Posted on March 9, 2009 - by Russell

Breed Guidelines - Hooks and Rump

In this issue of our Breed Guidelines we will be talking about the rear-end structure of a Longhorn. The hooks (or hip bones) should be broad and reasonably prominent with a downward slop toward the pin bones. You want to avoid narrowness in the hooks and extreme levelness from hooks to pins as these will effect calving ease. The rump should be long with a slop from the hooks to pins. The Longhorn rump has a very different look than some of the other beef breeds. The Longhorn generally carries more lean meat with less fat on its rump. A big rounded rump is not normally characteristic of the Longhorn breed, that is not to say that there are not some bloodlines within the industry that are beefier than others. But even the rumps of these beefier Longhorns have a different look to them than that of beef cattle.

Example of good slop from hooks to pins

Example of extremely level hooks to pins, fat on tail head and pin bones.