Pure Texas Longhorns

Some Good Longhorn Sites

2009-05-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some good Pure Longhorn websites for you to go check out:

CTLR.org - Of Course, THE registry for Pure Texas Longhorn Cattle. Lots of information and history.

Texas Longhorns: Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge - The sell some cattle every year too. If you joint the CTLR and get on their mailing list, you'll get alerts as to when the WR sales are.

DWD Longhorns - The smartest folks in the room when it comes to Pure Texas Longhorns. Some great information on Longhorns, and they would probably sell you some cattle too.

Jim McEachern's Triple M Ranch - Pure Longhorn Ranch near Midlothian, Texas

Santa Rita Ranch - I like this site because they have Pure Longhorns and a Handgun training class too.... two of my favorite things in one easy place.

Of course, right here I will try to update you on information about Pure Texas Longhorns, and you will even find some cattle for sale every once in awhile...

Stay tuned, because I still hope to have an article about my day in Inspection Class, and I might be offering another Longhorn for sale as well.

Michael Bunker

BBQ Article

2009-05-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a good article that appeared on a Bar-B-Q site called bbqcrashcourse.com:

http://www.bbqcrashcourse.com/pages/texas_longhorns

It has some good and interesting comments in it. I still, after reading it, am amazed when I hear people claim that "there is no such thing as a pure longhorn", or "nobody can say what traits are longhorn traits", and worse, these comments are coming from Longhorn registries! Frankly, if I were new to Longhorns and I was interested in starting a Longhorn herd, I would stay away from a registry that claimed that "you can't know what a true longhorn is", or one that obviously and openly registers cattle that are mixed bloods with evident traits of other cattle. For example, many of the "registered" longhorns you see as you drive through Central Texas have obvious Watusi or other African cattle blood, but there are Longhorn registries that have no problem registering these animals as Longhorns.

That takes me a long way from the discussion about BBQ, but if one of the traits of a true and pure Longhorn is the superior quality of the beef (and it is), then keeping the Longhorns pure ought to be of great importance to those of us who want good Longhorns and good beef.

Michael Bunker

Bull For Sale

2009-05-18T14:43:00.001-07:00

I have a wonderful CTLR "registerable" bull for sale. Chico will be two years old this summer, he is black and white with a mostly black head. He is very gentle and will eat range cubes from your hand. Chico is not currently registered as the CTLR is not currently registering bulls, but he is certainly "registerable" when the CTLR begins registering bulls again. His dam is Holga, a CTLR registered cow with nice horns, and his sire is Quitachon, a CTLR bull owned by Frank Sharp of the CTLR. We can get you copies of the paperwork on Holga, and Frank Sharp will have the paperwork on Quitachon.

Structurally Chico looks like a model traditional pure Longhorn bull. His horns, as you can see in the picture, come directly out and sweep straight forward, they are just beginning the proper upturn, and his horns are symmetrical. His tail-set is perfect and he has a great build and is really starting to get that classic pure Longhorn bull look. He really looks like he takes after his sire.

After my CTLR inspectors class this past weekend, I have learned more about what to look for in inspecting and examining pure Longhorn cattle. I am also far more pleased with Chico and I am very excited about him.

I am currently asking $800 for Chico, and that is with the buyer picking him up here at the ranch. It is possible that we could arrange delivery at the buyers expense if it isn't too far and if circumstances allow.

Michael Bunker
bunker2k (at) hotmail (dot) com

The Texas Longhorn

2008-03-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

From the article in Mother Earth News:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/print-article.aspx?id=68310

THE TEXAS LONGHORN

By the Mother Earth News editors

Its history is as rich as the days of the Golden West . . . yet this unique breed of cattle nearly became extinct. Fortunately, though, folks are once again recognizing the many advantages of raising

Randy Kidd

When seeing longhorn cattle for the first time, it's difficult not to be surprised by the dramatic sweep of their headgear. The upward-curving horns rise elegantly over the grass-grazers' rather thin-looking faces. On mature cows, these defensive weapons can measure two feet from tip to tip ... a bull's may stretch to four feet . . . and steers can produce "trophy-size" horns of up to seven feet long!

On second glance, one might well notice the variety of colors found in the animals' coats. When grouped together in a herd, longhorns can form a rainbow of subtle earth tones: spotteds and solids of black, brown, red, yellow, cream . . . and almost every imaginable shade in between.

But impressive horns and diverse colors aren't the only qualities that set this Texas trademark apart from the other popular beef breeds. Look at a longhorn, and you'll typically see a lean animal . .. one that's clearly quite different from plump, thickly finished feedlot steers. And in keeping with its looks, the lanky bovine yields perfect mealtime steaks and connoisseur's roasts of lean meat. In fact, because of the Texas longhorn's foraging ability, resistance to drought and diseases, mothering instinct, and general ability to lead a long and fruitful life, it may be the most practical and economical steakmaker—over the long haul—of all the breeds raised in this country.

