Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cattle books

I'm about caught up on my reading. Thinking my next line up will be about some of the old school breeders.
Anybody recommend some good books on.
Tom Lasater and the Beefmaster
Kings Ranch Santa Gertrudis
Wye Angus
Neil Trask Herefords

I'm sure there are several to choose from on the first 2 mentioned.
Always heard of Neil Trask, would like to read a bit more.

Thanks gents.

I'll bump it for the morning crowd. Then i'll hit the google machine a little harder.

Trail Drivers of Texas by Marvin J.Hunter . First person accounts of the hell those men went through. Weather on the ranch or on the trail up.

I’ll recommend three books by J Frank Dobie:

Up the Trail From Texas.
The Longhorns.
A Vaquero of the Brush Country.

Thank you gents.

I may be wrong but Mr Lasater recently passed away...

If you are interested in cattle breeds, the Canadian Speckle Park have my attention. Can't recommend a book on them, but there is quite a bit on the net.

Horse Tradin by Ben Green, and the sequels are good reading, as is We Pointed Them North by Teddy Blue Abbot.

I'm confused. Is this thread about breeds or cattle drives?

I have a cattle question. Why do they leave the horns on longhorns?

Also, before butcher do they corn feed cattle that have been on range land grazing

I still have my Morison's feeds, and Feeding.

Most cattle are grain fed from weaning (5-700 lbs) to kill weight. An animal finished this way will be under 2 years old at slaughter. Grass finished beef takes longer. In tbe old days, prior to feedlots and refrigeration, steers were fattened on grass and slaughtered at 4-5 years old. Grass fattened beef is a niche market today.

Niche market yes, 4-5 years no. There are people today that are grass finishing beef with the right genetics in the 24-30 month range. I just went through a school about selecting the genetics. Shorter frames, fast maturing, cows in the 1000-1100 range will produce steers in the 1250-1300 kill weights.



Intended to find a source to read about the classic line breeders of the day and the way they developed their breeds, not so much a certain breed.
Trask, Fowler, and Lentz were herefords, Pinebank and Wye (Jim Lingle) were Black angus. Tom lasater were the creator of the beefmaster. King ranch developed the Santa Gertrudis. Teddy Gentry and the South Poll. Jan Bonsma and his African Bonsmara cattle.

The history of the longhorn would probably be a good read, even though I have no ambition to own 1. Just the cattle and they way/reasons they were bred to perform for a job.

Its winter time. Less daylight, more learning. I have to be prepared when ole Wabi starts the spanish inquisition.

Deer need killin, ain’t nobody got time to smoke a pipe and read. 😃

Everything you ever wanted to know about Bovine hoof care. Seriously.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo4S-ThBT3KDDHAMvKw2SQg

I havent even got a gun out yet, been using a pistol the last few years. Had several people drop guns off to get ready for season.

Might not even worry about it. Still have 2 hogs, 1 steer, a bunch of chickens, and 25 quail left to butcher this fall. Thinking about spending my hunting time on ducks. More fun, less work.

Speaking of drives - surprisingly, one of the deadliest stampedes happened with a herd of longhorns in Idaho in 1889. It killed 1 cowboy and about 340 steers. I don't know how large the herd was. There were worse ones in TX but there the herds tended to be considerably larger.