“People ask why we chose Cactus Rose Longhorns as our ranch name. The cactus rose theme was carried throughout “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” which we saw in high school. There was a particular line in the movie when John Wayne compared a girl’s cheeks to a colorful cactus rose. At the time we thought that was the funniest and hokiest thing we had ever heard and quoted the line for many years. When we find an oak tree on the new property with a cactus growing in the fork, we knew instantly that we had found our business name. Cactus Rose Longhorns was born in 2005. (The movie remains an all-time favorite until this day.)
For a small operation, we are proud of the success we had, the foundation cows we chose, and the herd we have built. We have owned two Hall of Fame non-haltered females in HL Shadows Sand Plum and CR Unstopabull Chex Appeal. We used those females along with others with strong pedigrees and raised CR Hijo Wow-- a two-time bronze winner at Horn Showcase. His son, CR Gawjus Jawge took control of the 2015 Show Season. Our herd members carry the bloodline of these animals and others we chose along the way. The herd was then infused with El Coyote breeding, Reckon So, Cowboy Casanova and Tuff Trash Chex influences.
We are very selective though as we tend to like what we raise at Cactus Rose. Someone asked the other day about a young heifer who is actually fourth generation Cactus Rose as we owned her mother, grandmother and the great grandmother. That young heifer is not an exception to the rule. We can say that many of our animals’ pedigrees show three or four generations of our breeding. The animals in the pedigrees are not all alike but come from our breeding whether on the top or the bottom. Additionally we have semen stored from two of our favorite bulls—Hijo Wow or Rio B Express which we can also pop back into the herd at any time.
Our story seems identical to so many people in the breed who start with a small number of animals and end up with over fifty in a short time—always looking for more pasture to lease. We finally got the situation under control, and in 2023 we began to reduce our numbers. Having “ripped the bandaid off,” it is our desire to continue downsizing soon. We are members of TLBAA, ITLA and HOTLA with Danny serving as the HOTLA president.
Danny & Merrilou Russell
Breeders of Registered Texas Longhorn Cattle
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