A LEGEND EVOLVES

The American saga of the Texas longhorn began in 1519, when the conquistadors subdued Mexico and introduced their rangy cattle to the new continent. As the Spanish missions spread northward, the domesticated animals were brought into Texas, where—for more than 300 years—the rawboned, slab-sided critters ranged free on the prairies. There, the survival of the fittest was the rule of the herd, and animals that lacked disease resistance simply died. In their harsh environment, the survivors developed into the rugged breed of extremely tough and crafty animals that today we call the Texas longhorns. The herds were, for the most part, wild or semiwild . . . and the animals had temperaments to match! Their ornery nature led Jimmy Stewart (in the movie The Rare Breed) to describe the livestock—somewhat unfairly—as "meatless, milkless, and murderous".

In 1836, when Anglo-American settlers took over Texas, large numbers of Mexican ranchers abandoned both their cattle and their homes. Then, 30 years later—at the end of the Civil War—soldiers from the Southwest returned to find many of their homes destroyed, and the large population of prolific and free-ranging longhorns became a means of survival for such individuals. Between 1866 and 1890 they drove an estimated ten million cattle—in herds that numbered into the thousands—over the 900 miles of the legend ary Chisholm and Western Trails to railheads in Abilene and Dodge City . . . thus earning a place in the annals of American history for both the Texas cowboy and the longhorn.

However, after the cattle drives were largely over (in the late nineteenth century), many ranchers began to crossbreed Hereford and shorthorn with the longhorn in the effort to produce a meatier animal . . . and the legendary longhorn, as an individual breed, was soon in danger of extinction. Finally, in 1927, a purebred longhorn herd (rigidly selected to represent the typical longhorn) was established at the Wichita National Forest and Game Preserve near Cache, Oklahoma. Animals from this group were then used, in 1936, to develop another herd at the Fort NiobraraWildlife Refuge in Nebraska.

Even so, as recently as 1960 there were fewer than 2,500 Texas longhorns in the United States, and about a quarter of those were in federal refuges. But by 1964, as cowfolk began to awaken to the qualities of the animal, a breed society was formed. Today, the Texas Longhorn Cattle Association has some 1,200 members ... and approximately 37,000 cattle are registered.

TOUGH AND PRODUCTIVE

The longhorn's rise in popularity is well deserved, because the once neglected breed does have many endearing traits. For centuries it lived (and learned to thrive) on pasture that could best be described as onethird prickly pear, one-third sagebrush, and one-third sand and gravel pierced by stray blades of grass. The breed seems to get along just fine in conditions that in most parts of the country would constitute a severe drought. What's more, unlike many of its more "modern" cousins, who'll laze in groups around the watering hole and strip the nearby pasture bare, a herd of longhorns will graze a field evenly from one end to the other . . . eating even the weeds.

Then too, anyone who's been in the cattle business for any length of time knows what it's like to have to call the vet out to help with calving problems. Such difficulties are often the result of the "bigger is better" syndrome. Livestock breeders tend to fall into the trap of thinking that the larger the offspring, the more the ultimate profit ... without considering the cost of having the vet "pull" a proportion of the too-big calves.

In contrast, the relatively small head and smaller shoulder width characteristic of the longhorn calf makes it an easy birther. Instead of the 100-pound calves so proudly claimed for other breeds, the longhorn usually produces a 40- to 60pound baby . . . a youngster that, incidentally, often weighs as much as the larger calves by weaning time, anyhow.

A LONG, HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP

Besides being an intelligent and thrifty breed, the Texas longhorn appears to be able to resist many of the common cattle diseases. Although researchers haven't proved this conclusively, it has been speculated that the animal has an innate (perhaps genetic) resistance to some parasites and bacterial illnesses, a characteristic which could make it a good choice in a crossbreeding program.

Additionally, the typical longhorn lives a long and fruitful life. It's not uncommon for cows to continue to have calves until they're 15 to 20 years of age. In fact, the oldest matron in present-day American cattledom may well be a 33-year-old that was producing a calf annually until just last year. (Since the present owners at the Flinthills Longhorn Ranch didn't have her when she was a youngster, they don't know exactly how many calves she's born, but the count could be as high as 30!)

Longhorn bulls also remain productive well into old age. While an 80% to 90% calf crop is considered good for most beef animals, 100% is common for longhorns ... and some breeders use one bull to service herds of 30 to 35 cows!

And as if all that weren't enough, this native of the arid Southwest seems to adapt well to colder climates, too. Furthermore, although it's known for the ability to exist on poor pastures, the animal will put on meat very rapidly on lush lands or when fed a diet that includes a daily grain ration. Well-heeled longhorns still won't reach the final weight of some of the larger beef breeds, but their meat will be of excellent quality with a minimum of fat.

