HB 493: State symbols; pineywoods cattle as official Georgia heritage cattle breed; designate

This bill adds a new section to Georgia's law on state symbols (O.C.G.A. Title 50, Chapter 3, Article 3) naming pineywoods cattle the official Georgia heritage cattle breed. The bill opens with a series of legislative findings describing the breed's history, noting that pineywoods cattle have lived in Georgia and the Southeast since the 1500s and were raised by European settlers as well as the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw peoples. The findings describe the breed as heat tolerant, disease resistant, and historically used for hauling goods, plowing fields, and pulling timber, as well as for beef and dairy production. They note that since the 1950s larger cattle breeds have become favored, leaving only a few families raising purebred pineywoods herds, and that the Livestock Conservancy lists the breed as threatened. The operative change is a single new Code section stating the designation; the bill does not create funding, penalties, or enforcement mechanisms.

• Adds a new Code section, O.C.G.A. § 50-3-94, designating pineywoods cattle as the official Georgia heritage cattle breed.
• Includes ten legislative findings describing the breed's history in Georgia, its use by Native American nations and settlers, and its threatened conservation status.
• Repeals any existing state laws that conflict with the new designation, though no specific conflicting law is identified in the text.

The designation mainly affects the state's symbolic recognition of pineywoods cattle; it has direct relevance to the small number of Georgia families and breeders who raise purebred pineywoods cattle strains such as Holt, Purvis, Albany, and Popple, and to conservation groups tracking heritage livestock breeds.

The bill would not change any regulations, funding, or enforcement; its main effect is formal state recognition of pineywoods cattle's historical role in Georgia. This kind of designation can raise public awareness of the breed's threatened status and its history among Native American nations and early settlers.

• Section 1 lists ten legislative findings detailing the breed's presence in Georgia since the 1500s, its adaptability, its historical uses, and its current threatened conservation status.
• Section 2 adds new Code section 50-3-94, stating simply that pineywoods cattle are designated as the official Georgia heritage cattle breed.
• Section 3 repeals any laws in conflict with the Act, a standard closing provision with no specific conflicting law named.

1. 2025-04-04House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
2. 2025-03-03House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
3. 2025-02-20House Second Readers (House)
4. 2025-02-19House First Readers (House)
5. 2025-02-18House Hopper (House)

• Jutt Howard (R, HD-71)Primary sponsor
• David Huddleston (R, HD-72)
• Jason Ridley (R, HD-6)
• Danny Mathis (R, HD-133)
• Jaclyn Ford (R, HD-170)
• Martin Momtahan (R, HD-17)

• state symbols
• heritage livestock
• Georgia history
• agriculture