Randall Lineback

Almost all of New England's lineback cattle were bred away into Holsteins over the last century. The breed carries the Randall name because one Vermont family kept a closed herd for more than eighty years without crossbreeding. When Everett Randall died the herd was dispersed and most of the animals went to slaughter. A small group was saved, and every Randall Lineback alive descends from it.

The dates are worth having. The Randall herd ran closed from 1912 in Bennington County, Vermont. The dispersal came in 1985, when six bulls and nine cows were bought for conservation and moved to Tennessee, with Livestock Conservancy members driving the rescue. A breed association followed in 2005.

The coat is the giveaway: blue-black with a white stripe down the spine, roan sides running anywhere from near black to near white, and black nose, eye rings, ears, feet and teats. Blue, gray and recessive red turn up too.

They are medium-sized and horned, and still quite variable in size and conformation. The Livestock Conservancy puts cows at 600 to 1,000 lb and bulls at 1,000 to 1,800; other accounts run cows to 1,100. Most cows are built like dairy cows, with well-developed udders, and the bulls grow well enough to have a reputation as ox stock.

Docile, but with an assertive side: that is the Conservancy's own description, and it rates the breed for advanced owners. Cows are fiercely protective of their calves.

The fix is contact. Randalls handled frequently settle; Randalls left alone do not. Plan to work with them, not around them.

All three jobs, historically: milk, beef and draft. Few people milk them today, the Conservancy notes, but the dairy conformation is still there, and the bulls make good oxen.

A cool climate and a low-input system. The Randall Cattle Registry says the breed is adapted to cool climates and forage-based farming, and the breed association records that the hot, humid Tennessee climate was less than ideal for the herd kept there. The Livestock Conservancy's breed chart rates the climate fit as cold.

In that setting the registry reports few health or breeding problems, long life and lower feed costs; calving difficulty is rare, and some breeders who milk feed no concentrates at all. What a Randall needs from you, beyond forage, is regular handling, and patience in finding stock: the registry says breeding animals are hard to come by while breeders build their herds.

The breed is ranked Critical on the Conservation Priority List and is closely managed to increase numbers and maintain genetic health. The total population passed 500 head in 2015, and the breed is more secure now than in decades past, which is a sentence that still describes a very small herd.

The gene pool is narrow, so pedigree matters more here than in most breeds. Two organizations keep track of the cattle, the Randall Cattle Registry and the Randall Lineback Breed Association; ask which one an animal is recorded with and get the paperwork before you bid.

Be honest about your experience. The Conservancy's advanced rating is not a formality: this is a protective, assertive breed that needs regular handling, and a first cow is better bought from a calmer book.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.