In this Canadian beef crisis, most cattle producers can agree to let one relatively minor American breed do all the talking.
Silhouetted on “support Canadian beef” bumper stickers everywhere is the folkloric Texas Longhorn.
While breeds like Red or Black Angus are far more popular, the Texas Longhorn remains the undisputed champion for cattle identification.
As Longhorn rancher Ryan Leiske of Double L Ranch says, his breed’s silhouette says cattle.
“You put a polled head on there and it could be confused with sheep, so they use the horns to make it more recognizable,” said the Beiseker, Alta., rancher.
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Clayton Gibson of Six Mile Red Angus raises the British breed but accepts Longhorns on the stickers.
“Well, we’re all in it together. We’ve just got to get beef out in general,” Gibson said.
“Last year it was fine, breed against breed, but when it comes to something that big (the border closure), you want to be beef – a bigger voice,” he said.
“Cattle are still recognized as a horned animal,” said Roger Hardy of Sooline Red Angus Ranch of Midale, Sask.
“You look at most pictures or at any movie and they’re all horned animals.”
“Horned or dairy,” said Gibson.
“Horned or dairy,” Hardy concedes.
Longhorn ranchers Dwight Overlid of Double D in Outlook, Sask., and Daryl Allemand of Allemand Ranches in Shaunavon, Sask., explain the benefits of raising Longhorns.
“It’s a very low-maintenance animal,” said Allemand, who noted the Longhorn is a more efficient eater than his Angus animals.
“They survive on a hell of a lot less,” adds Overlid. “We hardly had any rain at all, and we got some bush. That’s pretty much what they lived on through June and July.”
Even though the Longhorn’s likeness adorns the bumper sticker, Leiske said the Texas native breed doesn’t get the respect given to Angus, Hereford or Charolais.
“A lot of these cattle commissions still don’t recognize Longhorn as a beef breed, even though it is.”
And the most insulting part to Longhorn producers? Even though the industry uses the horns to identify cattle to consumers, horns are actually a liability to producers.
“You sell them in an auction, they’ll dock you $10 for the horns,” Allemand said.
Christie Cockwill of the Alberta Beef Producers said the Longhorn logo appeared around 15 years ago on “I love Alberta beef” stickers, and has been the standard ever since.
Cockwill said that according to a study by the Alberta Food Processors Association in the 1980s, the Longhorn logo rated as the second highest recognizable symbol among Albertans. People knew it stood for cattle in general, she said.
