The Beefmaster cattle breed is a relatively young breed, developed by Tom Lasater in the 1940s out of work his dad, Ed, started on their Lasater Ranch in Texas in the United States around the early 1900s.
The Beefmaster cattle breed was developed out of an intensive crossbreeding programme between Brahman and Hereford bulls, Hereford cows and Brahman bulls, and Shorthorn cows and Brahman bulls, with the descendants being bred in a three-way cross to different bulls within the herd.
The herd had been closed since 1937, which means that no new genetic material had been introduced since then. The closure is said to have led to increased performance in the offspring.
Lasater believed that breeders should ignore general and cosmetic traits, such as skin and coat colour, horns and height in favour of economically important traits, such as beef and milk traits. As such, the Beefmaster was developed to conform to what Lasater coined as the “Six Essentials” of breeding, namely disposition, fertility, weight, conformation, hardiness and milk production. This in turn has led to the breed’s name, which implies that it is the Master of all Beef breeds.
The Beefmaster, which was accepted by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1954, has slightly less than one half Brahman blood and slightly more than one-fourth Hereford and Shorthorn.
Beefmaster cattle are a large breed of cattle known for its beef production in South Africa. According to Beefmaster SA, Tony Brink is seen ...