# My Piney Woods Cattle



## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

This is Big Mama.








This is Anne Belle, her heifer calf Petunia and Bully the 8 month old bull.









Big Mama and Anna Belle are expecting calves in January! We can't wait!


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Thanks for sharing! Good lookin!


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

Man O man I wish there was a breeder of that heritage breed in my neck of the woods. I love em'. They remind me of a MS with longhorn horns. Do they work well for a family milker?


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

Francis, there are a jillion Corriente breeders in Oklahoma, which are kissin cousins to the Piney Woods cattle. They came from the same Spanish stock. But I don't know how much they would milk. Everybody I know raises Corriente cattle to be survivors on rough dry range and/or athletes in the arena, then when they "retire" they get to be beef.


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

The Piney's milk very well and produce a good quality milk. My Piney's are a registered herd. There are very few left in the US ( most reports say less than 200), but I think that number has come up a bit. They are very resilient animals that aren't finicky about what they eat. They calf very easily without human intervention. 

A Piney cow trained to milk will produce high quality and quantity milk. Big Mamma and Anna Belle have never been milked; Petunia, at 8 months old will stand for a "milking" without a fuss. We think she is going to do fine.


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

Thanks, Glenda. How 'bout a link to the registry or association?


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

WOW, thats alot of horny cattle, OH I men cattle with horns, oopps !! my bad. Nice lookin but I`m not fond of horns. > Thanks Marc


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

Here is a link to the associational site http://www.pcrba.org. 
It is so gratifying to participate in the recovery of a heritage breed!


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## Otter (Jan 15, 2008)

Now, I'm sure they're not registered -but-
I lived in Orlando Fl for years. What happens there all the time is developers will buy up a huge tract of land, over 100 acres at a stretch. Now, they don't want to pay anymore taxes on that land then they have to so they throw a few cows and a bull on it and claim agricultural exemption.

Those cattle live and breed survival of the fittest style. The developers don't care a whit what happens to them so long as there are a few breeding they get their tax exemption. Most of them pay a couple of cowboys once a year to rope out the young bulls and haul them to auction. But some don't so a few of those tracts can be pretty dangerous to walk through.

When they are ready to develop the land they hire cowboys to go through with jeeps and horses and run them through temporary chutes into trailers. One trailer full goes to the next tract of land, the rest to auction. After a couple of years, the cows have split into little herds of several cows, their this years calves and a bull, so their breeding groups are already set up for them.

So not registered or selected for spots (though plenty of them have them) but there are lots of Pineywood _type_ cattle out there if you know where to look.

BTW, I know all this because I used to "trespass" and hike with my dog all over as many of those big tracts as I could find. If I came across a fellow I'd walk up and chat, usually a cowboy in a jeep trying to get a count to see if it was worth his time, sometimes someone from the developers office getting "the lay of the land". They'd all give me permission to do all the hiking I wanted and the cowboys would be pretty chatty.
Oh, and this was less then 10 years ago, so I doubt it's changed. I've often wondered why the Pineywood registry doesn't want anything to do with those cows as they're still living as the breed was developed to live.


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

Oh, but you would be wrong- mine are registered. You might want to read up on the conservation effort. Those Florida cattle are not Piney's, though closely related.


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

I don't have time to further explain the registry points, my dad is in surgery. He fell off a ladder and has eight fractures. Please pray for him. 

Will be glad to discuss at a more convenient time.


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## Otter (Jan 15, 2008)

Oh, definitely praying for your dad!!

And sorry for any misunderstanding, I wasn't saying that _your_ cattle aren't registered, just that those I saw in Fl most likely weren't. A very few of the developing companies had anyone with an actual interest in cattle and those tracts had Brangus
And I know they're not Pineywoods because they have to be registered to be Pineywoods. I've just always wondered why the Pineywoods registry didn't have any interest in a Landrace registration for those cattle.

I'd love to discuss it after your dad is safely recovered.


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Good work.

Best wishes.


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## Gregg Alexander (Feb 18, 2007)

These cattle are some good poor land, little management needed cattle. Ruffer the pasture the better they like it. Easy handling , great mothers , calves grow good. I have had some off and on for yrs


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

Gregg Alexander said:


> These cattle are some good poor land, little management needed cattle. Ruffer the pasture the better they like it. Easy handling , great mothers , calves grow good. I have had some off and on for yrs


You are absolutely right, Gregg! They will eat anything! But, they do love to get their sweet feed treat!:bouncy:


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

Otter said:


> Oh, definitely praying for your dad!!
> 
> And sorry for any misunderstanding, I wasn't saying that _your_ cattle aren't registered, just that those I saw in Fl most likely weren't. A very few of the developing companies had anyone with an actual interest in cattle and those tracts had Brangus
> And I know they're not Pineywoods because they have to be registered to be Pineywoods. I've just always wondered why the Pineywoods registry didn't have any interest in a Landrace registration for those cattle.
> ...


