GREENCASTLE, Ind. – Despite popular belief, Texas Longhorns are not exclusive to the Lone Star state. The cattle, with horns up to 8 feet long, are also raised throughout the Midwest.

About 50 head of registered heritage breeds of the cattle will arrive in Indiana for judging next month.

No cattle drives are planned to get them here from other states like Ohio, Wisconsin and Kentucky, but the atmosphere should be very much to the liking of cowboys or people who always dreamed of being a cowboy.

“There’s nothing better than sitting on the front porch and watching your cows just graze out in the pasture,” said Phil Buckler, treasurer of the Midwest Texas Longhorn Association (MTLA).

The MTLA is hosting its annual show this year on June 25 at the Putnam County fairgrounds in Greencastle between Indianapolis and Terre Haute.

Buckler said MTLA members and even non-members can enter their longhorns, which will be judged haltered and without halters.

There will be a silent auction and a raffle for a 12-gauge shotgun to raise money for the organization. The Putnam County 4-H Dairy Club will also be selling concessions. Among the event’s sponsors are Co-Alliance, Tractor Supply Co., Tomey Farms, Lost River Ranch, Miller-Eads Automation, State Farm and Adobe Ranch Designs.

The number of longhorns raised in Midwest pales in comparison to Texas, which houses nearly one-half of the more than 330,000 longhorns in the nation, according to the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America.

Buckler said there’s no shortage of love in the Midwest, though, for the breed.

Longhorns, once a major source of beef, are considered physically tougher than traditional cattle and much riskier to handle because of their ability to gore humans and animals with their sharp-pointed horns.

Buckler said longhorns must be handled carefully but their appearance can be deceiving. “They’re pretty to look at. They’re gentle. They’re low maintenance.  That’s why people have them here,” he said.

Buckler said he and his wife, Jesse, have four longhorns at the farm of her father, Jim Small, who has about 30 head of his own in Attica, about 30 miles southwest of Lafayette.

Jesse Buckler grew up helping her father raise longhorns, along with corn and soybeans, on his 1,000-acre farm.

About 200 acres of his ground is pasture for the longhorns to roam and graze. “When I married my wife, I married the longhorns,” Phil Buckler said.

According to historians, longhorns migrated here when Spanish conquistadores brought them to an island in the Caribbean to provide food for the colonists in 1493. The Spaniards later used them in Mexico and gradually moved them north into what later became Texas to help with expanding settlements in the 17th century.

Longhorns were popular among ranchers because of their ability to better resist drought and survive on poor vegetation of the open range, according to historians.

Eventually, ranchers took a liking to other breeds of livestock with ability to gain weight more quickly for marketing as beef. According to historians, the longhorn in 1927 was nearly extinct in the United States.

A rebound in their numbers began when the U.S. Forest Service took a breed of longhorns to a wildlife refuge in Oklahoma. Their popularity for use as beef also made a comeback because of their leaner meat and link to Texas history.

Raising longhorns for beef in Texas is big business at some ranches.

However, the animals on farms in the Midwest are typically registered and used mostly for breeding, Phil Buckler said.

He said longhorns in the Midwest are also used often for shows and conversation pieces because of their history and widely different physical characteristics. He said the size and positioning of their horns, along with the color of their hides, are often not the same.

Buckler said longhorns are also better than mainstream cattle at clearing heavy brush from a pasture. “They’ll eat anything from scrub grass to weeds,” he said. The longhorns also trample even the thickest of briar patches while grazing.

Buckler said he also finds watching and tending to his longhorns a source of tremendous relief from the stress of his full-time job in factory automation.

He often envisions himself as a cowboy on a horse quietly tending to his herd or with his boots kicked up after a long day. “It’s just how they look and the lifestyle. It’s just so relaxing and so peaceful. That’s what I like about it,” he said.

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