Agricola cattle are typical, medium range Pineywoods cattle from the
Agricola area. Luther Schell and Bo Howard had these, so the three are
all the same and we are tending to use Agricola as the strain name. The
cattle varied in color, but several were very attractive speckled and
mottled color, several of which are black in base color instead of the more usual reds and tans. Thomas Allen has a good
many of these now, and I believe
Howard and Schell still have a few left.
These are usually
small to medium sized, with horns varying from short to medium, and usually with a broad outward twist in the cows.
Many of the originals were fairly uniformly spotted and speckled with black or brown on a white background, or the reverse
– small white spots over a colored background. The original Schell cattle were mostly from Agricola,
MS,
some from Purvis, MS or Poplarville, MS. A Conway bull was used in the herd, and then it is uncertain whether this continued
or whether a 1/2 Conway 1/2 Agricola bull was used. In any event, most of these cows do not closely resemble the Conway
line at this point.
-- Phil Sponenberg