Oh, I am so, so sorry! Please forgive me? I was a bit "terse" in my reply! By the way, Daddy just got out of surgery and did well. Thanks for the prayers and please continue!


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

Otter, I don't know why? Give this a glance and see if it sheds any light on your question. It is an interesting question- one that I will certainly be inquiring about. Is there a seperate registry for landrace? http://www.pcrba.org/id27.html

Edited to add, I know of the Randall Registry...but, is that the only landrace registry?


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## oth47 (Jan 11, 2008)

I've read some about Pinewoods cattle and everything I've read says they're small cattle..small is a relative term,are they smaller than Holsteins or smaller than Jerseys?What's the average height of a cow and a bull?I'm thinking I might like to try to get a pair,depending on size.


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

My Piney's are BIG cows for Piney's.They are out of the Conway line that were devoloped to be used as logging oxen. They also have recently( last 25 years been) exposed to the Hickman line to offer some genetic diversity. Both were closed strains. 

Big Mamma








She is standing by a 100 gallon water tank.

I can't seem to get that picture enlarged...sorry.


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

Better Pic and she is as big as she looks!


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## Otter (Jan 15, 2008)

Glenda in MS said:


> Oh, I am so, so sorry! Please forgive me? I was a bit "terse" in my reply! By the way, Daddy just got out of surgery and did well. Thanks for the prayers and please continue!


Oh, no worries! Glad your Dad is doing ok, hope his recovery is smooth.

When I first saw these in Orlando, I wondered what breed they were and did a search. And (to anyone looking) they were _clearly_ either Pineywoods or Florida Cracker Cattle http://crackercattle.org/what.shtml

But, upon inquiry I was (lol, somewhat rudely) told by BOTH of those associations that I must be mistaken as they were both insanely rare breeds. So I did some more research and found that both those breeds were basically the same except for the people who raised and registered them and in both cases a bunch of people gathered up some of these cattle (some families had raised them for generations), created a registry, registered them and promptly closed the studbook. 

So the ones that are registered are Pineywoods or Crackers and the ones I saw were "just scrub cattle" (lol, according to the somewhat snooty people answering the phone to give out info from the registries)

Now, I never could figure out the rush to close the studbooks or ignore the cattle that are still "formed under local conditions for local purposes" with "a long history of selection and adaptation in the Gulf Coast region of the USA"
I certainly hope that someone from the registry takes a hike (  Like I used too) and perhaps rediscovers a strain or decides to re-open the studbook to include more genetic diversity. Or even just creating a Landrace registration for those cattle who fit the breed description but aren't of known strains. Why not create work with new strains as the conditions are ongoing? LOL, every cow on earth has just as long a family tree as any other - the only difference is how long people have been writing it down.

I just wanted to throw the knowledge out there for those who'd like the "type" of cattle but perhaps aren't interested in the registry that they are out there and where to find some.
Not that there's anything wrong with registries or preserving lines with genetics known for decades. That is very satisfying work and something that needs doing.

Glenda, Big Momma is a beauty! I hope you post pictures when they calf. I never got to see a calf. The cattle I knew, you knew they had calves because they disappeared. They would just kind of fade into the "palmetto desert and maybe sometimes if you were real soft-footed you'd get close enough to hear the leaves rustle as they left. By the time you got to see those calves they were a month old. A whole bunch would just disappear for a few weeks and next time you'd spot them they'd be circled around some calves. Good mommas.


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

It is a real challenge to start a herd book from scratch. With the "later" imported breeds, there was a herd book in the country of origin to relate back to. There is a big gap in the history of all the cattle that descended from the original Spanish imports, and there was no formal herd book at the time they shipped them over here either. So, 500 years of supposition and speculation. Sounds like the Pineywoods are now where the Corriente was about 30 years ago. They started their herd book with visual inspection of all the cattle registered the first few years to ensure they were true to type and have gone on from there. Has there been any DNA work done to find distinct markers for the Pineywoods, or to link them back to the Spanish cattle?


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## Glenda in MS (Sep 15, 2007)

I am not sure about the DNA work, but I beleive there has been.


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