The Randall Cattle Breed
Randall cattle are a rare breed of purebred cattle developed in Sunderland, Vermont, on the farm of the late Everett Randall. They are considered to be a landrace breed, descended from the indigenous landrace cattle common in New England in the nineteenth century. Randalls have historically been used as a dairy breed, although they also possess meat and draft qualities.
Randall cattle are variable in size and conformation and have a constitution that is uniquely adapted to extensive or low input farming systems. Historically, the most suitable and natural environment for these cattle has been on small scale forage-based farms, subsistence farms, and homesteads. It is on such farms and homesteads that the unique genetic attributes of the Randalls can be fully expressed.
Are Randall Cattle "Linebacks"?
Randalls do have a colorsided lineback pattern, but are a discreet breed not related to American Lineback cattle or other linebacked cattle breeds. When the rescue of the Randall breed was first underway in the 1980's, and breeding protocols were being developed and implemented for the Randalls, the breed was often referred to as "Randall Lineback", and sometimes, "Randall Blue Lineback" or "Randall Blue". This unfortunately led to confusion between the Randalls and American Lineback cattle, who share a color pattern but are genetically quite different.
Recognizing that using the word "Lineback" in the breed name could, and in fact did, create confusion with American Linebacks, breeders began an effort to simply use "Randall Cattle" as the breed name. An article appearing in the Summer 1999 issue of the Small Farmer's Journal, (entitled "Randall Cattle"), refers to the breed exclusively as "Randall Cattle". Similarly, the use of "Randall Blue" was also dropped, not only because of the fact that only a handful of Randalls are actually blue in color, but because of confusion with the Belgian Blue cattle breed.
When the Registry was incorporated in 2001, in an effort to differentiate the Randalls from other linebacked cattle breeds, the breed was officially named "Randall" cattle, dropping the words "Lineback" and "Blue". In revising their "Conservation Priority" list in 2005, The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC), citing their general policy to list breeds by their registry's chosen name, also adopted "Randall" as the proper name of the Randall cattle breed. The July-August, 2005 issue of "ALBC News", ALBC's bi-monthly newsletter, contains an article written by ALBC's Technical Advisor D. Philip Sponenberg, DVM, Ph.D., (entitled "Randall Cattle"), explaining ALBC's rationale for adopting "Randall" as the breed's official name.
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