My brother and I don’t even talk these days but I am in disbelief about this steer of his. It looks like a fake shot, but he’s real.
I keep wondering what he does if the steer doesn’t “feel” like being loaded in the trailer.
Wow, that is one huge cow! It has always amazed me that animals can get so large simply by eating a lot of grass.
P.S. I will pray for your relationship with your brother.
Well, it’s a steer, a “fixed” boy. But yeah, he’s humongous. And for those who are worried about PETA stuff, these animals have it pretty easy and may never see the slaughterhouse. Millionaires buy 'em for their estates, and others are used as roping stock. They are well-cared for.
Throw food into the trailer and wait…
I love the fact that he seems to be absolutely calm and kid-friendly. Very cool bovine indeed!
Now this is some major bull.
Yeah, they raise 'em like pets. Even the big bull is very calm. You do have to watch the horns tho. My brother got several teeth knocked out by that steer one day. Fortunately, the kids are usually way below the danger zone. The pictures where the steer is on the ground with kids are family shots.
I can well see the potential for damage from those horns with the slightest innocent movement of the head. The leverage on a 7 foot spread must generate some pretty tremendous force on the tips of those things!
djm
Yikes-a-hootie. That animal appears, at once, lethal and serene.
When it dies I wanna mount them horns on the front of a mid-seventies Caddy convertable… 
Please, Tyler, watch your language. A mid-seventies Caddy convertible is vulgar in the extreme. 
so ya think Texas has changed since I was there? 
A bit of misdirection on my part. Sorry. 
That’s what I have always felt about Longhorns. The other breeds’ bulls are physically massive, but without the crooked spears…
The idea of getting in a chute or corral with 'em gives me the creeps.
So, now, take yourself back in time to old California (before the Gold Rush), when some of my ancestors had these big ranchos with thousands of 'em on the loose. It was too much trouble to castrate them all (at least according to one source I have read) unless they were specifically choosing some for draft oxen, so these wild and half-wild cattle were running around all over un-fenced territory.
Now you know why old Californians were expert horseman. According to incoming Anglo-Americans, the rancheros eschewed walking and used their horses for every kind of journey. Having frisky young longhorn bulls fighting nearby whenever you left your adobe would make one long for a fast steed.
That’s an impressive Longhorn for sure. He’s a lucky steer, most don’t get to be five years old. There are a few folks around here who brought some in from Texas years ago. They are starting to be fairly common in this area now. But none are the quality of that guy.
That picture of the bull that was posted later is nothing but a freak- ribbon on his halter or not. A perfect example of extremes created by humans. I doubt he’d be able to do much with a field full of cows- not with that rear. He’d be useless as a natural breeder. He’s pitiful.
Ted Hughes has a wonderful poem about the only horned-cow in the herd, which “Knew to the inch the exact position of her horn-tips / Every other cow knowing it, too” (very approximate quote - I think this is a poem called “dehorning” from a book called Moortown Diary, but the internet isn’t supplying me with a text.
Hey now!!! That bull is as close to the butcher’s meat-cut chart as you are gonna get. You can see every primal cut!! Whether he’s frisky or not, I dunno. But if you’re a beef producer you want to get some of that into your herd. But yes, these days, just like my bro’s longhorns, it’s mostly AI. FWIW, my Dad is one of the smaller group of beef producers in California who actually let the bulls in with the cows, rather than the coldy impersonal AI. He doesn’t do the purebreds though and most of his stock has to be able to climb mountains on the lands we lease. Bumpkin cattle doin’ it the natural way! And, at least some of 'em don’t go to the feedlot as he is a charter member of the Calif. grass-fed cooperative producers.
Weeks, were your ancestors there before Fremont? I don’t know much about the pre-Fremont days of California.
Mighty impressive animal that Longhorn, mighty impressive. Thanks for sharing those photos.
Loren
Yeah, in 1776. Fremont came in the mid-1840s. Our view of Fremont is considerably different than many others. He was a horse thief and a murderer [killing].
He should have been strung up, but was only court-martialed for his activities. He was sometimes called “El Filibustero.”
My ancestors came on this trip
[atlas]
Most of my ancestors were soldiers with a few civilians. I had seven on that journey, because of later marriages. But some were already related from Mexico. Later, many applied for, and received land grants.
This site, btw, is great for information [Anza site]
The National Park Service would very much like all Americans to know about this colonizing journey and put it on the par with the Oregon and Santa Fe trails, though less people actually used it. But it was the major expedition that colonized the SF Bay Area.
If you’re interested, check out this “Who’s Who.” part of the site.
My ancestors are those named Moraga, Peralta, Pacheco, de Soto, Castro, Bernal, Valenzuela, Berryessa. I’m related to some of the others from previous ties in Mexico. [whos who]