Torres Homem Rodrigues da Cunha and the Bull Karvadi

Who was Torres Homem Rodrigues da Cunha?

Torres Homem Rodrigues da Cunha was born in Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, in 1916 and died in January 2010 at the age of 94. A profile in an Embrapa collection of cattle personalities describes him as a pecuarista, a cattleman, who introduced the Nelore bull Karvadi to Brazil. The VR brand he held had been created in 1914 by his father, Vicente Rodrigues da Cunha, as the Embrapa profile of 25 personalities records.

His name appears wherever Brazilian Nelore history is told, usually attached to one event: the great import of 1962.

What was the 1962 Nelore import?

Nelore is the Brazilian name for Ongole cattle, a zebu breed from India that handles heat and parasites far better than European beef breeds. By the early twentieth century Brazil had already received thousands of Indian animals, with one Embrapa count putting the total at about 7,000. Imports ran heavily in 1914-1918, when 1,874 breeding animals entered, and again in 1920 and 1921, when 2,075 arrived. The rinderpest outbreak of 1921 led to a cancellation of imports.

The 1962 shipment, described in the Embrapa document on Nelore history, was called a grande importacao. Torres Homem sent a farm employee, Jose da Silva, known as Dico, and the veterinarian Jose Deutsch to India. The animals sailed from Madras on the Danish-flag ship Cora, with a German crew, and took about 45 days to reach Fernando de Noronha. There the lot spent roughly eight months in quarantine. The document counts 84 head of Nelore and names the importers as Rubens de Carvalho, Verissimo Costa Junior and Torres Homem Rodrigues da Cunha.

Why is Karvadi so important?

Karvadi was imported by Torres Homem and is treated in Brazilian breeding circles as an idol. The Embrapa document says he was a four-time champion in India and a super champion of Asia. A 1997 study by Magnabosco and colleagues, cited there, found that he is the foundation sire who contributed the largest proportion of genes to today's Nelore, measured by a genetic-contribution method.

Dates differ across sources: the Embrapa document places the import in 1962, while a Tridge summary of a Canal Rural story says Karvadi was brought from India in 1963 and notes his strength, fertility and sturdy build. Lines such as Chummak, Evaru and Dumu are associated with him. Nelore itself now makes up nearly 80 percent of Brazil's zebu herd, according to a 2000 count cited in the same document.

How did Central VR bring semen freezing to Brazil?

In 1968 a small laboratory was built at Fazenda Santa Cecilia to freeze the semen of Karvadi, whom many considered the best bull of his time. The Embrapa personalities profile adds that Torres Homem founded Central VR in Aracatuba, Sao Paulo, in 1968, describing it as the first artificial insemination laboratory in Brazil.

Frozen semen let a single bull sire thousands of calves across many ranches, which spread Karvadi's genetics far beyond the herds that could afford imported animals. The profile also says Torres Homem encouraged the first rural cattle auctions, or leiloes rurais, a sales channel that became central to Brazilian seedstock trade.

Challenges and limits

Brazil's zebu imports ran into sanitary limits. The rinderpest outbreak of 1921 shut imports, and later shipments were put through quarantine on an island. The 1962 animals stayed at Fernando de Noronha for about eight months before reaching the mainland.

The sources reviewed here do not give a farm-by-farm account of his herd or his finances, so this profile sticks to the import, the laboratory and the brand.

Legacy and further reading

Torres Homem is remembered as one of the figures who shaped modern Nelore, alongside Manoel Lemgruber, who brought the first Ongole cattle to Brazil in 1878. For more cattle history, see the ranching section of farm.FM, or read a farm.FM story about Nelore cattle.