Texas longhorn (cattle)
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Photo of a Texas longhorn. |
The
Texas longhorn is a breed of
cattle known for its characteristic horns, which can extend to six feet in width and have a slight upward turn at their tips, as well as for their distinctive
burnt orange coloring.
The Longhorns is also the nickname of the sports teams of
The University of Texas at Austin and the school mascot is a longhorn named
Bevo. The
Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America serves as the recognized
registry for the breed, which can often fetch up to $60,000 at auction.
[Herskovitz, John. Texas Returns to Passion of the Longhorn Reuters via Environmental News Network. November 26, 2004.]Though some historians disagree, the Texas longhorn is generally thought to have been created as a cross between the
Spanish retinto (criollo) stock left in the United States by
Spanish explorers and English cattle brought to Texas from southern and midwestern states in the
1820s and
1830s.
The breed began to gain popularity in the late
1870s, when
buffalo herds were slaughtered and ranging tribes of
Plains Indians largely confined. As a result, ranches began to spread northward to the open range of the
Great Plains. Texas longhorns, whose long legs and hard hoofs made them ideal trail cattle, were the preferred breed to stock these new northern ranches, initiating the cattle drives of
cowboy legend. Cattle drives in this era (before railroads began to take over much of the transport of cattle) moved an estimated 9 million Texas longhorn cattle up the
Chisholm Trail and others to shipping points created by Joseph G. McCoy after the
American Civil War.
In the late 1800s, the advent of
barbed wire brought the open-range cattle boom to an end and allowed for more selective breeding of cattle. The leaner longhorn beef was not as attractive in an era where
tallow was highly prized, and the longhorn's ability to survive on often poor vegetation of the open range was no longer as much of an issue. Other breeds demonstrated traits more highly valued by the modern rancher, such as the ability to put on weight quickly. The Texas longhorn stock slowly dwindled, until in
1927 the breed was saved from sure extinction by enthusiasts from the
United States Forest Service, who collected a small herd of stock to breed on a refuge in
Oklahoma. A few years later,
J. Frank Dobie and others gathered small herds to keep in Texas state parks. They were cared for largely as curiosities, but the stock's longevity, resistance to disease and ability to thrive on marginal pastures quickly revived the breed as beef stock. Today, the breed is still used as a beef stock, though many Texas ranchers keep herds purely because of their link to Texas history.
*Will C. Barnes, "Wichita Forest Will Be Lair of Longhorns," The Cattleman, April 1926.
*Dan Kilgore, "Texas Cattle Origins," The Cattleman, January 1983.
*James Westfall Thompson, History of Livestock Raising in the United States, 1607-1860 (Washington: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1942).
*Don Worcester, The Texas Longhorn: Relic of the Past, Asset for the Future (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1987).
*
Bevo (mascot)*
Texas Longhorn Athletics*
Texas Longhorns in State Parks*
Texas Longhorns Breeders Association of America organization that promotes and preserves the Texas Longhorn cattle history
