Sale of state's longhorn breed prompts legislation

By Cindy Horswell

Photo By DAVID KENNEDY_associated press file

 Longhorn cattle made Texas great long before the heady days of oil gushers. They are revered as a symbol of the state's wild west heritage and honored as the University of Texas mascot. 

So when word spread that Texas Parks and Wildlife had sold nearly a third of the 372 head of this esteemed breed being preserved on state parkland, there was naturally outrage. So much so that state Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson, a veterinarian by trade, has introduced a bill in the Legislature to end what he sees as the destruction of the state's heritage.

The Waco Republican and others recalled how this breed - brought to the New World on Christopher Columbus' second voyage and working its way to the Lone Star State by the 1700s - had been saved after being headed to extinction faster than the buffalo by the 1930s.

That's when Texas historian J. Frank Dobie helped round up what remained of the breed with iconic horns that stretch an average 10 to 12 feet from tip to tip. He preserved them by helping form what has become the official state longhorn herd, said Kurt Kemp, who helps manage it.

This official herd today stands at about 200 head and is kept at San Angelo State Park and Fort Griffin State Park and Historic Site. Another herd of 149 longhorns also is being preserved at the 311,000-acre Big Bend Ranch State Park. An additional 23 were used as exhibits and spread between three other parks.

107 were sold

But seven months ago, park officials decided to eliminate the large breeding herd at Big Bend and reduce it to just an exhibit of 10 head enclosed in a fenced 3,000-acre pasture. So far they have gathered 107 head that were scattered over the rugged mountainous terrain there and sold them for $32,000, leaving about 42 head still there.

 "We want to protect all those that are left," Anderson said. "This is an important bloodline dating back many years. Texas A&M and University of Texas researchers have tested them, and the tests shows they are from the authentic longhorn bloodline."

He said this wildlife is a "unique asset" needing protection as much as the flora and fauna. (Continued...read the rest of Cindy Horswell's article HERE )

MILWAUKEE - The federal government has launched a new livestock identification program to help agriculture officials to quickly track livestock in cases of disease.

It is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's second attempt at implementing such a system, which officials say is critical to maintaining the security of the nation's food supply. An earlier, voluntary program failed because of widespread opposition among farmers and ranchers who described it as a costly hassle that didn't help control disease.

There has been talk for years among consumer advocates about establishing a program that would trace food from farm to plate. The livestock identification system doesn't go that far and isn't meant to. Its main goal is to track animals' movements so agriculture and health officials can quickly establish quarantines and take other steps to prevent the spread of disease.

"This ensures that healthy animals can continue to move freely to processing facilities, providing a dependable and affordable source for consumers as well as protecting producer's livelihoods," Abby Yigzaw, spokeswoman for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said in an email.

Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, said livestock identification also helps investigators determine the source of disease - and whether it happened naturally or someone tampered with the food system.

"Identify the farm from which it originated, which can help you identify the source," Doyle said, adding, "Did it come in from the feed? Was it intentional?"

The federal government has been trying for nearly a decade to establish an animal identification system. It introduced a voluntary program in 2006 but scrapped it several years later amid widespread complaints from farmers about the expense and red tape. Some also worried about possible privacy violations with the collection of information about their properties. The program ultimately failed because relatively few participated.

The new program is mandatory but more limited in scope. It applies only to animals being shipped across state lines, and it gives states flexibility in deciding how animals will be identified - an important concession to cattle ranchers in western states, where brands are still commonly used.