Lip-Syncing A Vast Terrain: Texas Longhorns

The Texas longhorn is a breed of cattle known for its long horns, which can grow up to 120 inches tip to tip for steers and the purest cows and bulls. The average range is from 70 to 80 inches tip to tip. Horns can have a slight upward turn at their tips or even triple twist. Texas Longhorns are known for their variety of coloring. The Texas Longhorn Breeders Association are the official registers of this breed of cattle. Some Texas Longhorns can sell for up to $40,000 or more at auction with the record of $160,000 for one cow.

Because gentle and intelligent, Texas Longhorns are often trained as Riding Steers. The Cattlemen’s Texas Longhorn Registry Certified Texas Longhorn Registry (CTLR), is the recognized breed registry dedicated to preserving the purest Texas Longhorn bloodlines.The first cattle to set foot in North America and the only breed of cattle to evolve without human management, the Texas Longhorn can thrive where no other breed can live; living on weeds, cactus and brush. They also can graze days away from water and stay fit and fertile whether living in the parasite-infested tropics or in the arid, subzero winters of Montana.

They produce a leaner beef. They can survive on the often poor vegetation of the open range which makes then cheaper for ranchers to raise. Up until 1927, the number of cattle slowly decreased. But in that year, the U.S. Forest Service collected a small herd of stock to breed on a longhorn refuge in Oklahoma.

A few years later, J. Frank Dobie and others gathered small herds to keep in Texas state parks. They were cared for largely because of their curious appearance, but the stock's long life, resistance to disease and ability to thrive on marginal pastures quickly revived the breed as beef cattle. Today, the breed is still used as a beef stock, though many Texas ranchers keep herds purely because of their link to Texas history.

Longhorns have a strong survival instinct and can find food and shelter during times of rough weather. Calves are very tough and can stand up sooner after birth than other breeds. Longhorn can breed well into their teens. Some ranchers keep Longhorns for their easy calving. A Longhorn cow will often go off on her own to a safe place to have the calf then bring it home. They are also known to hide their calves in safe places from predators, sometimes making it hard for the ranchers to find them.

Most breeds of cattle fall into either beef or dairy. Longhorns are beef stock and, known for their lean beef, which is lower in fat, cholesterol and calories than most beef. Longhorns are also inbreed with other cattle, adding hybrid vigor and easy calving abilities. But they continue to represent the romance of the Old West and are often retained only for their beauty and intelligence. Find out more at: http://www.tlbaa.org/

Research info gathered at: www.wikipedia.org

Now, here's one of my poems that "gets to the point":

Or Dreaming In A Coat Room

Not to forget the way back-that path etched

along a faraway wash of

sequoiasin

an ellipse then slipped between two seasons,

or in a configuration posing as a trail of wet leaves

and pine cones that wish they weren't so useless,

or entwined in a hedge that twists itself through

the rust-gray of reason in a dream only sleepers believe,

arriving at the wide brown of a dying field using aplow to