Texas Longhorn History
Michigan Longhorn Breeders / Longhorn History
The Texas Longhorn was the economic salvation
of the Southwest following the Civil War. Men returning home found the only
thing they had left were the cattle running loose on the range and so they
gathered and drove them north to meet the demand of a meat hungry nation.
The Texas Longhorn had the strength and endurance to walk the hundreds of
miles to market and were known to actually gain weight on the trail.
During the years of neglect from man, the Texas Longhorn breed practiced its
own natural culling system. Only the strongest cattle survived- those which
could handle the droughts, the floods and the blizzards- those which could
utilize the forage available and still raise a live, healthy calf- those with
sound feet and legs that enabled them to walk miles to water and to breed-
and those with adequate horns to protect themselves.
These inherent characteristics remain in the breed today. The Texas Longhorn
offers the modern cattleman the same genetics that enabled the 1880's cowboy
to make a profit.
During the past half-century, a pattern of seven differentiated
'families' or bloodlines emerged and has been perpetuated by some longhorn
breeders. Today, producers of Texas Longhorns either raise their favorite
family bloodline in a pure state or mix and select combinations of several
bloodlines. Texas Longhorns, groomed by nature for hundreds of years, carry
the genetic characteristics of fertility, calving ease, mothering ability,
disease resistance, longevity, browse utilization, a wide range of climactic
adaptability and the general inherited ability to take care of themselves.
They are statistically, provably different from other beef breeds.
Longevity
Longhorns are famous for there long life span. Many cows live and calf regularly
past 20 years of age with an occasional one producing past 25 or 30. In commercial
terms, this longer productive life means the rancher can retain fewer replacement
heifers to maintain herd size, allowing him to market more calves annually.
Many professional ranchers are finding that Texas Longhorn influence can increase
the productive life span by several years over conventional beef breeds.
True Calving Ease
Ten of the 20 largest ranches in the west have successfully used Texas Longhorn
bulls to calve heifers. The Texas Longhorn bull's reputation for the easy
and uncomplicated birth of a vigorous calf is undisputed among knowledgeable
ranchers of North America. The tall, lean Longhorn shape with narrow head
and shoulders make first birth for a beginning mother a far less traumatic
experience. The US Meat and Animal Research Center at Clay Center, Nebraska
has tested this old breeds modern qualities. Their Germ Plasm Evaluation Program,
Cycle IV Phase 2, evaluated 1,905 births comparing 11 breeds. The Texas Longhorn
proved superior with the highest unassisted birth rate of all breeds (99.7%)
and the lowest birth weight (71.3 Lbs.). These old nature-fixed, time tested
qualities are making extra profits available for professional ranchers through
reduced labor and more live, sellable calves. These low-stress birth traits
in Texas Longhorn-sired calves continue to profit owners when the mother cow
quickly re-breeds after an easy birth.
Synthetic Breeds
Modern high-tech cattle production methods may have deviated too much from
the proven economic traits of the Texas Longhorn. Some animal scientists and
cattlemen feel that most 'modern cattle' are too big, too fat, and shaped
wrong for easy birthing and lack disease resistance and longevity. To correct
these trends, several exciting new synthetic breeds using longhorn blood have
been developed. These synthetic breeds are testing, scientifically, various
breeding percentages of Texas Longhorn blood to develop an optimum range animal
to meet the challenging demands of today's consumer. These new Texas Longhorn
synthetic breeds are excelling in producing Choice carcasses with very high
percentage of yield grades 1 and 2.
