Brahmans Invade the West

BY WILLIAM S. MILBURN PHOTOGRAPHS BY WESTERN WAYS When Kipling wrote “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,” he didn't foresee the invasion of Arizona ranges by Brahman cattle from India. From Douglas to Gila Bend to Kingman it is not uncommon these days to sight oriental cattle roaming the range side-by-side with the better-known European breeds. With their humped backs, drooping ears, loose-skinned necks and pendulous navel flaps, the Brahmans bring a foreign touch to the cattle country and startle the uninitiated with their exotic appearance.

Member of an Asiatic species called bos indicus, the Brahman is the oldest breed of cattle in the world. It is frequently called Zebu and is widely domesticated in India, China, the East Indies and East Africa. It is the famous white cow of India, where it is pampered like a pet and domesticated for its milk. The popular conception that all of these cows are sacred in India is erroneous, but some of them have been consecrated by the priests and freed to roam the streets at will.

Until recent years all of the cattle in America were European breeds. Beef types such as the Hereford, Aberdeen Angus and Shorthorn or Durham, as well as the common dairy breeds, are all varieties of a species called bos taurus. For many years the Hereford has been undisputed king of the Southwest's arid ranges because it is the hardiest of the beef breeds which are easy to handle and ship. However, the Brahman's debut on the desert might give the Whiteface the first serious competition he has known for half a century.

What does the appearance of Brahmans on Arizona ranches actually signify? Some regard it as a current fad which will soon pass. Others hail it as the beginning of a widespread revolution in the cattle industry. Regardless of the outcome, however, Brahmans in the Southwest represent an effort to discover a beef animal ideally adapted to sparse, arid ranges. Even in years of normal rainfall Southern Arizona is an arid land. The past few years of drought have resulted in run-down ranges, and even the hardy Hereford has had a hard time making a go of it.

In the past couple of years nearly fifty Arizona ranchers have turned to Brahmans as a possible solution to this problem. When these men met in Tucson last winter to found the Brahman Breeders Association of Arizona, it was only natural that they should unanimously elect Matt Baird as their first president. For he had done more than any other man to organize the group and further the cause of the Brahman in Arizona.

Baird, who owns the 15,000 acre Ruby Star Ranch in Pima County, is an unusual figure in the cattle business. He is a graduate of both Princeton and Oxford. An easterner by birth, he came to Arizona some fifteen years ago as headmaster of a ranch school for boys. A decade ago he bought the Ruby Star and entered the cattle business as a breeder of registered Herefords. He raised good cattle; many of his steers took top honors in Pima County 4-H club showings.

Equipped by nature and education with a scientific attitude, Baird kept more complete records of his operations than is common practice among ranchers. He learned his cowboys were spending a great part of their time doctoring for pink eye, cancer eye and other common cattle diseases. His mind searched for some way to minimize these problems and make the production of beef more economical.

Matt Baird first became interested in Brahmans during the war, when he served as a colonel in the AAF. On Guadalcanal he met an Australian rancher who had been extremely successful raising the breed on arid land which was described as being similar to southern Arizona ranges.

When he returned to civilian life, Baird investigated. He found that Brahmans had first achieved commercial importance as beef animals in the United States because of their adaptability to the climate of the Gulf Coast states. A combination of heat, humidity and pestiferous insects had made it impossible for any of the European breeds to thrive in that region. It was the importation of Brahmans and the crossbreeding of them with other types that had put the cattle industry in the deep South on its feet a few years before.

In India the humped cattle have thrived for centuries under a great variety of climatic conditions, ranging from humid to arid regions and from sea level to 10,000 foot elevations in the Himalayas. Everything Matt could learn about Brahmans indicated that the breed was exceptionally hardy, disease-resistant and capable of adapting itself to almost any climate or range. The Brahman is the only bovine animal equipped with sweat glands; these enable him to stand extreme heat which other types cannot survive.

A Brahman calf is as gentle as a kitten. Visitors to Ruby Star Ranch, who only know the rodeo Brahmans, are surprised.

As a result of his investigations Matt Baird sold his Herefords and stocked the Ruby Star with pure-bred Brahmans. Although he is highly enthusiastic about the humped cattle it would be inadequate to describe him merely as a "Brahman enthusiast." His interest goes much deeper than that. Matt is searching for the ideal beef animal for Arizona ranges and is devoting his 15,000 acres and all his resources to a scientific, cross-breeding experiment which will further that search.

There are both better and poorer ranges in the state. and, as Arizona ranches go, the Ruby Star isn't a big spread. But its variety makes it typical of hundreds of thousands of acres of Arizona range. Its sub-marginal land varies from 2500 to 4000 feet in elevation. It is partly hilly and partly flat. There is considerable justification for Baird's belief that cattle which can thrive on the Ruby Star would do well on any southern Arizona range.

Six pastures of 1000 acres each are fenced off on the Ruby Star, and Baird's experiment will center in these. An all Brahman herd will occupy one pasture; there will be all Herefords in another. Other herds will consist of Hereford cows with a Brahman bull, Brahman cows with a Hereford bull, Angus with Brahmans and Shorthorns with Brahmans. These herds will be periodically rotated from one pasture to the next to make certain they all enjoy identical range conditions. By careful observation and keeping accurate records, Baird hopes to discover which pure-bred or hybrid type is best adapted to

Fifty Arizona ranchers now raise Brahmans. They think the Brahmans are perfect for our arid ranges. Matt Baird believes in their worth.