The would-be wrangler, however, will probably find that the longhorn's most endearing trait is its personality. Don't let the beast's menacing look or past reputation fool you. Today's tamed longhorn is one of the most docile and gentle of all range-fed beef cattle. (On my photo-taking session at the Flinthills Longhorn Ranch, the herd literally ran to our pickup for "mug shots". My only fear was that my camera strap might be hooked by one of those super-horns as the cattle nuzzled up to me for attention.)

Actually, the major disadvantage to owning a longhorn is a direct result of the breed's new-found popularity. Nowadays, a quality heifer may cost several hundred to a few thousand dollars. However, provided you use good cow-sense and have proper cow-keeping facilities, that premium price should be more than repaid over the animal's long, troublefree, and productive life span.

A Day at the Ranch

2007-09-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

9/27/07 - 5th Day - After Supper. Wakened at 1 a.m. to what sounds like a storm blowing in. The wind is howling outside and Danielle is rushing around securing things. "There's lightning off to the north" she says as I try to shake the cobwebs from my head. In my sleep-addled state I think it is 5 a.m. and time to milk, so I lay there for a few seconds deciding how much I am going to hate milking in a thunderstorm. Danielle rushes around some more and I can hear things blowing around outside. When she comes back in I ask her the time and if it is time to milk. She tells me it is 1:08 and I relax back into my pillow. Usually I would fire up the laptop and be on storm duty, but my computer is out of commission. I get the two-way radio and turn it on, hoping that Elder David is watching the storm. I want rain, but not enough that I will be milking in the mud. I fall back into a deep sleep.

At 5 a.m. I hear Danielle and Tracy preparing the milking "stuff". At 5:30 Tracy comes to the door and says "I'm ready". I struggle to get out of bed, pull on my jeans and shirt... belt, boots, etc. Grab a flashlight and head out. Tracy, Danielle and I have it down to a routine, which is the way I like it. I am a man of habit, and I like no deviations from what works. No changes. No innovations. Same movements every day. I fill the bucket with grain and put it down for Holga. While I go through the fence, Danielle clips her lead to her halter. I grab the leg tie and secure her leg to the back post. I grab my sitting bucket and Tracy hands me the udder wash rag. I wash down the udder and hand it back and she hands me the milk bucket. Holga is a bit restless and is moving around a little, but I start on the milking. When my hands begin to cramp (which is pretty soon, I am a writer not a ham-fisted fence pounder) Tracy comes into the corral and takes over. She is really good at it. I always wondered why the women did all the milking. I keep Holga from moving around too much with steady pressure on her haunches. Holga is not really into it today. She is moving around, coughing, pulling on the lead. We get about half as much milk as usual, and it is obvious she has had enough. We give her some range cubes and that calms her for about 2 minutes, then she is back to pulling away. I decide to cut her loose and we let her go. Her calf (Chico) is not waiting for her at the gate like usual. Wonder where he is? We head back to the cabin to filter and process the milk. The dishes weren't put up from last night - which perturbs me not a little. The ice cooler was left open too. All of this on top of a reticent milk cow. Coffee is ready ahead of schedule though, which is nice. Danielle is making breakfast and I sit on the porch with my flashlight and my coffee to read in the John le Carré book that Kelly let me borrow. My computer is out of commission so I can't get online, so reading is a great fallback. When the first rays of daylight begin to show through the clouds I walk up to the front to see if Chico has been found. I find Holga, Pita, and Chico all along the north fence. Chico is suckling - probably enjoying the surplus that we didn't take from Holga.

Back to the book for a few minutes, then I go and rotate the solar trailer to prepare it for the morning sun. We make our solar trailer into a solar tracker by moving it every hour or so as the sun tracks across the sky. It is light enough now, so I walk down and check on the piglets. Luella is a little perturbed that we grabbed one of her piglets the other day to mark its ear. She remembers. She comes to the fence snorting at me, but calms down and lets me scratch her back. The piglets run around play-fighting one another. That seems to be all they do... fight, eat, run, play, fight, eat, sleep...

Another cup of coffee and breakfast is served. "Breakfast chili" which today is a delicious mixture of eggs, hamburger, sausage, cheese, beans, and maybe more. We add sour cream and eat it with tortilla chips. Always a treat.

Everyone is off to their chores now. Breakfast dishes, cleaning the porches. I'm back to my book for a short while.

Picking up acorns. Picking up acorns is now going to be a regular September/October chore. Hopefully followed by picking up mesquite beans in October/November. My studies into acorns have convinced me the labor is well worth it, and I have procured three thirty-two gallon trash cans for storing the harvest. The children hate picking up acorns, but they will do it anyway. If I had told them that IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM ARE THEY PERMITTED TO TOUCH, PICK-UP, or OTHERWISE STORE, ANY ACORNS - we would be spanking them all day for surreptitiously picking up acorns. But since they are commanded to pick up acorns, they hate it. Like pigs playing, they naturally must chafe against authority, order, necessity, or mandate.

