I'm pretty sure they are Beef Shorthorns (not Dairy shorthorns). The bull was at Brampford Speke in the Exe Valley.
I remember dairy shorthorns in the Reading area back in my childhood
You rightly point out that there are both Dairy and Beef in Shorthorns, which I forgot and I think this was because my reasoning was triggered by the original purpose of this topic. You raise an interesting point, I was thinking of the historical purpose of a purpose breed, which modern farming has almost eradicated. This is a breed where the dam's natural progresses from the dairy to become a 'milch cow' in a multi suckler herd, I personally would feel less threatened to walk into the herd space of a multi suckler herd than single sucklers. Now I have been out of farming for a very long time, but it does raise another question about the incidence of 'bull with herd', whilst calves at foot. This I think is the time of maximum potential aggression. A multi suckler herd will try to maximize the lactation period, the objective of the single suckler herd is to restrict lactation to an annual cycle.
This links into the other topic of mine you responded to. Are country people as responsive to visitors as visitors are respectful of the farming practice? On that walk we were entertained by a full frontal charge by pure bred Hereford yearlings however they came to stop at 10 paces, posed for a couple of photos, then went into full flight mode as we moved towards them.
It turned out that we were talking to the farmer's sister later that day, she went to great lengths to steer us away from her brothers land. What is the underlying psychology and what drives it, the more I think about this, the more I realize that there could be better understanding coming out of the rural community.
As an after thought, the charging bullocks, when they came to a halt to gives us the stare;
hereford bullocks by
Barewirewalker, on Flickr