- Sam
What are Pineywoods Cattle?
Most of us are familiar with the Texas Longhorn, but the longhorn wasn’t the only breed that developed from the release and escape of cattle into the ‘wild’ by the Spanish explorers when they came to the New World. In the thick brush of the southeastern US, the Southern Woods, or Pineywoods, cattle developed. Though they have a resemblance to longhorns, they are a unique breed adapted to a very different environment than the open plains where longhorns roamed.
Sam and Callian
Due to their nimbleness and strength, they played a significant role as oxen in the early timber industry but were eventually replaced by machinery in the late 1800’s. They were also an important source of meat but in the 1930’s, ranchers started crossing pineywoods cattle with the larger meat-type commercial breeds. Eventually, ‘purebred’ pineywoods cattle became rare. Today, pineywoods cattle are valued for their natural resistance to most of the diseases, insects, and parasites of the Southeast and for their ability to forage on brush in a manner similar to goats.
Sam and Wendy walking the zoo
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