8 a.m. - I call Elder David and inform him that Kelly Sustaire told me at 10 p.m. last night that we need to go pick up a donated yearling steer this morning. A friend is donating the steer for hamburger, hopefully for a Ranchfest hamburger cook-out. We are supposed to pick up the steer and keep him until Tuesday, when he has an appointment at the butcher's. David is duly informed, and I try to get hold of Kelly so he can arrange the pickup with the donor.

10:20 David calls - Our donor friend (Frank) is willing for us to pick up the steer this morning, so David says he will be by within the hour to pick me up. We head to Brownwood with the cattle trailer, hoping to be back at a decent time to get some more work done today. I had told Brother Logan that I would help him move some book boxes today, but I'm not sure I will be able to get over there.

Well, I hadn't been to Brownwood since around May 7 that I can remember. Which is fine by me. Brownwood is the closest "large" town, and I don't like to go there unless I have to. Today, I have to. We run a few errands in town, then stop at Cafe Millonario (a local Mexican Food joint) for lunch. The food is good and cheap - and the bonus is that they now have a buffet. I have two tacos, beef enchiladas, one chicken enchilada, and two tortillas. $5.99. We finish lunch and call Frank who is with Brother Kelly (who is working with him today), and they are going to meet us at the ranch that has some of his cattle. Frank has a lot of cattle, spread out over 3 or 4 ranches - so you have to travel a bit to see all of his animals. The place with the yearling steer we are going to pick up has about 30 cattle (that I saw). There is one big 15 year old steer who has horns that are at least 7 feet across. WOW. I cannot impress upon you how big that is. 7 feet across! This is an impressive animal. Mabye 1500-1800 lbs. Anyway, we run about 10 of the cows into a pen, then separate out about 5 of them. Then we separate out our target steer and easily get him loaded into the trailer. This is a sweet and easy job when the pens and corrals are set up properly. So now we stand around and talk to Frank. Frank is one of the foremost experts on pure Longhorn cattle in the whole world, and he LOVES to talk about Longhorns. So we talk Longhorns for 30 minutes or so, then we hop in the truck to leave. Well Frank, who LOVES to talk Longhorns (did I tell you that?), comes by and says, "Hey guys, I don't know if you guys have 5 minutes, but if you do, I just received 4 mounted Longhorn heads from Fayette Yates widow (Yates is THE name in Longhorn cattle, just do a search on him), and you would probably really enjoy seeing them. And if you have another 5 minutes, we can run by another ranch and see some more of my cattle, where, by the way, there is a bull which is one that we could end up putting out at your place in the next year or so." So, twenty-five minutes later we are on another ranch, looking at another 40 or so beautiful Longhorn cattle and discussing the finer points of Longhorn breeding and history. Now, don't get me wrong, there is no man who you would want to talk Longhorns with more than Frank, and, since I am underemployed I have no problem spending all day talking Longhorns with Frank, but it is now well over 90 degrees with no wind and we are all starting to feel the heat... even the steer in the trailer. Another 30 minutes and we are off to Frank's house (for just 5 minutes!) to see the Longhorn heads he has on his wall. We see the beautiful mounts, and some other very interesting horns and after another 30 minutes of cattle talk, we are on our way home. I am personally soaked through with sweat and the steer in the trailer is doing no better. At least I have some water. It takes us about 45 minutes to get home and just as we pull in to the front of the property, it starts to rain. Well, we need the rain, so I'm not complaining, but the temporary UPS guy has left a box of cigars right by the mail box and didn't even wrap the box in plastic. The cigars are late anyway and now I am a little upset that the UPS guy didn't even think to wrap the box, or just bring it down to the cabin like our regular UPS guy does. Ok, it is raining pretty good by now, so when we get to the corral Tracy meets me with my raincoat and my hat - which is nice. Sometimes she is very thoughtful that way. Well... usually she is, which is very nice for a father. David and I get the steer into the corral, and we retire to the front porch to inspect my cigars (which were in fine shape, by the way) and have a nice beer. We hang out until the rain stops, then David heads up to his land - having blown most of the day hanging out with me, for which he receives no remuneration - just my thanks.

I run down and check the pigs and make sure the new steer has plenty of water, and then I sit down to regale the family with tales of Longhorns with 7 feet of horns (which I suppose is better than some beast with 7 horns of feet).

