The Santa Gertrudis cattle breed, part of beef production in South Africa, was bred by Robert Kleberg Jr of King Ranch in the United States.
Kleberg had over 6 000 Hereford and Shorthorn cows on his range spanning 400 000 ha. These animals were good growers, but struggled to adapt to the harsh climatic conditions and abundance of insect and disease challenges associated with South Texas.
In 1910, one of the bulls on the range, a half-Brahman, half-Shorthorn bull, jumped a fence into a pasture of 3 000 Shorthorn heifers, according to the Texas State Historical Association. The offspring were much better adapted to the production conditions thanks to the Brahman influence and produced good growth as well as meat qualities, thanks to the influence of the shorthorn.
Kleberg mated a Brahman bull, called Vinotero, with a descendant of the original bull resulting in a dark-red male with superior qualities, called Monkey, because of his playful nature. All the superior cattle sired by Monkey were selected to be part of the Santa Gertrudis breed, which means that he, in effect, became the “father” of all the Santa Gertrudis cattle in the world. By the age of 14, when Monkey died, he already yielded 150 sons that were suited for stud production.
In 1940, Santa Gertrudis cattle, containing three-eighths Brahman and five-eighths shorthorn blood, became the first breed to be recognised by the United States Department of Agriculture, as an authentic synthetic breed. The breed derives its name from one of the earlier names of the area occupied by King Ranch: “Los Cerros de Santa Gertrudis,” which means the hills of Santa Gertrudis.
Production in South Africa
Around the 1960s, Roley Taylor of Estcourt in Natal seems to have been the first farmer to import Santa Gertrudis into South Africa, with cattle from Texas.
Prof. Jan Bonsma, thereafter, acquired some of the cattle for the Mara experimental station in the old Northern Transvaal. This herd was later moved to the experimental farm in the Northern Cape and later to Omatjenne in Namibia, where the cattle performed exceptionally under the supervision of Mr R. Bostlap.
The Santa Gertrudis Cattle Breeders Society of South Africa, Santa Gertrudis SA, was established in 1973 to promote and improve the breed in South Africa.
Attributes
The Santa Gertrudis are medium framed cattle in South Africa, with mature cows weighing around 530 kg and bulls weighing about 900 kg or more. Cows have strong maternal traits, producing small calves that grow above average, to reach weaner weights of about 230 kg, in comparison with the national breed average of about 215 kg, as reported by Santa Gertrudis SA.
Cows are able to yield high-quality calves even up to fifteen years of age, and may babysit one another’s calves in order to protect them when the “mother” grazes.
Performance tests have revealed that the breed is one of the fastest growers, gaining between 1.6 kg to 2 kg per day, they also have superior feed conversion, with many of the bulls participating in growth tests consuming less than six kilograms of feed for one kilogram in weight gain.
The cattle have dark red, smooth coats and their well-hooded eyes help to prevent cancer and pink eyes. They have strong legs and are exceptional good foragers, covering long distances in search of food and water.
Production Regions
The Santa Gertrudis breed, because of its ability to adapt to a wide range of climatic conditions are produced in all parts of South Africa.
Use
While Santa Gertrudis can be used on its own in closed herds, they are also used in crossbreeding programmes, to produce hybrid vigour and enhance meat quality, maternal traits and hardiness to other breeds.
Meat Quality
Santa Gertrudis SA labels the breed as the “number one performer on veld and feedlot”, with slaughter percentages being of the highest of all breeds, averaging around 65%. The meat is also of high quality.
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