Livestock at Mission San Fernando Rey de España

Mission San Fernando Rey de España (founded 1797, "Mission of the Valley") raised large herds typical of the California mission system:

• Cattle (longhorn-type) – primary wealth: meat, hides, tallow (exported via "hide ships").
• Horses – for riding, pack, breeding (Andalusian/Barb stock).
• Sheep (Churro) – wool for textiles, meat.
• Goats – milk, cheese, meat, hardy on scrub.
• Pigs – lard, meat, forage in oak woodlands.
• Mules/Donkeys – pack, plow.
• Oxen – draft (carts, plows).
• Poultry (chickens) – eggs, meat.

At peak (1820s), the mission ran ~20,000 cattle, ~10,000 sheep, thousands of horses—making it one of the most prosperous. Secularization (1834) dispersed the herds.