THE INTERNATIONAL MINIATURE CATTLE
BREEDERS SOCIETY AND REGISTRY ®
a division of Happy Mountain® Farm Inc.
THE NEED FOR AND THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING NEW BREEDS OF MINIATURE CATTLE
By Professor Richard Gradwohl


The market for miniature cattle is growing at an estimated rate of about 22% per year according to the International Miniature Cattle Breeders Society. Consumer wants and needs in this niche market are wide and varied. Not everyone wants just one breed because one breed will not serve the extensive variety of customer requirements. There was a time when the smaller Hereford, Zebu and the smaller Dexter breeds were the choices available to those of us that had small acreage. Now there are over twenty-one breeds of miniature cattle; twelve of which are being developed at the Research Facility at Happy Mountain® Miniature Cattle Farm USA.

The amount of land being developed into small parcels of 5 to 10 acres is more every year. Large Herefords or large Angus on these small acreage parcels just doesn't work well. You can put two mini cattle per acre and that makes sense for a small acreage farmer. Who are buying these small acreage parcels? Mostly new farmers sometimes called Hobby Farmers or wantabe farmers or weekend farmers. It's great to move out of the city to the country isn't it? I don't blame them. These new farmers are a welcomed addition to the farm scene; they create a whole new market. The smaller mini cattle are less intimidating to these folks, especially the women folk. A little cow can become a pet, a member of the family, right? You bet. About one-half of all beef cattle are raised by women. This is a very valuable market that should not be underestimated.

I recently sold five Kentshires® to a gal on the East Coast. She's having a great time with her four heifers and a small bull. Her comment "I'm having a ball". She decided to start out with these five animals but down the road she will have four more and then eight more and so on. Starting out as a customer in the pet market she will soon find herself in the breeder market. She will probably be able to sell her calves for as much as she paid for the original breeding stock or more. Her animals are all registered miniature cattle. They are registered in the International Miniature Cattle Breeders Society Registry as miniature Kentshires®. The name Kentshire® is a trademarked name which protects the written breeding program for these animals. Only registered Kentshires® can be called Kentshires®. At this point in time there are only 58 of these animals in the world. As the number of animals increase the price will ultimately come down. That is if the demand stays the same. If the demand continues to climb, which it will, the price will stay high or go higher even if the number of animals increase.

There is a big difference between a breed of cattle and just a crossbreed. There are some people out there that are trying to create small cattle to cash in on the new demand for these little critters. Many of these animals are the result of inbreeding. These are the Heinz 57 animals also known as Mutt cows and they are really nothing. They don't have the genetic prepotency to reproduce in a similar fashion. Most of them don't have a name let alone a trademarked name. They don't have a written breeding program to go by. In most cases they've just grabbed a small whatever and bred that to another small whatever. If it turns out small it will sell. I recently talked to a fellow who had purchased three mini cattle. He called me because all three were sick. Why didn't he call the person he bought them from? I asked him what were the breeds that had gone into making these animals. He didn't have a clue. As it turned out he had picked them up at two months of age and was only feeding them hay and grain. My gosh, we don't wean our animals until four or five months of age. At two months their rumens are just not developed enough to digest grain and hay. They needed their mother's milk. What an idiot! Anyone who is going to raise miniature cattle needs to spend a little time finding out how to care for them. No wonder they were sick. I was surprised they weren't dead. I advised him to take them back to the person that he had bought them from and put them back on their mothers for at least two months. That's what you get for buying Heinz 57 animals from a Mutt cow breeder.

How do you develop a breed of cattle as opposed to a Heinz 57. In larger cattle when you cross an Angus with a Hereford or a Hereford with an Angus you get what is called a Black Baldie or sometimes called a Black Whiteface. Is this a breed? No it is not. It is just a crossbreed. Although this is considered a good cross it is just that, a crossbred animal. By crossing these two breeds you get heterosis or a high performance animal which is a desirable thing. But when you breed any Angus to any Hereford you have not selected a bull with the characteristics that you deem are particularly desirable. You have a Heinz 57. You have not developed any genetic prepotency to breed true from generation to generation.