Ok, so the best story we heard from Frank today: He shows us these two sets of mounted horns which were really kind of old, mangled, and gnarly looking. They looked like an off-white version of those snake fireworks you would light on the 4th of July, that curl around and just look nasty. They look like they might have come off of some African mythical beast, or off of a ROUS, or maybe a huge demented jackalope. Well, the story is that these two sets of horns came off of a set of cows owned by Fayette Yates way back in the day. One of the cows was 28 years old, and the other was 23. You should know that most commercial/industrial cattle only live about 10 years tops, and they only produce for about half of that time, so these are the cow equivalent of Sarah in the Bible (maybe 90 in human years). Well, these two old cows had calves on them at the ripe old age of their mid to late 20's. Well, when Fayette goes to wean their calves (the story goes) the very day that he takes the calves off of them, they turn around and walk off and go under some huge beautiful oak tree and die. They had done their duty, raised scores of calves, had grown old - and went and died together. Great story. The horns were really old and gnarly though. Frank says that when a cow gets that old, that their horns really get ugly. Interesting. I would like to have those horns, just so I could tell that story a dozen times or more a year.

Ok, so the family sits on the porch until suppertime. At about 7 p.m. we sit down to supper of Brisket, green beans, okra, and cornbread. Very delicious. The sun starts setting as the wife and children begin to clear the table and do the dishes, and I retire to the now darkened screened porch to finish this tale. I light a cigar, have a scotch, and listen to the cicadas and crickets as darkness sweeps over the land. Right now, as I finish this line, a cool breeze has begun to blow... the perfect period at the end of a great day here on the ranch.

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

History of the Breed

2007-05-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 27, 2007

History of the breed
East Or/Wash News

Terence L. Day
Freelance Writer

Friday, April 27, 2007

Texas Longhorns are America's oldest breed of cattle. Although their numbers were once numbered in the millions, they nearly became extinct before rebounding through a rescue effort and now have a secure place in the U.S. cattle industry.

Their history is somewhat obscure, with some authorities saying the stock from which they developed came from the Canary Islands to Bermuda on Christopher Columbus' second voyage in 1493.

Other authorities, including those at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge northwest of Lawton, Okla., trace the foundation stock to calves that Gregorio de Villalobos, viceroy to "New Spain," imported from Santo Domingo.

Early explorers such as Coronado brought Longhorn cattle from Mexico into what is now Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

In 1540, Coronado brought 500 head of Longhorns into what is now the United States. Historians believe the majority of these cattle escaped to run wild and breed through natural selection.

Twelve years later the estimated cattle population of "New Spain" reached into hundreds of thousands, according to Alan B. Hoyt, author of "History of Texas Longhorns," an 11-part series published in the "Texas Longhorn Journal" between 1882-1884.

Eventually, Texas Longhorns numbered in the millions. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service article estimates 10 million longhorns were drained off the Texas ranges and driven up the north trails from 1866 to 1890.

Stewart H. Fowler, a Milton, Fla., beef cattle consultant, said, "The Texas Longhorn was fashioned entirely by nature right here in North America. ... It became the sound end product of 'survival of the fittest.'

"The Texas Longhorn is the only cattle breed in America which - without aid from man - is truly adapted to America," Fowler reports on his Web page.

"An almost forgotten reservoir of unique genetic material, the Longhorn is literally an old source of new genes! In fact, the Texas Longhorn may prove to be a real 'genetic gold-mine' in the future of our beef industry."

While remarkably adapted to the vicissitudes of nature, the Longhorn needed the help of man to survive the changes they encountered as America's great prairies were fenced and plowed and ranchers began intensive crossbreeding to imported cattle with quick-maturing characteristics.

The Texas Longhorn was seriously threatened by 1900. Rescue from extinction began in 1927 as a few Southwestern cattlemen and the U.S. government joined forces to rescue them. In that year, after inspecting more than 30,000 head of Texas cattle with longhorn type characteristics, Forest Service employees assembled a herd of 20 cows, three bulls, three steers and four calves and shipped it to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

The Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America estimates that by 1964, when it was formed, there were fewer than 1,500 head of genuine Texas Longhorn cattle in existence.

Today, it appears the future of the Texas Longhorn is secure.

- Terence L. Day

Ranchers Hope to Preserve Pure Texas Longhorns

2007-04-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

***I find it interesting that the General Manager of the TLBAA, a supposed Longhorn registry, believes that no one can know what a Longhorn is, therefore, I suppose, anything goes. This article admits that the TLBAA knows that there are mixed cattle in supposed Longhorn shows, and thinks that that is acceptable! This is the attitude that proves the need for the CTLR and why we need more folks who want to preserve Pure Texas Longhorns... The Editor***

Ranchers Hope to Preserve Pure Longhorns

By BETSY BLANEY
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; 4:16 AM

(from the Washington Post)

LUBBOCK, Texas -- Rancher Debbie Davis has no beef with cattlemen who want the Texas longhorns they raise to be, well, beefier.

Her passion, though, lies with preserving the pure longhorn breed that roamed Texas and other parts of the West during the mid-1800s.

"A true Texas longhorn is endangered right now," said Davis, president of the Cattlemen's Texas Longhorn Registry, which is striving to keep the bloodline of the longhorn as pure as possible.

