House Resolution 62

A RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING THE PINEYWOODS CATTLE, THE COLONIAL SPANISH/PINE TACKY HORSE AND THE GULF COAST NATIVE SHEEP AS THE OFFICIAL HERITAGE BREEDS OF CATTLE, HORSE AND SHEEP, RESPECTIVELY.

WHEREAS, the Pineywoods cattle, the Colonial Spanish/Pine Tacky horse and the Gulf Coast Native sheep are breeds particularly special to Mississippi farmers, breeders and herders, and should be recognized as the official Heritage Breeds of cattle, horse and sheep, respectively; and

WHEREAS, Pineywoods cattle are an endangered breed of "heritage" livestock that are descended from the original Spanish stock left along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama by the Spanish explorers in the early 1500s, and the cattle evolved to be naturally resistant to most diseases and are able to forage on rough vegetation that commercial cattle will not touch; and

WHEREAS, furthermore, Pineywoods are also "dry land" cattle and have evolved to avoid predators by spending only a minimum amount of time at the watering hole, which makes them very low impact cattle, as they do not contribute to bank erosion and fouling of streams like most domestic stock; and

WHEREAS, Colonial Spanish/Pine Tacky horses, one of the rarest of any breed, are an overlooked treasure in Mississippi and extremely important because they came from the region of the Choctaw nation before most of the group was removed to Oklahoma in the 1830s; and

WHEREAS, the Choctaw people have been an important horse-owning society for many centuries, and for most of that time, the Choctaw horses were all Colonial Spanish horses, making this horse an important part of Choctaw heritage; and

WHEREAS, Colonial Spanish horses, also sometimes called Spanish Mustangs, have a long and rich heritage of use throughout North America, but have become increasingly rare in the 1900s to the point that now nearly all strains are rare or near extinction; and

WHEREAS, the Gulf Coast Native is a breed of sheep native to the states bordering the Gulf Coast, and also occasionally known as the Louisiana Scrub, Pineywoods Native or simply Gulf Coast sheep, the breed is a mix of many of the sheep varieties which populated the Southern United States during the European colonization of the region; and

WHEREAS, by the mid 20th century, Gulf Coast Native sheep supplied nearly all the raw wool for the Southern United States and hundreds of thousands of them existed; however, post-World War II, deworming medications and other advances were widely introduced to the sheep industry in the United States, meaning more modern breeds with greater production capacity could be introduced to the South, but this led to a precipitous decline in the numbers of Gulf Coast Native sheep; and

WHEREAS, the Gulf Coast sheep is now an exceedingly rare breed, but one valuable for its ability to adapt to the hot humid climate of the Gulf Coast, and they are listed as "critical" on the conservation priority list of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy; and

WHEREAS, it is the policy of the House of Representatives to acknowledge the exceeding rare breeds of livestock in the state and draw attention to their unique characteristics that make them extremely useful to Mississippi and Mississippi farmers:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby recognize the Pineywoods cattle, the Colonial Spanish/Pine Tacky horse and the Gulf Coast Native sheep as the official Heritage Breeds of cattle, horse and sheep, respectively.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation and to the members of the Capitol Press Corps.