It is a long way from Asia to the Arizona desert but the Brahmans believe the Brahmans may displace the Hereford as king of Brahmans are making themselves perfectly at home. Cattlemen Arizona cattle. They thrive in the heat and desert country. The arid range. The ideal animal should thrive without supplemental feeding, require a minimum of care and produce the best and most economical beef. The first step in Baird's prolonged breeding experiment was to acquire a herd of pure-bred Brahmans and acclimate them to the Ruby Star range. Matt's herd was shipped from the lush, green pastures of southern Texas to the drought-burned Pima County two years ago. A year later the Texas cattleman who had sold them to Baird visited the Ruby Star. He admitted the Brahmans were in excellent shape, better than they had left Texas, despite the aridity of the range. And the animals had received no supplemental feeding except for an occasional handful of feed pellets when they were being shown to visitors. the sun, spending less than two percent of their time in the shadea fortunate trait for any cattle to be raised in the almost perpetual sunshine of southern Arizona. The old problem of frequent doctoring for pink eye has disappeared on the Ruby Star. Other ranchers have reported similar results with Brahmans. Matt is too scientific to make statements he can't prove. He makes no claim that the breed is completely immune to disease, but he does insist that Brahmans obviously have a high degree of resistance to most of the common ailments of cattle and that his stock has shown no symptoms of disease to date.

The Brahmans don't seem to feel the heat and they love Although it attains a larger size than European breeds at maturity, the Brahman calf is born smaller and with a scarcely noticeable hump. The hump and the remarkable growth for which the animals are noted begin to develop a few weeks after birth. Hybrids with half or less of Brahman blood never do develop humps although they frequently surpass both parents in size and hardiness. Because of his study and work with pure-bred Brahmans. Baird is rapidly becoming an authority on the subject. He scoffs at popular misconceptions about the breed. "They will tell you," he says, "that Brahman meat is coarse and unpalatable. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people can't tell it from any other beef, and those who can are inclined to prefer it to other breeds. Some packers are even paying a premium for Brahmans and Brahman hybrids."

But the misconception that most riles Matt is the belief that Brahmans are wild as sin and dangerously hard to handle. He attributes the widespread acceptance of this erroneous notion to the fact that Brahmans are frequently used in rodeos. "It would be just as sensible to condemn all horses because there are a few wild broncos," he explains. Brahmans are not wilder than other cattle, but they are the most intelligent and most nervous of all bovine breeds and are capable of greater extremes of temperament. As can any animal, they can be antagonized by rough handling. Despite hmans are making themselves perfectly at home. Cattlemen Arizona cattle. They thrive in the heat and desert country. their ungainly, wrinkled appearance, Brahmans possess tremendous speed and power. They can run like the wind and clear a fence as easily as a deer. Suitably stimulated for rodeo performance, their fury is spectacular to behold.

But the Brahman can also be gentle, and Matt Baird loves to prove this to visitors. He has built a system of roads so that any part of his range may be reached by car or jeep. He will drive to a remote pasture and stop the car. Cupping his mouth, he shouts: "Hoo, cattle! Hoo, cattle!" Matt calls this his Brahman yell, and it works like magic. The cattle suddenly appear on the horizon and come inquisitively forward. As the call is repeated, they break into a trot. Not even the presence of strangers will slow them down. Like a pack of friendly puppies they gather around Matt, nuzzling and licking him and eating feed pellets from his hand. They demand to be petted and will even accept this attention from a stranger. A bull weighing a ton accompanies the herd and seems as docile as the calves and heifers.

According to Baird, Brahmans are easy to gentle. They respond readily to the right treatment and will follow anyone they trust. You must lead Brahmans, not drive them. "Let a bunch of shouting cowboys ride up to a herd of Brahmans," cautions Matt, "and they'll scatter like the wind. It takes an unusually fast horse to outrun these cattle. An octogenarian cowboy on a thirty-year-old horse can do more with Brahmans, by leading them, than dozens of rodeo cowboys could accomplish by trying to drive them."

All of which might simplify the rancher's problems but give the incurable romantic a nostalgic yearning for the rugged days of yore when mounted wild men drove wild cattle over the ranges of the Southwest. Good cattle, however, are too valuable to be so roughly handled, and cowboys of this type all but disappeared when the ranges were fenced some years ago. They are found today only in the movies, rodeos.

Although his experience has made him an enthusiastic booster of the pure-bred Brahman, Baird believes some hybrid The Brahmans, sacred cattle of India, is the oldest breed of cattle in the world. They are a member of an Asiatic species, "bos inducus."

type will furnish the ultimate solution to the problems of southern Arizona ranchers. The Braford (cross between Hereford and Brahman) shows considerable promise, and the Brangus seems to retain the desirable beef-producing qualities of the Angus along with the hardiness of the Brahman. Matt eyes the Brangus with considerable hope because of its uniform black color and absence of horns, but, with true scientific detachment, witholds judgment until the experiment is complete. He is not setting out to prove a pet theory, but rather to learn the truth.

Matt Baird is unique in that he is willingly devoting his time and resources to an experiment that may require many years. His hopes for profit are distant rather than immediate. If he succeeds in his search for an ideal beef animal for arid ranges he will have rendered Arizona outstanding service.