Shortly after purchasing ten acres of land a half mile from our house, two stray llamas wandered over for several days causing our lives to change forever! It was because of their visit — and subsequent quick departure — that Lynda felt the need to acquire some “pasture pets.” After a neighbor told her to “get a dog... if she wanted a pet,” she was determined to own something that would bring purpose and pleasure to the newly acquired green pastures around our home. That was nearly eight years ago, and neither of us knew then what those next few years would hold in store.

We could now write a book on the Do’s and Don’ts of starting and maintaining a cattle operation (... does this sound a little familiar?) Even though we were properly advised to buy a certain type of truck, the right kind of stock trailer, and other necessary equipment — from the beginning, we’ve done it our way. We have a lot of great memories wrapped up in taking bus tours, attending and showing cattle at TLBAA and ITLA affiliate shows and state and county fairs, greeting curiosity seekers and Texas Longhorn enthusiasts at gas stations and on trips across Texas, attending showmanship training classes, living through AI school, and now with hosting our recently-updated website www.LoneStarLonghorns.com.

What started out as only three pretty heifers on our ten-acre plot in Santa Fe, Texas, has grown to now include a couple of lease pastures, and also the purchase of nearly 30 additional acres of land near Centerville, Texas. Our goal is to keep a herd of about twenty and...as they say in Brenham.... “Sell the rest.”

Our greatest pleasure has come from the success of students showing our own“bred, born and raised” Texas Longhorns as part of the NASA Longhorn Project. We also credit our other youth exhibitors: Kathryn Head, Matthew Head, Johnna Williams, and Kelli Williams who have played a major role in promoting our breeding program and benefitted from the Autobahn Scholarship Funds with their ongoing participation in major shows.

One in Every Hand!
David & Lynda Bradley accepting awards
at the 2006 Winchester Futurity

Our breeding program is based on the total package of horns, conformation, temperament, and color. We purchased our first three heifers by private treaty and have raised the majority of the animals in our herd. Only five cows were purchased at sales. In the past, we used top-quality lease bulls and some selected AI work for breeding. We now have three young bulls that will begin their work as our herd sires over the next few years.

LSL Starbuck, our Starliner son, sired several 2006 calves with the qualities we like to see and three of these are now on the 2007 show circuit. Others are impressive young pasture-pet steers with promising horn growth.

A couple of years ago, we had the opportunity to use Darlene Aldridge's outstanding grulla bull, Frontier Justice, and retained a superior heifer, LSL SkyDancer (whose dam is our own LS Peaches N Cream) and we will use this lineage as the foundation for much of our future breeding. The use of Frontier Justice also brought us our top-looking grulla bull, LSL Quick Silver. This promising young bull was used as our herd sire for the current season and his first calves will begin hitting the ground in mid-March. The grulla coloring is a rare and desirable color trait and we feel we have an outstanding grulla bull that will pass on these genetics to his offspring.

Another promising young bull prospect is LSL Gold Rush who won first in his class in both Youth and Open at the 2007 Houston Livestock Show. His sire is Rafter H’s Emperor’s Echo and our show champion, LSL Rio de Janeiro.

Attractive coloring, beautiful horns, top conformation, and a gentle temperament are important to us. We offer our buyers not only “show quality” animals, but also a superior animal on all levels that will provide top benefit to their program well beyond the show season.

You can find David and Lynda at their ranch near Santa Fe, Texas. Their phone number is (409) 316-1339 or visit them on the internet at www.lonestarlonghorns.com