Laurie Lasater Took the Beefmaster to Mexico and Built Isa Cattle Co.

Who Was Laurie Lasater?

Laurence Matthews Lasater was born in 1941 and died in 2025. He is known for introducing the Beefmaster to Mexico and for founding Isa Cattle Co. in San Angelo, Texas. The Western Livestock Journal obituary is the basis for most of the dates here.

He was the son of Beefmaster founder Tom Lasater and the brother of Dale Lasater.

Beefmasters in Coahuila, 1964 to 1972

In 1964 he moved to Coahuila, Mexico, and introduced the Beefmaster breed there. He stayed until 1972. Beefmasters were suited to hot, dry range, and Mexico offered a large market for cattle that could handle it.

The experience gave him a base of customers and breeding data outside the United States before he built his own company.

Isa Cattle Co. was not his first venture; it grew out of eight years of work in Mexico, and that overseas experience shaped the customer base it served.

Isa Cattle Co. in San Angelo

He founded Isa Cattle Co. in 1972 in San Angelo and served as its chairman. The company markets Beefmaster genetics worldwide.

The BBU article on the 2017 inductees adds that he has bred Beefmasters since 1964 and served as president of the Foundation Beefmaster Association.

Based in San Angelo, Texas, the company operates in the same state where his father first developed the breed, which keeps the business close to its genetics and its original customers.

Books and the Lasater Philosophy

He wrote four books. The best known, The Lasater Philosophy of Cattle Raising, appeared in 1972. The obituary says it is in its 17th printing and has been translated into Spanish and Russian.

The book carried his father's selection ideas to ranchers who never saw the Falfurrias herd.

Translations into Spanish and Russian suggest the reach of the ideas beyond the United States, and the printing count shows ongoing demand for a book first published in 1972.

Industry Leadership

Besides the associations above, he held directorships at the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which placed him in rooms where beef policy and marketing were discussed.

His service at Nolan Ryan Beef tied his work to a branded-beef venture.

Directorships on national boards meant he took part in policy and marketing decisions, not only breeding ones. That breadth set his career apart from many seedstock breeders, who stay close to the home herd.

Honors and Hall of Fame Dates

He was named BBU Breeder of the Year in 2000 and joined the BBU Hall of Fame. The obituary gives 2016, while the BBU article describes the 2017 convention class, so sources differ by a year. The BBU Hall of Fame page lists 2017.

In 2020 he was recognized by the Texas Heritage Hall of Honor, per the obituary.

The obituary remains the main source for the 2020 Texas recognition, and no other page confirming it was opened for this entry.