10 Rarest Cattle Cow Breeds in the United States

Hello everyone, today we're going to take a look at the 10 rarest breeds of cattle in the USA. If you like this kind of content, be sure to subscribe, because we cover every breed on every continent in the world, and you don't want to miss any new uploads from any amazing livestock breeds. The White Parks are one of the last surviving truly ancient breeds in existence. They came directly from wild aurochs and wild cattle, and are some of the very earliest documented cattle in European history. They were never very popular in the 19th century, so their numbers weren't great to start off with. The Brits knew that they needed to get a handful of their prized historic cows out of the country when they were faced with the very real possibility of a Nazi invasion during the Second World War. This move is what likely saved the breed from complete extinction, because even after the war, they just weren't picking up in numbers in Britain. The small herd that did make it across the seas was only supposed to stay until the war ended. They ended up being shipped between multiple zoos and ranches, before finally finding a permanent home with the Merkley family in the 1980s. By then, they had dwindled down to a dire 20 purebred females, and very little hope. The Merkley were wise enough to separate the purebred stock from the rest, and managed to sell off breeding heifers to various parts of the country with the intention of creating breeding pockets to get their numbers up. In 10 years, they got the ancient white parks up from 20 heifers to 200. The result was that in three short years, they managed to get them onto the market as a beef product. There are a few thousand of them around now, and even though they are still on the endangered list, the fact that there are enough to have market value has increased interest in them exponentially. The Lincoln Reds were developed in England in the early 1800s, and were originally intended to be a dual-purpose breed, but increasing demand for higher production pushed them more toward meat-rearing purposes. But even though they matured fast, bred easily, and were very well suited to the colder and wetter northern climates, they just couldn't keep up with other cattle that were just a little better in those areas. They were slowly phasing out of the production line, and when their population dipped below 1,000 in the 1960s, serious steps were taken to preserve them. Luckily, their relatively easier care and quick rearing make them very good small-scale cattle, ideal for the beginner cattle owner and the homestead, especially in the US. This garnered enough interest in them to keep their numbers steadily rising through the years. They still number below 10,000, making them very rare. But things are looking up for the Lincoln Reds. Kerry Calves are native to Ireland, their hardiness, excellent foraging capabilities, and the fact that they can produce a great amount of milk relative to their size were the reasons many Irish managed to stay alive during the potato famine and the many wars that have plagued their history. Even though their numbers shrank with the introduction of bigger production breeds of cattle, they managed to stick around in the background due to their value on small acreage operations. They've been hanging around the edge of worry since the 1950s, but by expanding their breeding pockets to the northern parts of the US, we've got their birth rates to rise by 500 new registered calves every year. Their rise in popularity among the northern US states, that are so close to the wet climate of their native Ireland, is predicting that they will step off the endangered list within the next 10 years or so. Corriente cattle stemmed from the Spaniards, who brought along their foraging cattle when they first landed. Corrientes were especially well-suited to forage, even in the most severe droughts and unforgivable landscapes. They were so popular once that they had entire herds that were virtually feral, roaming the south and southeastern states of the US. Besides a small handful of hobby farmers that keep one or two for the novelty of it, Corrientes are almost solely found in the southern deserts of the US by small-scale farmers. Right now, they number somewhere below 5,000. But their high-quality meat and their outstanding foraging capabilities are being used to encourage farmers to keep and actively breed them. By catching their decline relatively early, we've kept them from going below the thousands. Renewed interest in their hardiness in rough terrain and semen banks are the main factors that are driving the conservation of the Corriente cattle herds that still survive today. The Florida Cracker was introduced to the swampy and hot climate of Florida because of their resistance to parasites in a time where there were no inoculations against the diseases that came with tropical areas. But they were also excellent for crossbreeding with other breeds, and they passed along those disease-resistant genes to breeds that already outstripped them in milk production and sheer size. Their own superior genes were their downfall when those offspring took their place on the market, and with the introduction of inoculants against parasites, even more breeds were able to step into the Everglades, sadly pushing the Crackers even further down the food chain when their numbers reached an all-time low of around 2,000 heads in the early 2000s. The Floridians stepped in and began their conservation efforts in earnest. Luckily, they are still popular among small-scale farms in Florida because of their hardiness, compact size, and that, as a working animal, they don't require a great deal of care or extra feed. That, coupled with the immense support from the state of Florida, makes the rare breed's future much brighter today than it did 20 years ago. There are now 3,000 pure Florida Crackers registered in the state of Florida. Piney Woods and the Florida Cattle came to be in the U.S. around the same time, and for the same reasons. They are multipurpose cattle that are very disease-resistant, good at foraging, drought-hardy, and on the smaller and more manageable side. And like their endangered cousins, they were bred with other cattle, and those strong genes ended up replacing them. But the Piney Wood are even smaller than the Florida Crackers, so small that some argue that they fit into pygmy cow territory. That smaller size, and the fact that they were less known than the Florida Cracker, drove their numbers down to just 1,000 in the year 2000. Since then, we've managed to double their population, and the amount of support that they're getting shows a lot of promise for the little Piney Wood in the near future. Now we enter into the critically endangered section of our list. These are the cattle breeds that number less than 1,000, and if they aren't properly managed, complete extinction is all but certain for these historic animals. First among them is the Randall Lineback cattle. They've been around Europe for centuries as the ultimate multipurpose cattle of choice for the common folk. Meat, milk, and very effective draft animals, they are one of the main drivers of Britain's path to catch up with the rest of Europe when the Roman Empire was still in power. But their popularity and the lack of breeding standards and record keeping have plagued them all these years. They were the most populous breed