HORTOBAGY NATIONAL PARK, Hungary — The medieval cattle drives were the stuff of legend. Every year, tough Hungarian cowboys drove tens of thousands of half-wild longhorns across the Danube River to the beef markets of Western Europe, fighting off rustlers along the way.
The drives were a staple for nearly three centuries, before they tapered off. But the Hungarian Gray longhorn remained at the heart of this country's beef industry and traditions until the 1950s, when communist agricultural officials decreed the strong, beautiful but bony animals an uneconomical and non-modern breed that should be replaced. Barely 100 Hungarian Grays survived to the early 1960s, most kept by isolated farmers.
Today, boosted by fears of mad cow disease in other cattle, the free-ranging longhorns are once again in high demand. There are about 4,000 purebreds, their number growing at more than 10% a year.
A very limited supply of the tasty beef goes to specialty products such as organic baby food and salami.
The biggest herd is here at Hortobagy National Park, in the heart of the puszta, the great Hungarian plain that once was home to the cowboys known as haiduks -- a rugged and romantic breed of men almost as wild as their cattle.
"The name doesn't just mean animal herder. It implies that they were fighting," said Endre Kaltenecker, chief breeder at the park. "They had to protect their animals against rustlers when driving them to Italy or Germany. At the same time, since they were good fighters, they could rob houses along the road. They also fought for Hungary's independence over the centuries."
It is often said the Grays arrived in Hungary along with the nomadic Magyar tribes that conquered the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century. Some argue that they are descended from an indigenous breed of aurochs, an extinct kind of wild European longhorn that resembles cattle seen in ancient Egyptian paintings. Still others say the Gray cattle came in with waves of settlers several centuries after the Magyar conquest.
Today's longhorns probably trace their ancestry to all of these sources, said Mihaly Boda, the national park's deputy director, who heads its efforts to preserve the Gray cattle and other threatened Hungarian domestic animals, including special varieties of sheep, pig and water buffalo.
The longhorns are less meaty than most cattle, poor milk-givers and slow to mature. But their wild beauty, enhanced by their distinctive wide-curved horns, inspires devotion from those who work with them.
