Texas Longhorn

The Texas Longhorn survived largely on its own. It is the oldest North American cattle breed and the only one that evolved with very little human involvement. After the war the great herds drove north and made both the breed and the cowboy famous.

The rescue came from the federal government. In 1927 the US Forest Service gathered a herd at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma to save the breed from extinction. The Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America was founded in 1964 by Charles Schreiner III, and in 1995 the Longhorn became the official state large mammal of Texas.

The horns are the headline: spreads of more than 8 feet tip to tip occur, and the measured records run to 127.4 inches on a steer. About 40 percent of the cattle are some shade of red, often a light red, but the breed comes in black, blue, brown, cream, dun, gray, yellow and white, with or without brindling or speckling.

Intelligent and easy to work with is the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America's description, and it says the cattle train readily to show, to lead or drive in a parade, to pull a wagon, even to ride. It also says no two are alike, in personality as much as in color and horn, and that they are quick and agile. Oklahoma State University describes the historic range cattle as hardy, aggressive and adaptable.

The horns set the terms. The association's breed guidelines count horns under 48 inches at maturity as highly objectionable in both sexes, and The Livestock Conservancy, writing about the conservation line, says the cattle would do better with new keepers who have long-horned breed experience.

Cornell's general guidance on beef cattle safety holds here too: a cow with a newborn calf can be very aggressive, so avoid walking between her and the calf, and no bull can be trusted.

Lean beef, by the association's account, and a longer list besides. The association calls the Longhorn the bull of choice for first-calf heifers, and says the calves come small. There is a ready market for roping and cutting cattle, a youth and open show circuit, and a trade in horns, skulls and mounts as southwestern decor. Some are kept as riding animals for parades, and some simply to look at: the association's own phrase is pasture art.

Very little, which is the breed's case. The association says the cattle thrive from hot, damp coasts to hard northern winters, and Oklahoma State University credits them with using browse and coarse forage on marginal range more efficiently than most breeds, along with genes for fertility, easy calving, disease and parasite resistance and longevity.

Calving is usually unassisted: the association points to small calves and large pelvic openings, and the International Texas Longhorn Association cites a 99.7 percent unassisted birth rate from US Meat Animal Research Center trials. It is not unusual for a cow to calve into her twenties.

The modern paradox is a large population and a threatened gene pool. The Livestock Conservancy lists the Texas Longhorn as Critical, because much of the modern population has been selected for horn length and show type rather than the historic Spanish genetics. The conservation bloodline is what the Cattlemen's Texas Longhorn Registry tracks, under its own entry in this catalog.

Ask which book an animal is recorded in. This entry is the general population, registered mainly with the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America; a show-bred Longhorn and a conservation-bred one are different purchases at different prices, and the papers are how you tell.

The horns cost infrastructure. Chutes, trailers and feeder spacing all have to clear the widest animal you own, and they keep growing.

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