The Florida CrackerorFlorida Scrub is an American breedofcattle which originated in Spanish Florida and later in the American state of Florida.[5][6][7] It is named for the Florida cracker culture in which it was kept. It is one of the Criollo breeds that descend from the Spanish cattle originally brought to the Americas by the Spanish Conquistadors; among the other North American breeds in this group are the Pineywoods, the Corriente and Texas Longhorn.[8]: 87 Unlike the Pineywoods – to which it is closely related – the Florida Cracker has not been inter-bred with breeds of North European origin.[8]: 119
The Florida Cracker, like other Criollo cattle, derives from cattle brought by the Conquistadores from Spain to the Americas from 1493 onwards; these numbered no more than 300 head in all, and were brought to Hispaniola and other Caribbean islands. Cattle from Cuba were landed in Spanish Florida in 1565, and there was another shipment from the same source in 1640.[7]: 277 By the beginning of the eighteenth century the total number of cattle in the Spanish part of what is now the United States – Florida and parts of modern Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi – was estimated at between 15000 and 20000 head.[7]: 277 These were triple-purpose cattle, reared for meat, for milk and for draft work. They were managed extensively, living in semi-feral conditions for much of the time.[9]: 177 [7]: 277
After 1949 the combination of new laws about free-roaming livestock and the introduction of larger beef breeds led to the rapid decline of the Florida Cracker.[8]: 119 Despite the continued work of the Florida state government and a breed association, the breed is still listed as "critical" by The Livestock Conservancy,[3] and is listed on Ark of Taste of the Slow Food Foundation.[10] In 2018 it was named the official state heritage cattle breed.[11]
Florida Cracker cows are one of the oldest and rarest breeds of cattle in United States.[3] Descended from Spanish stock imported to the continent in the sixteenth century, Florida Crackers cows are a small, horned breed that quickly adapted to the Florida landscape and have long been prized for their resistance to parasites and other hardy traits.[8]: 119 They weigh generally under 900 pounds (400 kg), come in many colors, and both males and females are horned.[4]
^ abcdJanet Vorwald Dohner (2001). The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds. New Haven, Connecticut; London: Yale University Press. ISBN0300088809.