The longhorn isn't on any endangered lists, but the crossbred longhorns competing in livestock shows have far more heft and girth than the rangy, gaunt animal of the Wild West.

Davis and other ranchers believe crossbreeding with other cattle species is diminishing the pure longhorn's numbers.

Others are less concerned about purity of the breed.

"You're always going to have people giving you an opinion of what a longhorn looks like," said Larry Barker, general manager of the Fort Worth-based Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America. "If you asked six people, you'd get six different answers, and all six of them would be correct."

There's plenty beyond the name that ties the breed to Texas. It's the state's official large mammal and the mascot for the University of Texas. Bevo XIV, the current mascot, is a true longhorn and lives on a ranch northwest of Austin, its owner said.

Davis' registry is working on a DNA database that will define the genetic makeup of a traditional longhorn. Until then, animals are required to have a visual inspection as well as blood-typing to see if there is evidence of other breeds.

Davis and others have registered about 3,500 longhorns since 1990.

"What they're doing is real important, to retain as close as possible" the true longhorn, said Dr. Phil Sponenberg, a veterinarian and professor of pathology and genetics at Virginia Tech University.

Mixing traditional longhorns with cattle breeds such as Angus and Hereford for show purposes began about 20 years ago, Barker said. It's created bigger animals, some with longer horns, that are winning livestock show competitions across the state and the country.

Davis said she believes livestock shows are "responsible for the degradation" of the longhorn.

The decline of the pure longhorn began at the end of the 19th century when railroads replaced cattle drives. Because of their horns, fewer could fit inside a railcar. Also, breeds of English cattle, which matured more quickly, began arriving in the U.S. and were crossbred with longhorns.

Longhorns also had a natural resistance to tick fever, a cattle disease since eradicated in the U.S. but still monitored for incursion from Mexico. Ranchers outside Texas wanted nothing to do with longhorns because they carried ticks to their more vulnerable cattle.

In 1927, the federal government appropriated $3,000 to establish a protected herd. About 300 longhorns now live in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in southwest Oklahoma.

Texas also has a state herd, established in 1941. The 175-head herd lives in Fort Griffin State Park in Albany, northeast of Abilene.

John T. Baker, a central Texas rancher, is not opposed to those who breed for specific longhorn traits, such as longer horns or color.

"I've watched the breed change dynamically," said Baker, who has been in the longhorn business for more than three decades. "The good thing about longhorns is you can raise a certain flavor."

One of Mike Warner's animals is a red and white bull named Mongo, a beefier 1,700-plus pound longhorn that the Fort Worth attorney used to show but now calls his "pet."

In 2001, Mongo, then two years old, weighed 1,800 pounds and was crowned Senior Champion Bull at the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America World Show.

Warner's not interested in stepping into the longhorn purity debate. He believes, though, that those outside Texas remember the longhorn as those that "John Wayne hung around with" in Western movies.

"I love them all," he said.

___

On the Net:

Cattlemen's Texas Longhorn Registry: http://www.ctlr.org

Pure Texas Longhorns: http://purelonghorns.com

How many Texas Longhorns can I have per acre?

2006-11-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

Well, that depends on quite a few things. Like,

Where do you live?
What are the acres like?
Is there heavy grass, or is it mostly rock and cactus?
Is there water available?
Are you talking about any old Longhorn? Or pure Texas Longhorns?

Generally, if you are talking pure Texas Longhorns, then most of the people I have talked to say you can have at least 3 Texas Longhorns to every 2 commercial cows. Most of the people insist that you can have 2 to 1. But the numbers game is tricky. You can put Longhorns on acreage that might not even support commercial cattle, and they will likely survive and thrive. It is not just the fact that pure Texas Longhorns will eat well on stuff some commercial cows won't eat, but they are also generally smaller and hardier than commercial cows.

I don't know if this helped, but I hope it did.

Texas Longhorn Butter

2006-10-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

Today I made Longhorn Butter for the first time. We have made plenty of butter from the Jersey milk we trade eggs for from "the milk ladies", but in the few months we have been milking the Longhorns, we have never gotten enough cream to make butter. We have been weaning the calves, so we have begun to milk the two Longhorns twice a day. Now we are getting anywhere from a gallon to 1 1/2 gallon of milk a day, and the amount of cream we are getting has increased. Our milk production is enough for us and for our pig that we are raising for meat.

So today I skimmed all the cream from the last 3 days into one 1 quart canning jar. Then I began shaking the jar and continued shaking it for about 35 minutes. Some people like to add salt before they begin shaking, and this does work, but Danielle likes to add the salt after she "washes" the butter.

