Florida: An Ideal Cattle State

by Florida State Live Stock Association

In the matter of the cows, there has been no culling, added to which there has been in-breeding, and on both the sire and dam side following out the law that evil qualities intensify in posterity, the tendency has been down instead of up in the breeding of native cattle for forty years, to which the only relief has been a very limited introduction of the beef strains.

In addition to this, the cattle have been infested with ticks, and every evil influence that could arrest their development seems to have had a good chance at them, and yet in spite of all this I find them on the whole much better than I had expected.

I have been trying to make a comparison between them and the primitive cattle of Texas, which I have known for fifty years, as they were pastured next to my father's farm in great quantities when I was only seven years old and long before there was any process of improvement. I think the Texas cattle had greater scale, but from all I can learn I do not believe they had any greater vitality. I think, on the whole, though, that in evolving a race of cattle you have a little further to go than Texas had.

Mr. Alvin Sanders, Editor of the Breeders' Gazette, in his book, "The Story of the Herefords," traces very carefully the first introduction of blooded bulls to the Texas and Western ranges, and forty years, certainly forty-five, is as far back as that influence began. My own people began on primitive Texas cattle in 1882, but from that time used only full-blooded sires, about ninety per cent Hereford and about ten per cent Shorthorn, and only about three years after I went with them sixteen years ago, I took selected calves from their herd to Chicago and won grand sweepstakes for feeder cattle with them against all competition from all sections of the United States. When I went to the S. M. S. herd I found a wonderful lot of breeding cows, the bulk of them at least fifteen-sixteenths and only requiring a vigorous culling process to bring them to a remarkably high standard.

I was identified with Mr. Kirk Armour during the great progress in grading up Texas herds in the '90's, and it was noticeable in the stock yards that in a short space of about six years there was an absolute change in the general run of cattle from the ranges to the yards from primitive cattle to cattle showing very appreciable improvement, and in twelve years the longhorn had become a scarcity; he was practically extinct in 1900.

Argentina during the same period evolved from a primitive race of cattle one which will compare very favorably to that of America in its up-grading. The other South American Republics have been slower, but between Argentina and America two demonstrations have been given within my own lifetime of a race of cattle absolutely redeemed from the primitive to practically full-bloods, and that the first twelve years of that work has resulted in animals showing fifty per cent increase in weight under the same conditions, a much higher degree of meat in the rib and loin and round, with an immense improvement in their instinct for putting on weight on the same feed over the primitive cattle.

I am simply taking these generally demonstrated laws of breeding to apply to your conditions. I am sure that by using good sires you will find an immense improvement in three years; that in six years it will be a revelation, and that in twelve years you will have a race of cattle for which the world will make a path to your door.

To arrive at this process I must first disclaim any thought of urging any particular breed upon you. On the other hand, I could not be fair to the problem without calling your attention to the fact that the Hereford has been the redeemer of the great Western ranges. I am sure, however, that the greater the degree of purity that you use in him, up to at least a seven-eighths, will be shown in the result.

I find that there is some prejudice against the Hereford in Florida, but as far as I can follow it they apparently got a very low grade of bulls—I am inclined to think not over half-breeds, and then, too, they found they didn't get any more at that time for the better grades than they did for the others.

The limitation of the Hereford is that in the first cross between a pure-bred and any of the primitive cattle ninety per cent will show white faces or dominant characteristics, and just so in the use of bulls, the animal may not have the intensification of blood that he should have simply because he has a white face, and the bull peddler has, as a proposition, bought something that he could sell at a profit, rather than in following out any visions of cattle improvement.