Now if you're lucky you might find a bull from an existing pure breed with great conformation, desirable temperament, good reproductive ability, the right markings, desired height and many other positive characteristics. This could be an outstanding bull from a breed of your choice. You might decide to breed him to several females from another pure breed of your choice. This would result in what is called F-1 progeny; the F-1 being the result of the first original cross. You could then make a bull selection from these F-1 and breed him to his half sisters from the same group. An F-2 group would be the result of this breeding. Then make a bull selection from this F-2 group and breed him to his half sisters. You repeat this process several times going from F-2-3-4 until you end up with a bull and a large group of cows with the desirable characteristics you had previously determined you wanted. A valuable variation would be to bring in a second chosen sire of common ancestry to increase the genetic base. This entire process is called Linebreeding. Linebreeding is defined as no more than 50% influence of any given ancestor. In his book The Basis of Linebreeding, Jim Lents makes the following statement "In the early stages of Linebreeding many breeders suffer from what is described as breeders claustrophobia, a fear that the matings will become too close, failing to recognize that so long as the blood of any ancestor never exceeds 50% there are no incestuous relationships." When the influence is more than 50% it's inbreeding. Half brother to half sister or full brother to full sister is 50%. Father to daughter, son to mother, grandfather to granddaughter and grandmother to grandson are all over 50%. Such breedings will result in an inbred animal. The risks of inbreeding are well known and should be avoided, that is unless you want a Mutt cow.

Your breeding program needs to have been written including the characteristic standards you hope to achieve. Otherwise the goals against which your judgments are measured are not clear. What you are doing here is developing the genetic prepotency to breed true. You're attempting to focus the genetics so you can produce an animal with similar characteristics every time. Will there be culls? You bet there will. Not every animal will have those exact characteristics you want. Not every animal will be consistent with your previously determined acceptable range of standards. The definition of a breed is "a group of animals from a common background that breed true within an acceptable range of standards". The common background is the original bull selection and the foundational breed crosses that are used. Each animal ends up with 50% percent of its genetics being from the original bull. His genes are maintained through each level of the breeding program. You are Linebreeding off your original bull selection which achieves the goal of his major influence in your herd. Can you use this concept to improve an existing breed? You bet, that's where Linebreeding started years ago. It's all a matter of the most important steps; bull selection at every level to maintain and focus the genetics of the characteristics you want. If you read your Bible and study how the good Lord developed the populations on the earth it's the same thing, Linebreeding, so this is not a new concept.

Here at the Miniature Cattle Research Facility at Happy Mountain® Miniature Farm we are developing twelve new miniature / mid-sized breeds of cattle. They are the American Beltie (Mini Cookie)TM, AuburnshireTM, BarbeeTM, BurienshireTM, Covingtonshire TM, Four Breed Grad-WohlTM, Five Breed Grad-WohlTM,Happy Mountian®, Kentshire®,Red Kentshire®, KingshireTM and PandaTM. These breeds are all based on crossbred foundations. Some are two breed foundations, some are three breed and some are two breed triple cross breeds. They are not just crossbreeds. Of the some 250 breeds of cattle in the world fully 2/3 are based on a crossbred foundation that developed into actual breeds. This can occur naturally in nature or purposely by man. The Dexter, Hereford, Simmental, Santa Gertrudis and many others were originally based on crossbred foundations. Each of the research facility breed development programs has a written breeding plan with predetermined standards against which results are measured. The process of developing a new breed, as I'm sure you have guessed, takes a lot of time and money and patience. Some of our breeds are further along than others but all are based on Linebreeding. I recently developed a written Linebred Kentshire® program for South Africa. I'm including some of the descriptive portions of the program and charts in this article because it really clarifies the process. You can see the entire written program on our web site www.minicattle.com. You can also order a calendar with pictures of each of our twelve foundation bulls. You'll notice that all of our breeds under development have breed names that are trademarked. This distinguishes our Linebred animals from simply crossbred animals that someone may have developed by trying to copy our programs.

There are six markets for miniature cattle, they are the pet market, breeder market, mini-milker market, show market, farm grown beef market and organically grown beef market. The various breeds being developed at the Miniature Cattle Research facility are being developed to appeal to one or more of these six markets. They are also being developed for adaptation to various climatic and pasture conditions in differing regions of the world. Are there naysayers? Sure there are. We get comments like:

"Some individuals seem to want to crossbreed for some reason. If you want to see what a strange looking animal you can produce, go ahead, but if you are considering establishing another breed, it is probably a waste of time, and believe me, it takes a lot of time, and for what purpose! What is the need for another breed?"
Source: Anonymous

"There is really no practical reason to crossbreed except to kill the offspring for beef."
Source: Anonymous


