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AYN FOUNDATION
Photo by Dallas Baxter
(DAS MAXIMUM)
ANDY WARHOL:
Milton Faver driving cattle across the Rio Grande under a full moon. Stylle Read
mural, Alpine, 2005
The Texas-Mexican Cattle Connection
THE LAST SUPPER
by Barbara Novovitch
MARIA ZERRES:
SEPTEMBER ELEVEN
Brite Building, 107-109 N Highland, Marfa • Open weekends noon to 5pm or by appointment.
Please call 432.729.3315 for more information.
a facility of the
Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute
Est. 1974
botanical gardens
open
year-round!
cactus & succulent greenhouse
hiking trails
located on ST HWY 118
outdoor & indoor exhibits 4 mi. S. of Fort Davis
nature shop closed major holidays
workshops & programs Open 9-5, Mon.-Sat.
citizen science opportunities www.cdri.org
school & tour groups welcome 432-364-2499
16
V
eterinary workers who certify the health of
Mexican cattle at the border, brokers who
buy the animals, truckers who transport the
yearlings across miles of highway, ranchers who
move the cattle onto pastures for feeding – all are
aware that the cattle connections between Texas
and Mexico ain’t what they used to be. It’s way
more complicated – to assure that only certain cat-
tle breeds come in and that all are free of disease.
In the old days, the cattle deals were usually
made between cross-border neighbors, and there
were few checks and papers beyond the practiced
eyes and hands of the buyer to determine the ani-
mals’ health.
In the mid-70s, concerns about brucellosis, a
breeding disease that can be transmitted at calv-
ing time, led to stringent blood tests. Now the
United States is considered a brucellosis-free area,
and Mexican traders largely provide sexless cattle
(castrated males and spayed females). Currently
the U.S. Department of Agriculture demands
scratch tests for ticks, further close inspection in
four hydraulic squeeze chutes (four cattle at a
time) and dipping in a 5,500-gallon vat filled with
coumaphos, a special insecticide. Then the cattle
are released into pens to dry off before loading
onto trucks for their trip across the border.
Dr. Bill Brown, port veterinarian at the busiest
Texas cattle crossing – Presidio/Ojinaga – has
been at his job since 1999, and he’s seen plenty of
increasing conflict in Mexico spurred by battles
between drug lords and the local police or
Mexican army. He and his employees work main-
ly in Mexico.
After U.S. Army service, Brown – born in the
Texas border town of Eagle Pass and bilingual
from childhood – was schooled at Texas A&M
and practiced in Pearsall, then Del Rio and
Cenizo
First Quarter 2012
Laredo for 18 years, then at the Texas Animal
Health Commission for 22 years. The last five
years at that job were spent in Mexico, in the
Mexican-U.S. cattle TB program, working in 21
different Mexican states. He “retired” and moved
to Marfa, taking over his current responsibilities
just a week into his second “retirement.”
All the cattle checked through at
Presidio/Ojinaga have a metal ear tag for identi-
fication. And since last year, the inspection chute
is hydraulic. Another change from the outdoor
cowboy days, said Brown, is that “now, the big
inspection building is like a greenhouse – heated
in winter, cool in summer.”
The USDA mandates that Brown maintain a
balanced work force, he said, but he could find
only one other Anglo to join his team. One man
is on horseback, and he furnishes his own horse.
One of his men, he added, is 82 years old – “he’s
scratched more than a million cattle.”
It’s rough work, and sometimes he or his men
are injured. Once a bull struck Brown in the head,
and Brown was flown to Odessa to see a brain
surgeon. “But the clot on the brain went away,”
Brown said, adding that he’d also been kicked in
the face by a Brahman cow and over the years of
dealing with large animals, had suffered injuries
to his back, arms and legs.
“It’s sure changed from the cowboy days,” he
said, adding that visual and tactile inspection –
not just the dipping that relies on insecticides to be
sure the cattle are “clean” – still rank among the
most important checks. For example, the United
States no longer allows Holstein breeds into the
country because Mexican Holsteins have been
infected with tuberculosis.
“We enjoy an excellent working relationship
with Mexico,” he said, “but occasionally, a few