English Longhorns are large lean beef cattle with an impressive sweep of horns that curve down to around the nose. These impressive horns are valued in the pedigree. The body may be any one of a wide range of brindle colours (including colours from red to grey) but they all have the characteristic white line or "finching" along the back and down the tail, which is passed onto their cross bred progeny. Cows range in height from 130 to 140cm and weigh 500 to 600kg. Males average 150 cm in height and 1000 kg in weight.

English Longhorn is renowned for its ease of calving. Prominent hook bones, deep pins and a roomy birth canal result in almost no recorded incidence of assistance being needed at birth. Longhorns have excellent milking ability and their long and level lactation help avoid a flush of milk at calving. They rear their calves very well. A 6% butter fat is not uncommon although no-one is currently milking them commercially.
They are excellent mothers and their docile nature makes them an easy breed to manage. Their breeding, longevity and relatively low body weight makes them very economical and inexpensive to feed.

A number of butchers are now stocking Longhorn beef as one of their traceable, quality products. The beef has a velvet texture and tastes delicious.