As you shake the jar, and when the butter begins to "make" you will see that the cream gets thicker and takes on a yellower tint. You will see small "globules" begin to form and they will stick to the sides of the jar if you stop shaking it. Then it seems like the whole contents turns into the thickness and texture of a granular milk shake. This means you are close to being finished with the first part of the process. Continue shaking until the butter forms and floats in the jar, separated from the "butter milk" which has returned to it's whiteness in color. Strain off the buttermilk and take just the butter and put it into a bowl. begin to "work" the butter by smashing it against the side, then scraping it back up and forming it. Do this repeatedly and work out all the moisture. You will see a milky white liquid rise through the butter and you can continuously pour this moisture off. When you are done with the run off, pour some cool water over the butter and begin to "work" it again, folding in the cool water and working it through the butter. Again the milky white liquid (whey) will rise up and you can pour it off. Continue to do this until the runoff is clear, and has all been removed. Some people will do this process several times. When you are finished, you can add salt if you didn't add it earlier and if you like salted butter. Work the salt in really well, and then put the butter into whatever you would use as a "form". We made a 1/4 pound stick form out of mesquite, and Danielle uses wax paper or reused butter stick paper to wrap the butter. Refrigerate or freeze based on when you will need the butter, but it is useable immediately.

MB

Texas Longhorns, Seven Bloodlines

2006-08-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

El Coyote Ranch Beef Cattle Texas Longhorns, Seven Bloodlines,

Information on Longhorn Bloodlines

Longhorn Cow Milk

2006-08-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

Milking a Texas Legend

Ami is a pure Texas Longhorn, registered with the CTLR. I think everyone was laughing a bit when I told them I would milk her. Everyone we have told either shakes their heads like I am crazy, or tells me to get a Jersey cow. But why not milk the cow you have? If Longhorn meat is so far superior to other commercial cows, what about the milk? Surely it must be good too, to produce such lively, long-lived, healthy and strong cattle. So we have been milking Ami for a couple weeks now, and I can tell you that it has been a pleasure and a learning experience. I feel more satisfied in this than I could possibly have imagined.

No one else must have imagined it. I did a Google search on the task:

Search Terms:

1. "Longhorn Cow Milk" - Zero Results
2. "Milking a Longhorn Cow" - Zero Results
3. "Milk a Longhorn Cow" - Zero Results

Well, maybe anybody looking into this in the future will find this post and read that it CAN be done.

Today we drank our first cold glass of Longhorn milk, and it was sweet, tasty and refreshing. I'm not a milk drinker, but I can tell you I enjoyed that glass of milk. Next week, Lord willing, I will make some soft cheese to spread on some crackers.

You know, the world really doesn't understand why we do what we do, and why we want to live a simple, homesteading, separatist life and provide for ourselves by God's Grace. They will not understand the pure pleasure in getting milk from a cow that no one thought you could milk. The world wants us to go to a grocery store to get pastuerized milk in cartons, and to be two or more steps removed from our food. But since we here believe that the Longhorn Cow is the most perfect small homesteading animal God has created, it only makes sense that we would milk her and enjoy the product of His goodness. Sure we may never get 2-3 gallons a day, but you know what? We don't need 2-3 gallons a day, and not many people do.

Michael Bunker

Living Legend of the American West

2006-08-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

Living Legend of the American West

The migration of Texas Longhorn cattle from south Texas to the northern plains and the Kansas railheads in the decade following the War Between the States was the largest movement of animals under the control of man in the history of the world. Some nine million head of Texas cattle were driven up the trails by men who, returning to Texas in 1865 after losing a war, found nothing in their new and vast state from which to make a living but millions of rangy, free-roaming and rancorous cattle hiding in the brush and the arroyos of the brasada country and the coastal plains of south Texas.

The frontier days of the early 1800s are legendary. Journalists, novelists, fine artists, photographers and adventurers of all kinds from the United States, Europe and Great Britain were drawn to Texas and the Territories west of the Mississippi to witness and profit from the opening of a new frontier ripe with opportunity and danger. Their stories have been famously recorded and their failures and successes have resonated throughout the world.

The exploration and settlement of North America west of the Missouri River, whether by Iberian colonists in the sixteenth century, Spanish missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or home-steaders in the nineteenth century, were made possible by the venerable, tenacious, magnificent Texas Longhorn.

First brought to the North American continent in 1521 by an emissary of Hernán Cortés, just six months prior to the subjugation of Mexico City and the establishment of New Spain for the crown of Emperor Charles V, the ancestors of today’s Texas Longhorns originated around the salt marshes of the Guadaiquivir River valley in the Andalusian mountains of southwestern Spain, where they had been isolated by an impenetrable ring of peaks and raised on open range since Medieval times. Transplanted to the New World, the estimated thirty heifers and three bull calves that landed on the banks of the Pánuco River near Tampico, on the eastern coast of Mexico, were to influence the history of North America no less profoundly than did the Industrial Revolution three centuries later.

The mottled hide and the sharp, twisted, spreading, and often lyre-shaped horns of the Texas Longhorn are emblematic of one of nature’s unique creations. For almost three hundred years, the descendants of Andalusian cattle brought to the Western hemisphere roamed freely and multiplied into millions by the laws of survival of the fittest. They gained a reputation for being fiercer than a bear, more cunning than a mountain lion, and as elusive as wild game.