There is a term I used in my marketing classes during the years I was a College Professor; this term is marketing myopia. The above statement illustrates the true meaning of this concept. Some people just don't understand the market, i.e. what other people want and need. When I was a youngster I ran a pop stand on a golf course. I purchased pop in the morning and sold it to golfers when they were at the ninth hole. My older cousin wanted in on my little business deal so being the younger I let him. The next morning I asked him what kind of pop he wanted to buy and sell. He decided on orange flavored pop because that is what he liked. I didn't particularly like Coke but I knew other people did; particularly golfers that liked to mix the Coke I sold them with a little of the hard stuff. At the end of the hot summer day I had sold all of my product and even gone back for more. My cousin had not sold even one bottle but had drank all of his product himself. My cousin had marketing myopia. He assumed that what he liked everyone would like. There are a lot of cattle breeders out there with the same problem. Our vision of the potential market must be wide enough to anticipate future needs.

If you have questions about Linebreeding I refer you to an excellent book by J.H. Lents "The Basis of Linebreeding" A Practical Guide With Illustrations. You can order it from the International Miniature Cattle Breeders Society (253) 631-1911. If you have questions about miniature cattle and the various breeds under development you can call Professor Richard Gradwohl at (253) 631-1911 or (253) 631-5872 or Fax (253) 631-5774 or e-mail info@minicattle.com or visit our web site, www.minicattle.com.


MINIATURE LINEBRED KENTSHIRES® BREEDING PLAN FLOW CHART WITH DESCRIPTIVE NARRATIVE BY PROFESSOR RICHARD GRADWOHL

  • STEP 1
    F1 Progeny (See Chart Step 1)

    Breed Happy Mountain® One semen to Dexter females (artificial insemination). Dexter females are selected for height (42" and under at hook bone), conformation and temperament (docile nature). This first cross results in bulls and heifers that are half brother/half sister and are 50% Miniature Hereford/50% Miniature Dexter. You should get half females and half males.

  • STEP 2
    F2 Progeny (See Chart Step 2)

    Select one F1 bull. Bull selection is the key to developing this herd. When it comes to importance, the bull is half the herd! Desired height, color, markings, size, and conformation are all important in this selection process. Look for the bull with the most beef characteristics and short stature (under 42" at 3 years). The IMCBR frame chart will help you predict height. An all black animal, white face with black around both eyes is desirable markings. Bulls that are not selected (culls) must be steered. Breed the selected F1 bull to all his half sisters. This maintains the 50% Miniature Hereford influence while combining the Dexter genetics of the selected bull with those of each half sister. Each F2 progeny, then, will have 50% Hereford and 25% Dexter from the selected bull female side and 25% Dexter from each particular breeding with a half sister.

  • STEP 3
    F3 Progeny (See Chart Step 3)

    Step three gives another chance at bull selection. Look for the very best F2 bull based on the criteria mentioned above. Breed this bull to all his F2 half sisters (again, bulls not selected must be steered). The 50% Miniature Hereford influence is maintained but this step gives another opportunity to influence the Dexter female side. The F2 bull selected has, as mentioned, 50% Hereford, 25% Dexter from the selected bull and 25% from each particular half sister breeding. The breedings of F2 to F2 will have the genetic influence of Dexter females in the percentage relationship of 25/12.5/12.5. The female influence from the selected bull stays at 25%. The influence of the half sister breedings drops to 12.5 each.

  • STEP 4
    F4 Progeny (See Chart Step 4)

    Now you have a group of animals that are 50% Hereford, 25% Dexter from the F2 breeding and 12.5 from each F2 half sister breedings. The last step requires a last bull selection to be bred to his half sisters. The resulting percentages are 50% Hereford, 25% Dexter from the F2 breeding, 12.5 Dexter from the F3 breeding and 6.25 Dexter from each of the half sister breedings. Hopefully this last breeding results in a bull. During the process of step two and step three additional breedings take place to produce more F2 and F3 heifers to breed to your selected bulls at these levels. Sooner or later an outstanding F4 bull is developed. Additional bull refinement selection can take place at the F2, F3 and F4 levels. The F4 bull is the best of the best. Once he has been developed breedings with all qualified Dexter females can take place (refer to breed standards for definition of qualified Dexter females). The size of the herd is unlimited.

    Through bull selection at the F1, F2, F3 and F4 levels the prepotency of genetic focus to reproduce similarly should be developed. These bull selection choices develops a herd of animals, which in the eyes of the breeder are the best he can produce. This is what linebreeding is all about. The development of an outstanding breed of cattle through selective breeding that creates great hybrid vigor. The Linebred Kentshire® is an outstanding dual-purpose animal for both progeny milking ability and beef characteristics with the best of both foundation breeds.


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