For best in Brahman cattle, all the world comes to Texas
A number of exclusive locales are hidden away in corners of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, but few are as moneyed — or as opulent — as the International Committee Salon.
“We’ve just served lunch today, so that’s why we’re busy,” said Julie Shannon, this year’s chair of the committee, which plays host to around 2,600 visitors from 88 countries. The cavernous room on NRG Center’s second floor features oil paintings and deep leather couches and heavy wooden tables topped with tall iron sconces. A country singer standing in front of a starry desert backdrop serenaded hundreds of foreigners munching fajitas dished out by smiling volunteers, while booze flowed freely from open bars at each end of the room — all free of charge, with a
passport and proof that you’re in the agriculture business.
“With your credentials, you’re our guest,” said Shannon. Activities also include a lunch for spouses, a carnival and BBQ at George Ranch, and a party with dinner and dancing where the dress code is “jungle chic.”
The International Committee, however, isn’t just a welcome mat. Its 640 members also grease the wheels of big business, shepherding cattle magnates to Texas breeders and providing translators when language gaps arise.
The committee estimates it facilitated $2.6 million in agricultural sales last year.
“Putting a breeder and a buyer together, that’s the goal,” said Ramon Moya, the state’s coordinator for agricultural exports, who staffs a table in the salon.
‘Capital of the world’
What are most of the visitors looking for? Floppy-eared, hump-backed Brahman cattle.
Texas is a powerhouse producer of Brahmans, the hardy bovines that thrive in hot conditions. They were introduced to America from India, but in recent decades, the United States has been exporting them back to the rest of the world — especially the countries around the equator, where English dairy breeds wither in the sun.
“Texas is the capital of the world for Brahmans,” said Odel Gutierrez Salgado, a rancher who leads the Brahman breeders’ association of Nicaragua.
The Brahman breed’s stock has risen even higher in recent years, as a number of countries only recently started allowing imports of American cattle after a long hiatus on account of the mad cow disease epidemic of the mid-2000s. Venezuela lifted its restrictions in just the past year, for example, and 45 Venezuelans came to the show to shop for new specimens.
Furthermore, climate change has increased the need for animals that can withstand extremes of heat and humidity. Brahmans are tough, and American breeders are experimenting with genetic crosses to make them even tougher.
“In Australia, we love the American genetics,” said David Harch, an Australian breeder who especially appreciates the Brahman’s resistance to ticks. “They’re powerful genetics. They’ve had a major influence on our cattle.”
There were 833 Brahmans at the Houston show this year, the largest breed category out of 4,368 total cattle. During Brahman shows and sales, stands are filled with ranchers sporting International Committee badges that note their nationalities. In the sawdusty rows of tethered bulls and heifers, breeders lure buyers in with livingroom-like stage sets complete with foliage, comfortable ranch furniture, and in one case, a frozen daiquiri machine.
Second to none
The biggest Brahman breeder in Texas, J.D. Hudgins, has a map on the wall with pushpins in every town where it’s sent cattle (or their genetic material). They’re clustered in central and south America but extend to South Africa, southeast Asia and Australia.
“The American Brahman has brought 95 percent of the foreign customers here,” said Bill Hudgins, a co-owner of the operation, which boasts about 1,500 heifers about an hour south of Houston. After visiting the rodeo, buyers will often come by Hudgins’ ranch, where live animal sales take place — and take care of other errands as well while they’re in the city. “That ticket they bought up here, they’ll get themselves checked out at our great medical facilities, and come check the cattle out.”
Rachel Cutrer, owner of V8 Brahmans in Boling, said international buyers account for 30 percent of her sales overall, and 99 percent of sales at the Houston show. The International Committee, she said, is a big reason for that.
“They help get the buyers here,” Cutrer said. “I go to livestock shows all over the U.S. There is no other show like Houston that has the international presence. A lot of other shows are trying to get that market, and I think it’s because of the volunteers and the hospitality that they have here.”
Brahmans aren’t the only cattle breed America exports — Beefmasters, for example, have a decent clientele. But Gary Lindsey, who raises black Beefmasters in Madisonville, said there’s no comparison when it comes to sales around the world.
“Ain’t nobody going to catch the Brahmans,” he said.
Popular committee
Back at the International Committee Salon, Shannon — for whom the chairmanship is a full-time job — was prepping for a visit with Texas’ commissioner of agriculture, Sid Miller. Committee members also had a meet and greet with the Russian minister of agriculture and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. Around 70 Chinese businesswomen had come through, as well as the Colombian minister of agriculture.
That kind of access to power doesn’t come cheap. While most of the rodeo’s 107 volunteer committees have a standard $50 membership fee, the International Committee costs $350 per year at a minimum. Many members chip in even more at an annual fundraising dinner to finance the committee’s operations.
That is, if you can get a spot — they don’t open up frequently. People on the committee often had parents on the committee, and multidecade tenures are common.
“People who get on this committee tend to stay on it forever. They love it,” Shannon said. When it comes time to select new members, the committee looks for people with agricultural experience and language proficiency.
But some people are just born into it. Randy Pauly’s mom did the flower arrangements for the International Committee Salon when he was a kid, and he got on the committee 18 years ago to help with the AV system. Now, he sports a belt buckle in the image of the Guatemalan flag — a gift from a rancher whom he’d shown around a rodeo cook-off.
“It’s pure love,” Pauly says. “You get back what you put into it, but there is so many more levels, because of the relationships, the love from the guests, it’s unbelievable.”