of cattle to keep all across Britain and all over Europe for hundreds of years, and quite frankly, the sheer amount of them running around decreased their value, and it was almost impossible to even try to establish a breed standard for them. It wasn't until the 1900s that they were even registered, and by then, irresponsible breeding was so rampant that as many as there were in Europe, less than a hundred females were considered appropriate for breeding at all, and today, the standards for pure breeding stock aren't as strict as they usually are for other breeds of livestock. This small allowance is the reason we've made some progress in saving the breed. Their breeding was so tainted already, and their numbers were so low that some allowances just had to be made if we were ever going to give the Randalls any chance of survival. They've risen to around 300 breeding grade cows, with a few hundred more that will be able to give birth to calves that will fit the breed's standards, one or two more generations of Randalls, and we could very well have a few thousand of them gracing the fields again in no time. The Texas Longhorns have a fascinating history behind them. The Longhorns that came with the Spanish to the Americas were already used to open field grazing, and they adapted to the new environment very quickly, but when Texas passed from Spanish rule over to broader European rule, the Longhorns were left unchecked, and they were free to roam wild. They came into contact with other escaped cattle, most of them were of the short horn variety, and even with all of that mixed breeding, the genes for those majestic horns just kept being passed on and on. They are the only American breed of cattle that evolved into a distinct breed of their own, with no human involvement. It was the Texans' pride in their trademark long-horned cattle that kept them from being completely eradicated when higher production animals came in the 1900s. Their relative rarity, the good leather and meat they produced, and good old Texan patriotism are what kept them in the spotlight, but there wasn't ever much attention to detail when it came to their breeding, and they were mostly reserved for show rather than production, so their numbers steadily declined, and the rarer they became, the more expensive they were, causing even less interest in them. Right now, their numbers stand at just 800 pure heads left in the country. We can only hope that the state of Texas is taking the necessary steps to protect their trademark cattle from disappearing entirely. Milking Devon cattle is the reason we have to thank the existence of the Livestock Conservancy organization, which manages breeds that are endangered in the USA today. When the Europeans started logging their livestock breeds in the 1960s, the US followed suit, but they had so much trouble even locating the milking Devon that was once so popular, it became clear that they needed to do what the Europeans did in these cases. They had to have a group that logged and policed breeds, their numbers and breeding practices, and then they needed another organization entirely that spent all of its efforts just on preserving breeds that were in trouble, and for the same reasons, to preserve both the animals and the history that came with them. Devons came with the Pilgrims and was one of the very first cattle breeds to set foot in the New World. Like the name implies, they were very good milking cows, but they had the extra benefit of being one of the best draft animals that you could ask for, and they were such excellent foragers that they were the ideal animal to place in the newly discovered lands where infrastructure was still being established. Like almost all of the endangered species of livestock that we cover, they were just left behind when heavy machinery and faster maturing breeds entered the picture. If it weren't for their popularity in New England, they would have definitely died out. Like the Longhorns, they hung on by sheer force of pride among the inhabitants of New England. Even with only 500 pure Devons remaining in the county, breeding pockets are actively being set up and their use as both a draft and a milking cow is being heavily marketed to increase interest in them. Unfortunately, the Dutch belted cattle were doomed to face struggles since they were conceived in the Netherlands in the 1600s. They were bred just so that they could have that uniform white belt around their middles. The nobles just wanted a cow that looked different for the pure purpose of having a breed of animal reserved only for aristocracy. Plenty of now extinct breeds had their start for the same reasons, and they died out simply because all of their popularity was placed in cosmetics with no production value at all. But the Dutch belted had a little luck. They came with very good quality milk and lots of it. Even when the fad of breeding purely for show died off, they managed to stick around long enough that some found their way to the USA. The Dutch were furious that their prize breed made it out of the Netherlands, but as their prize breeds were slowly starting to dwindle in numbers on their home soil, it would be those castaways who saw to it that we might just have some hope of saving the breed. When there were only four herds left in the Netherlands in the 1970s, they called on the semen stocks that were frozen in the US to help pick up the Dutch belted's numbers. But it's been an uphill battle. There are just more productive milking cows out there. Even if the Dutch belted has some of the richest milk among all of the milking breeds, the lack of diversity and the fact that there are so few of them have made it very hard to validate any real interest. There are only 446 breeding stock on the register in the US today, and these are only the endangered breeds here in the USA. There are hundreds, if not thousands of breeds out there that are in serious trouble. They all hold a great deal of value and deep roots in the history of their countries of origin. Most of them are perfectly suitable for large and small scale farming, but we've driven them to the very edge of extinction by introducing animals that are short-lived, disease-riddled and bred for the sole purpose of cramming them into inhumanely small enclosures. For the sake of numbers, we've given up quality and durability, and we've traded our oldest and most loyal livestock for that lesser quality. At least we can count on those that dedicate all of their time, energy and attention to bringing back these ancient and marvellous breeds. 60 years ago, the endangered livestock list was three times as long as it is today. Sure, we've had to say goodbye permanently to a few of them, but we've brought back many, many more than we lost, and we're sure to bring back even more in the future. And what about you guys at watching at home? Are you willing to extend a patch of your land to give your favourite breed a little more legroom to recover their numbers? Or are you here because you support the incredible people who are putting everything they've got into protecting a little bit of history? Let us know in the comments below. And don't forget to leave a like and subscribe to the channel. Every bit of engagement helps us keep the lights on over here, so we can keep bringing you the pasts and the futures of all of the livestock that have been with humanity since the dawn of agriculture. Until next time, cheers.