Santa Gertrudis cattle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Santa Gertrudis cattle are a beef breed of cattle developed in southern Texas on the King Ranch. They were named for the Spanish land grant where Captain Richard King originally established the King Ranch. This breed was officially recognized in 1940, becoming the first beef breed formed in the United States, as well as the first breed developed anywhere in the world in over a century. The origin given by King Ranch is that it was formed by mating Brahman bulls with Beef Shorthorn cows, with the final composition being about 3/8 Brahman and 5/8 Shorthorn. Actually, the records of the early crosses are very poor or non-existent, and the crosses were done on the range, so the actual sires are not known. Additionally, King Ranch did not have any pure Brahman bulls, but bought Brahman cross bulls from another ranch. [1] [2]

In 1920 afer many years of trying to come up with the "right" cross, a deep red bull calf named Monkey was born. This bull became the foundation sire for the breed. With the birth of Monkey and a decision to linebreed came a very uniform and very hearty breed of beef cattle. Santa Gertrudis cattle are known the world over for their ability to adapt to harsh climates. They are in fact the most prevalent breed in Australia now. In addition to being a hearty breed, other characteristics include good milking ability, excellent mothering ability, ease of calving, high heat tolerance and parasite resistance, and an ability to turn off a steer at just about any age. The steers also show good weights for their age as well as good weight gains whether on pasture or in a feedlot.

[edit] External links

• [3]