Apr 12 2020 36 mins 1
We are constantly amazed at our agricultural system, and how fast and how far it seems to have come since the early days. And when people use the phrase “early days” with regard to agriculture in America, the usual mental picture has to do with Pilgrims, a multicultural exchange, squash, corn, and a turkey. But the turkey, although it is one of the few agricultural items in our food system that actually existed here before most of us, has not become the meat-producing animal that has come to represent America. It seems that that particular title goes to the beef industry. We can thank John Wayne, the Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Sam Elliot for indelibly stamping herds of majestic beef cattle in our minds as being part of our national identity. It is what’s for dinner, anyway. The Pilgrims did bring cattle with them. The Milking Devon, as we have found, came over in 1623, and is a wonderful bovine that produces milk, beef, and pulls that plow while it’s at it. But the Plymouth colony wasn’t the first. That honor goes to the Spanish, and they beat the Pilgrims by over 100 years. Spanish cattle arriving in this country in boatloads in the early 1500’s established what has become the quintessential American agricultural animal. True to the landrace concept, those original foundation herds did what all of us did. Arrived, adapted to the environment and thrived, or died trying. The ones that made it started as one thing, but as they moved across the country over hundreds of years, they became something else. In Hispaniola, Mexico and Texas, they became Texas Longhorn Cattle. In Florida, they became the Florida Cracker Cattle. And in the southeast states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, they became the Pineywoods Cattle. Today, we are bringing you a conversation with Bruce Petesch of Tangled Oaks Farm in Siler City, North Carolina, who raises this endangered breed, one of the oldest in our history. It was here before John Wayne, before the Angus, before the railheads, and before the Pilgrims. Plus, it’s really good at handling not just the heat, but the humidity. Georgia in August. That’s the true measure of something to be admired. Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criollo_cattle https://www.ushistory.org/us/3a.asp 71:0 xe99070cab6ea2e23!8m2!3d41.9584457!4d-70.6672621">https://www.google.com/maps/place/Plymouth,+MA/@41.8881638,-70.7749408,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e4b9efe1b22d71:0 xe99070cab6ea2e23!8m2!3d41.9584457!4d-70.6672621 https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/pineywoods https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/america-promised-land-season-1-episode-1-spanish-ranchers-bring-cattle-to-texas-video https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Cracker_cattle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispaniola https://www.pcrba.org/ https://6b934cd0-f6fe-4ea6-a870-cb38602597f1.filesusr.com/ugd/9a1eae_583f1ccb7aac4d9f9319f8d52c192c21.pdf?index=true https://www.pineywoodscattle.us/breed-history
