared off many of their tenants in favour of sheep ranching and where possible heavier British breeds of cattle. The Shetland cow supported many families children through these hard times. Only a breed with special traits could cope with such extremes. The period of agricultural improvement during the 19th century saw imported heavy breeds of cattle, sheep and horses arrive that was to the detriment of the native breeds. The early years of the 20th century saw something of a revival in interest and appreciation in the Shetland kye. The Shetland Cattle Herd Book Society was established with a Register being produced for 1912. The Herd Book described the breed's features and provided a register of calves and bulls. The SCHBS carried on through the First World War but stalled in 1921 amid the post-war privations. This short-lived renaissance was subsequently damaged by the UK Government determining that the new post-Second World War incentives of subsidies should not apply to Shetland kye. While the Shetland cattle could thrive on inhospitable lands, the evolution of agricultural practices and chemicals made grass more plentiful for less hardy breeds, whose larger bulls could sire calves that would grow larger and more quickly. Increasing the size of the cattle was attractive in the aftermath of John Boyd-Orr's influential studies in the 1930s, which revealed a deficiency in the "midst of plenty" among the United Kingdom's urban proletariat, whose diet lacked meat. The UK Department of Agriculture and latterly the Crofters Commission made available bulls of much larger breeds favoured by UK mainland markets. This combined with the hard economics of the period to remove thousands of native cows through cross-breeding. Subsidy-driven agriculture nearly destroyed the Shetland kye. By the time oil was discovered off Shetland, the breed was near extinction and was saved primarily through the efforts of people like T. A. U. Fraser (known as Tammy o da Glebe). He started in 1938 with a stock of four kye and in the early 1980s was able to help re-establish the breed following the dispersal of his herd. The year 1981 saw a determined attempt to, once again, save the breed through the establishment of the New Foundation Herd Book and Shetland Cattle Herd Book Society (SCHBS). For a period of time Shetland Islands Council assisted with support