The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy Promotes Regionally Adapted Breeds

By Don Schrider, Communications Director, ALBC

The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) is a national, non-profit, membership organization dedicated to the conservation and promotion of over 100 endangered breeds of cattle, goats, horses, asses, sheep, pigs, and poultry.

The story of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy has many beginnings. Some would say that the story began on March 16, 1977, when a handful of concerned citizens gathered at a conference table in the Vermont Department of Agriculture’s Montpelier location to sign incorporation papers for the American Minor Breeds Conservancy (the original name for the ALBC).

Others would say that the story began a few years before, when Darwin Kelsey, then head of agricultural history research at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, encouraged a new intern, Kristina Bielenberg, and staff member Ridgway Shinn to conduct a survey of Milking Devon cattle in New England.

Still others would argue that ALBC had its genesis in the ecology movement of the 1960s and 1970s. But it is certain that the organization would not have come into being but for the individual efforts of livestock farmers who had the foresight (or conservatism) to buck the trends of modern agriculture by keeping a few “old time” cattle or chickens.

Understood was the immediacy and gravity of the genetic erosion occurring in livestock at that time, both in North America and internationally, and ALBC set for itself an ambitious agenda to do something about it. From the beginning, the directors viewed ALBC as an umbrella organization, which could educate the public, conduct research on breed status, and provide technical advice to animal breeders and farmers.

They were so committed to reaching out that within two months of incorporation, on May 13, 1977, ALBC sponsored the Vermont Grasslands and Livestock Conference, bringing together beef, dairy, and sheep farmers with agronomists, livestock nutritionists, and ecologists. This does not sound like a novel idea today, but 27 years ago it was a radical initiative. No one from New England’s land grant institutions or the Extension Service had ever realized that the primary agricultural crop of the Northeast was grass, and that livestock breeds well adapted to foraging were necessary to efficiently use that grass.

Today ALBC continues to conduct research on breed status and to educate the public, and still provides technical advice to animal breeders and farmers. However, the genetic erosion of America’s livestock continues, as farmers are convinced of the need to match their stock with emerging trends in livestock production.

This may seem like ‘good sense’ farming, except when one looks back over agriculture in America for the past 50 years. Then the instability of each new trend is quite apparent. Fewer and fewer farmers maintain their own bulls for breeding, almost none maintain their own seeds for crops, and none maintain their own poultry breeds. Instead they have been encouraged to spend ever-increasing amounts of money to obtain ‘improved’ genetics that are supposed to boost their profitability.

What they are not told is that these improved genetics are not always well suited to the regional conditions under which they farm. For instance, the current trend in beef cattle is to supply a black steer, which can then be sold for a higher price as ‘Angus Beef.’ But Angus do not do well on the fescue grasses of Oklahoma, and they spend large amounts of time standing in watering holes trying to avoid flies. The Angus is a tough breed, but it was meant for a much different climate.

Regionally adapted breeds need less input of time and money to generate a profit while thriving under conditions for which they were meant. Breeds still exist that have high rates of fecundity and fertility, early maturity, ease of calving, fly tolerance, high levels of parasite resistance, high levels of disease resistance, longevity, and the ability to thrive on native forages. Pineywoods and Florida Cracker cattle are two excellent examples of breeds suited to the Southwestern U.S., including Oklahoma.

Pineywoods and Florida Cracker are criollo breeds of cattle. They have descended from stock brought to America over 500 years ago by the Spanish and turned loose to survive. Natural selection has shaped these breeds into animals that surpass the Brahma for heat tolerance and fertility, while still maintaining high rates of fertility, disease resistance, and the ability to survive on native grasses or in swamp-like conditions.

If one was to maintain a purebred herd of Pineywoods, a few cows could be crossed to an Angus bull each year to produce market steers and heifers that would fetch the premium price while exhibiting much of the Pineywoods’ hardiness. This is called a terminal cross. Those bred back to
the Pineywoods’ bull would be producing replacement heifers and bull calves so that a base of purebred Pineywoods would always be available.

There are many other examples of livestock that are regionally adapted to the Southwest. Gulf Coast sheep and Spanish horses are two good examples. In a day when sheep must be wormed many times a season, Gulf Coast sheep may not be considered trendy because they exhibit natural parasite resistance. The fact that they can survive on native forages with little care seems less significant by comparison.

American breeds of Spanish horses include the Spanish Mustang, Spanish Barb, Florida Cracker, and the Choctaw (once a native ‘wild’ horse in Oklahoma). These horses exhibit high levels of intelligence, hardiness, longevity, ability to thrive on native forages, dense leg bones, and very sound thick-walled hooves. As with the criollo cattle breeds, they were deposited here by the Spanish and have been shaped by natural selection for over 500 years. The movie Hidalgo revealed many of the characteristics of these breeds — inspiring their conservation.

Farming should be about adjusting what you raise and how you raise it to the land and environment you have to work with. Following trends, which are meant to work under different conditions than your own, just eats into your profits.

If you would like more information on regionally adapted breeds of livestock, or if you would like to help save rare, endangered breeds of livestock and poultry contact: ALBC,
PO Box 477, Pittsboro, NC 27312, (919) 542-5704 or on the web at www.albc-usa.org.
A $30 membership includes a bi-monthly newsletter and a national breeders directory, updates on education programs and events, and special pre-publication prices on ALBC publications.
Many ALBC members also raise rare breeds. Individual breeders make up an active network of people who participate in hands-on conservation, marketing and public education.

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