Brahman

The Brahman is an American breed built from Indian cattle. Between the 1850s and the 1920s a few hundred Bos indicus animals of several Indian types were imported to Texas and the Gulf states and bred together into something new, registered here from 1924.

What they brought is tolerance. Brahmans handle heat and humidity that shut British breeds down, they sweat through more of the skin, the hump and loose hide help shed heat, and they carry real resistance to ticks and biting insects. Cows are long-lived and often still producing at fifteen.

They are the reason cattle production works on the Gulf Coast at all, mostly through crosses rather than as purebreds.

The trade is at both ends of the map and the plate. They do poorly in severe cold, and Brahman beef has a reputation for being less tender, which is why almost every Brahman-influenced breed below sits at a fraction rather than the full blood.