Tough Criollo a solution in dry
times?
Researchers study old breed of cattle that
can thrive on poorer pasture
By DARRELL J. PEHR
NMSU News Service
JORNADA EXPERIMENTAL RANGE -For the ranching industry in the
dry Southwest, tough times demand tough measures. Increasing fuel costs, dry
conditions and a changing environment are creating new challenges for ranchers.
In a search for innovative answers, researchers at the
Jornada Experimental Range are studying an ancient, rugged breed of cattle that
may offer some modern solutions.
Criollo cattle are hardy scrappers that make do in conditions
other breeds of cattle could not stand. These Criollo - a Spanish word that
describes something of Spanish descent but born in the Americas - are
particularly well-suited to the arid and semiarid Southwest U.S.
That's not surprising, since they've been in New Mexico more
than 400 years. Their descendants came across the Atlantic on Christopher
Columbus' second voyage (1493-1496), and in 1598 Criollo cattle came with Juan
de Onate as he explored what is now New Mexico.
But in the late 19th century, Criollo began to fall out of
favor with the introduction of larger, British breeds like Angus and Hereford
preferred by British investors who fueled the cattle boom of the 1880s.
Selective breeding helped those new cattle thrive in the Southwest U.S. and
northwestern Mexico, but not without some extraordinary measures, like
providing costly supplemental feeds.
As the British breeds moved onto the rangelands, Criollo
cattle became scarce.
Researcher Ed Fredrickson says ranching with British breeds
worked very well until recently, when fuel and supplemental feed were still
cheap. Currently, fuel to move cattle to markets has become more expensive and
the demand for supplemental feed, current use as an alternative fuel feedstock.
In addition, the process of desertification has been under
way in this area for more than a century, creating more unusable a shrublands
as beneficial grasslands are lost Those factors, combined with British breeds'
impact on the grasslands, led Fredrickson to begin to search for an
alternative, desert-adapted cattle breed that might be a better match for these
changing conditions.
Fredrickson is a researcher for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service with expertise in range livestock
nutrition and behavior and desert ecology. He's also an affiliated faculty
member at New Mexico State University Fredrickson came to NMSU in 1987 to work
on his Ph.D., the started in 1990 at the USDA's 192,000-acre Jornada
Experimental Range, north of Las Cruces.
Fredrickson initially researched for desert-adapted cattle in
North Africa. Then he teamed up with researcher Jose Rios from the Universidad
Autonoma de Chihuahua and soon their attention turned to their own backyard. In
the Copper Canyon region of Chihuahua, Mexico,
Tarahumara
Indians still raised a breed of cattle that had nearly disappeared from New
Mexico and Chihuahua - the Criollo.
"This is ideal for us" Fredrickson said. "This land has
really co-evolved with these cattle. So not only can we look at cattle in an
arid situation, but how they've influenced the vegetation."
In 2003, the scientists assembled a research herd that was
divided among the Jornada Experimental Range and the UACH'a Rancho Experimental
Teseachi in central Chihuahua. The two sites are representative of much of the
Southwest U.S. and northwestern Mexico: The Jornada's desert grasslands are
lower in elevation and in annual precipitation, compared to the more
mountainous Rancho Experimental Research, which range from pinion-juniper
savannah to forests of pine and oak in the higher country.
Initial studies by Fredrickson, UACH'a Rios and Gerardo
Bezanilla-Enriquez, and Dean Hawkins, Animal and Range Science professor at
NMSU'a College of Agriculture and Home Economics, have shown that Criollo bring
several beneficial characteristics to the table: They tend to use larger areas
and more diverse habitats when they graze, rather than concentrating on one
area as a British cow would; they graze fewer hours per day; their diets are
more varied; they are smaller, averaging 730 pounds, rather than the
1,200-1,300 pounds of a British breed; and they seem to be able to remain
active in hotter weather.
"If cattle stay in certain spots, we lose vegetation. But if
we can get an animal that uses the whole thing, we can avoid the destification
process. Criollo roam around," Fredrickson said. "They use the rougher country,
they travel more.
In addition, it appears that their bodies partition energy in
a different way.
"A British animal would put fat on the outside to prevent.
heat loss," Fredrickson said, pointing out that body insulation is important
for an animal accustomed to the colder European climate. But the Criollo cattle
do not seem to build up fat as insulation. Instead, their bodies seem adapted
to encourage heat loss.
Research will initially focus on the physiology of the
Criollo cattle, then move to economic implications, whether local or
industrywide.
For the Tarahumara, the versatile Criollo have been
essential.
"In Mexico, they provide milk, meat and draft," Fredrickson
said. "They're part of the family."
For other potential producers, Fredricksomn see possibilities
for the cattle both as a meat animal and as a port animual at rodeo
events.
Fredrickson said. "They use the rougher country, they travel
more.
In addition, it appears that their bodies partition energy in
a different way.
"A British animal would put fat on the outside to prevent
heat loss," Fredrickson said, pointing out that body insulation is important
for an animal accustomed to the colder European climate. But the Criollo cattle
do not seem to build up fat as insulation.
Instead, their bodies seem adapted to encourage heat loss.
Research will initially focus on the physiology of the
Criollo cattle, then move to economic implications, whether local or
industrywide.
For the Tarahumara, the versatile Criollo have been
essential.
"In Mexico, they provide milk, meat and draft," Fredrickson
said. "They're part of the family."
For other potential producers, Fredrickson sees possibilities
for the cattle both as a meat animal and as a sport animal at rodeo events.
"This may be a great animal for people who have small
ranches," Fredrickson said. The meat could be marketed as a source of organic
beef in specialty markets, for example, and the multicolored hides would add a
second market for ranchers. Rodeo contestants value the stout-homed Criollo as
roping steers.
Fredrickson also sees the genetic makeup of the Tarahumaran
Criollo as a resource that could be critically important some day.
The cattle also may have some answers for traditional
ranchers who are looking for new products to bring to market, a more diverse
genetic makeup for future herds, or an animal that can help them remain
economically competitive.
Business OUTLOOK Albuquerque Journal Thursday December 13,
2007
eSource: Darrell J. Pehr
Education
Bachelor's degree,
Journalism, University of New Mexico, 1982
Experience
Assistant
editor/science writer, New Mexico State University, University Communications
and Marketing Services, 2005-present
Assistant editor, New Mexico State
University, Agricultural Communications, 2004-2005
Editor, Alamogordo Daily
News, 2000-2004
Editor, Artesia Daily Press, 1991-2000
Editor, Valencia
County News-Bulletin, 1988-1991
Editor, The Ruidoso News, 1985-1988
Reporter, The Ruidoso News, 1983-1985
pehr@nmsu.edu |
