Reason #45,889 Why I Love To Blog -- Yes, This Can Be Connected Back To The Bakken -- Jluly 18, 2019

One thing leads to another.

Early on in the blog, I got a real kick out of some of well names selected by Slawson, CLR, Enerplus, and some others.

CLR had an entire group of wells named after cattle.

And then one thing led to another.

First there was Buelingo.

Then there was Brangus. At the time, I moved on, not having the time to look further.

So, now, on a slow news day -- a very slow news day -- back to Brangus.

From wiki:

Brangus is a hardy and popular breed of beef cattle, a cross between an Angus and a Brahman. Animals eligible for registration as Brangus cattle are 5/8 Angus and 3/8 Brahman. Brangus is a registered trademark of the International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA).

So where did this all come from? It turns out that this particular breeding is a strategy for tick resistance in tropical cattle and other tropical/sub-tropical maladies. 

Which led me to Zebu cattle, or maybe, "zebu" cattle.

That was new to me. Apparently zebu cattle are thought to be be the world's oldest domesticated cattle. The name Zebu today can be used as a direct name for that breed of cattle but it is also used as a general name for breeds such as Brhaman, Gir, Guzera, and Nelore.

The 30-second speech would include:

• Zebu originated in Southwest Asia, having evolved from three breeds of Indian cattle (Guzerat, Nelore, Gir)
• to Africa at an early data
• to Brazil in the 17th and 18th century
• 1921: nine-year ban on Zebu imports due to a Rinderpest outbreak
• characteristic large ears, loose skin, presence of a hump: used as method to identify pure-bred Indian cattle
• Indu-Brazil breed
• why breeders like Zebu:
• heat tolerant
• parasite (tick) and disease resistance
• hardy
• milk, meat, and draft

So, it appears cattle breeders saw global warming coming centuries ago and started breeding heat-tolerant cattle.