He says the animal's startling comeback is being driven by urbanites moving to the country. "It is amazing how many longhorns are just everywhere, so the breed is far from being extinct," says Bob Cropp, a longhorn authority who teaches beef-cattle management at Oklahoma State University. Nearly half of them are in Texas, where they've become a common sight in roadside pastures. Today, there are more than 330,000 longhorns, and they are in every state in the union. The Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America formed in 1964 to perpetuate the breed. The federal government intervened in the 1920s and 1930s and created two protected herds: one in Oklahoma and one in Nebraska. Like the bison before it, the true Texas longhorn was headed to extinction. Cattlemen seeking to improve the rangy, raw-boned longhorn began importing better-muscled European cattle in the 1880s. He stands in a pen with a brick-red cow, her enormous horns lowered as she eats snacks from his hand.įierce nobility, however, does not necessarily make for a good marbled rib-eye. He owns an advertising and PR firm in Dallas and is a weekend rancher. But longhorn raisers like Mike Crawford don't seem to care. Ranchers who raise beef cattle don't have a very high opinion of these people who raise animals solely for the length of their horns. I try to raise longhorns because that's where the money is." But at this competition, it's obvious that only one standard matters. Prize beef cattle are coveted mainly for their beefiness. "In fact, his son just passed 80 inches." He's "probably the premier bull in the world right now," Hunt says. Hunt is the owner of a bull called Hunt's Command Respect. One of the names heard over and over again at this year's contest is Doug Hunt he has raised longhorns for 25 years at his ranch in St. He was a big winner at the Horn Showcase in Fort Worth, Texas, last month. Doug Hunt breeds world-record longhorns at his ranch in St.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |