Farm & Ranch
A Horse of Many Colors: How Domestication Changed the Horse
By contributing writer Martin Aldridge
The sheer variety of coats equines exhibit is simply astonishing. Everything from the common sorrels and bays, the gaudy paints and appaloosas, to the lesser known perlinos and cremellos, all have been achieved through breeding various types of horses with each other. Breeding for certain colors and patterns is now common
practice, but where exactly did all this diversity come from? Animals evolving in a natural state have been known to display a huge variety of colors and patterns, but colors and patterns in the wild evolve for specific survival purposes.
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looking at fossil horse DNA from specimens found in Europe and Asia revealed 18
brown colored animals, six black and six with a mutation for spotting.
As it turns out, the very act of domesticating wild animals might have a lot to do with the diversity we see today. The ancestral breed or breeds from which domesticated
horses sprang has become extinct. Wild herds today, like mustangs and other horse and pony populations living in a wild state, are technically considered “feral” since they all developed from domesticated stock.
To read more pick up the March 2014 issue of North Texas Farm & Ranch.
By Lindsey Monk
Calving season is in full swing, which means branding is next!
By Rayford Pullen | rcpullen@yahoo.com
Is spring yet? If you are like me, this seems like the longest winter we have ever had. When spring does arrive in full force, it will be a photo finish regarding our hay inventory and the emergence of green grass.
With the winter we have had, regarding costs, this has also been the most expensive when it comes to the price of hay and feed. Happiness is winter in our rearview mirror around here.
Spring will arrive this month in most parts of Texas, and with it will come new calves and breeding decisions.
Those cows that made it through the winter are probably in fair to decent shape and will need a month or so of great grazing to get back in shape, while they are also nursing a calf.
In the case of first calf heifers, they are trying to grow and put on weight without their permanent incisors.
These young females are asked to do a lot and may need a little extra help, nutrition wise, to get rebred on time and continue calving during the target months. Around here, if a heifer is born in February or March, we expect her to calve at age two in the same month she was born. It does not always work out, but that is our goal.
With bull turn out for spring calving cows and heifers being mid-April to mid-May, we certainly hope and expect them to be gaining weight and be in shape to conceive as early in the breeding season as possible.
To read more, pick up a copy of the March issue of NTFR Magazine. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
Planning for your ranch’s succession ensures the legacy you want to leave for your land. Here are seven steps to consider.
By Katie Miller
As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Most ranchers don’t like to discuss either, but having a ranch succession plan in place can ensure the future of your land and legacy when you’re no longer at the helm. While estate planning is what makes sure your assets are passed on to the desired recipients, succession planning is the road map to transitioning a business to the next generation, according to Dan Childs, Noble Research Institute senior agricultural consultant.
As Jason Bradley, agricultural economics consultant for the institute, notes, succession planning is especially vital to the legacy regenerative ranchers hope to leave.
“I think of the story of the old man who plants trees knowing he will never sit in the shade of those trees,” Bradley says. “Ranchers want to better the land so they can pass on something that they helped rebuild and rejuvenate.”
To read more, pick up a copy of the March issue of NTFR Magazine. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
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