05/25/2026
Interesting! I've never heard of this breed.
In 1985, there were fewer than 24 Randall Lineback cattle left on Earth. The breed — once the foundation of New England farming — was about to vanish forever. One Virginia rancher decided that wasn't going to happen.
The Randall Lineback is one of the oldest cattle breeds in American history. The breed's ancestors fought under George Washington — used to haul French cannons through the night during the 1776 Battle of Boston, helping the colonists defeat the British. For 300 years, they were a foundation breed across New England.
Then industrial dairy and beef breeds took over. By the 1980s, the entire global Randall Lineback population had collapsed to fewer than two dozen animals, all on one farm in Sunderland, Vermont. When the Randall family stopped farming, the breed was about to die.
A Tennessee farmer named Cynthia Creech bought the last 15 cows. She rebuilt the breed for nearly two decades, then moved her herd north to New England in 2002.
In 2002, a former corporate strategy consultant named Joe Henderson bought 21 of Creech's animals — 15 females and 6 bulls — and brought them to his 600-acre Chapel Hill Farm in Berryville, Virginia. With genetics advice from a Virginia veterinary college, Henderson rebuilt a sustainable population.
Today, there are approximately 300 Randall Lineback cattle on Henderson's farm — the largest single herd in the world. The breed has been pulled back from the absolute edge of extinction.
"If you want to lose money on cattle," Henderson told WTOP, "you ought to lose it on a cow that needs it."
Some men preserve buildings. Some preserve land. Henderson preserved a breed that helped win the Revolution.
What heritage breeds are worth saving in your region? And do you think breed preservation is romantic or impractical?
Source: WTOP News / Drovers / US News, 2018-2020
