56 The Cattleman March 2013 “The Pedigree BEEFMASTER
is in the Name” ®
FOUNDATION HERD OF THE BEEFMASTER BREED
The 6 Essentials • DISPOSITION • FERTILITY • WEIGHT • CONFORMATION • HARDINESS • MILK PRODUCTION
HE LASATER BEEFMASTER HERD has been a closed herd since 1937, for more than 75 years.
That means that no bulls, cows, fro- zen semen or embryos — no outside genetic material — have been intro- duced into the herd since that time. As far as we know, this herd, the foundation herd of the Beefmaster breed, is the oldest closed herd of beef cattle in existence. The herd represents an interest-
ing genetic experiment, because we don’t know how long it will be able to continue. Today (2013) we have no indication of any problem such as predicted by animal scienists in the late 1950s that would force the owners to go outside the herd and bring in other genetics. The herd also represents an on-
going example of the results that can be achieved by a continuous selection program over an extended period of years. In the case of La- sater Beefmasters, it is a herd where selection has been focused on pro- ductivity (heifers must conceive at 14 to 15 months of age and all females must bring an acceptable calf to the weaning pen each year to remain in the herd) and on natural selection (all breeding is done in multiple-sire herds; no insecticides of any kind have been used since the late 1960s). The Lasater Beefmaster herd,
originally developed in Falfurrias, has been in Matheson, Colo., since the early 1950s. Dale Lasater has been managing