The first cattle to set foot in North America and the only breed of cattle to evolve without human management, the Texas Longhorn can thrive in country where no other breed can live; subsist on weeds, cactus and brush; range days away from water; and stay fit and fertile whether it’s living in the scorching, parasite-infested tropics or in the arid, subzero winters of Montana.

The Longhorn cow will calve before the age of two and will have a calf every year of her life, often until the age of twenty and beyond, doubling the calf production of every other breed. She never has trouble delivering a healthy calf, seldom needs veterinary attention, and isn’t depleted by parasites. She will wean a strong, fat calf that is sixty percent of her own weight in seven months no matter how severe the conditions, then breed back in thirty days. Old Texas Longhorn ranchers boast that their cows have calves every nine months and fifteen minutes.

On the brink of extinction at the turn of the twentieth century through cross-breeding to the fat English bulls that came out with the railroads in the late 1860s, the Texas Longhorn was revived by the U.S. Congress in 1927 with the establishment of a national herd at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Cache, Oklahoma. This herd endures today as the leading source of seedstock. Where the Texas Longhorn once carried the dreams of westward expansion into a new century, today the breed’s future looms even brighter, its role redefined at the opening of yet another century as a source of naturally grown, high-quality, savory beef with the fat and cholesterol content of the leanest of seafood.

The Texas Longhorn: Living Legend of the American West" by Jeff Mannix, Santa Rita Press, Durango, Colorado, www.SantaRitaPress.com

About this site

2006-08-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

This site will eventually (Lord Willing) evolve into a multi-purpose site providing information, facts, research, and just about anything else concerning pure Texas Longhorn Cattle. Until then, this blog will serve for the site... let us know if we can help you in any way.

Pure Longhorns?

2006-08-02T21:33:00.000-07:00

True and pure Texas Longhorns are profoundly different from the commercial cows (actually European breeds) that are available today. So it is not just a few minor trait differences we are looking at, but actually the Longhorn is "a whole different animal".

The pure Longhorn is a smallish example of cattle. The female rarely tops 800 lbs. The Steer or Bull may get upwards of 1800 lbs. but it will take him 5-6 years to get that big.

The Longhorn thrives on stuff other cows will not even eat. They will eat weeds, thistles, scrub brush, etc. as well as grass when it is available. The result of these first two traits is that you can keep 3 Lonhorns in the same are where you could only keep one commercial cow. The commercial cow is designed (by humans) to live a fairly short life. Finding a 10 year old commercial European breed cow is very, very rare. The commercial cow will likely only produce up to 5 or 6 offspring in their short lives. The Longhorn, however, can live very long lives, and it is not unheard of to have a cow still producing a calf (every 10-11 months) well into their 20's and 30's. The Longhorn breeds back faster than any other cow. The old saying by ranchers is that the Lonhorn will calf every 9 months and 15 minutes.

The Longhorn survived and thrived in the deserts of Texas and Mexico without any aid from or crossbreeding by man. The commercial breeds are concoctions of man... the true Longhorn is a product of God. After hundreds of years living wild in Texas and Mexico, there were literally millions of pure Longhorn cattle free for the taking. This is what started the "cattle drives" of western fame. The Longhorn saved Texas after the disasterous war of northern/industrial agression.

So how is the meat?

Longhorn meat is higher in "good" fats, lower in "bad" fat, and higher in protein than any other beef. It is naturally one of the most tender examples of beef, even though it is the lowest in saturated fats. I was given a couple of pounds of Longhorn hamburger and it was some of the best hamburger meat I have ever eaten.

Longhorn steers can be made into oxen (and have for centuries). Longhorns can be ridden and milked.

Longhorns are the only breed where almost 100% of the cow is usable and profitable. Not only is their meat great, but the horns regularly sell for between $400-$1500 dollars. The hides sell for between $400-$700. Online you can by Longhorn pillows, couches and blankets (try to buy an Angus blanket!). The tails are often made into lamps and even putters! An industrious Longhorn owner can sell the hides and horns for more than a whole commercial breed cow will sell for at market. This doesn't count the meat at all!

The main points for the homesteader:

1. 3/1 ratio of Lonhorns to a commercial cow in the amount of cows per acre.
2. There is no known case (of which I have either read or heard) of a Longhorn cow having to have a calf "pulled". Ease of calving is a famous trait of Longhorns, and it is why many, many commercial breeders now have their cows bred to a Longhorn bull for their first calf.
3. Low feed costs and the ability to keep a cow on land that might not be good enough for a commercial cow.
4. Multiple uses of the Longhorn. Milking, riding, pulling, work, etc.
5. Easy sale of all the "parts".
6. Quality of the meat.

That's the short story. But I could say more, and will.

MB