Reviving a ganadería
A Gabriel Rojas novillo fought at Las Ventas in 2023 (Image by Plaza1)
The September issue of Aplausos had an interesting article on the efforts that are being made to revive the herd of Gabriel Rojas, one of the leading ganaderías of the latter half of the 20th century.
Gabriel Rojas Fernández, a successful Sevillian businessman, acquired a herd of Concha y Sierra bulls in 1969, but eliminated them four years later in favour of a new purchase - the Núñez bulls that had previously belonged to the Flores Cubero Camará family. The article mentions famous faenas with Rojas bulls by the likes of Curro Romero, Manzanares padre and Finito de Córdoba. Demand for the Rojas núñezs grew to the extent that the herd contained some 700 cows, and for two consecutive temporadas in the 1990s, Gabriel Rojas supplied more toros bravos than any other ganadería.
But, as the 21st century came into being, tastes changed away from the typical Núñez bull in favour of larger animals with more offensive horns. Gabriel Rojas tried to follow this trend, developing a bull that was fuera del tipo, but this led to a loss of quality and declining numbers of contracts. Around 2005, he decided to pass the ganadería, with its two ranches at El Castillo de las Guardas and Monesterio, on to his nephew, also named Gabriel Rojas.
“To start with, I was a bit lost,” recalls Gabriel now. “I looked to Gabi, the son of Javier Molina, who not only helped me, but developed my afición for this world.
“Given that the ganadería wasn’t doing well and I had other business interests, I decided to reduce the herd. You can’t have almost 700 cows when sales aren’t happening as before. I settled on a ganadería with 120 cows […] With a very small ganadería, we faced very strong inbreeding, and, when I tried to refresh the herd with pure Núñez blood, I couldn’t find any. My uncle had tested mixing with Domecq blood without rhyme or reason, and this hadn’t worked either.”
By now, all the ganado bravo was based at El Castillo de las Guardas, with the ranch at Monesterio used purely for domestic stock. Gabriel had to decide what to do next.
“I’m a ganadero who wants to lidiar in the ferias, and so I had to try further with the encaste that’s seen most there. We put Domecq sementales together with our very good Núñez cows, while our Núñez sementales were only used with cows of the same bloodline.
“If I have in my hands a ganadería that’s 100% Núñez, but there are no ganaderías of this encaste that are at the top currently, where do I go to develop my animals? One of the features of this transition is that there isn’t much to have recourse to. I like the Núñez encaste a lot, but you have to recognise that the Domecq ganaderos are doing very well and that the bull charges now like it’s never done before. You have to sell what the market wants.
“The truth is that ‘Flautino’ or ‘Ramillito’ [bulls with which Curro Romero and Manzanares padre triumphed] wouldn’t be accepted for a novillada con caballos at Sevilla nowadays. This was a shock to us. I know the changes I’ve made mean a long journey lies ahead, but I’m ready to enjoy it and to wait as long as necessary until I’m sure that what I possess is really good.”
The aim is to develop the ganadería as primarily one of the Domecq encaste, while maintaining a Núñez line in order to mix the two. “Several ganaderías have achieved great things with this alchemy, for example Núñez del Cuvillo,” says Rojas. “In fact, we decided to get rid of our Núñez sementales, but how could we eliminate them when they are doing so well! The two best novillos in the final of Sevilla’s series of novilladas sin picadores were from Domecq sementales and excellent Núñez cows, and the runner-up in Dax, fought by Manuel Quintana, was also the product of a [Fuente Ymbro] bull of Ricardo Gallardo with one of our Núñez cows. This tells me that, when you put one excellent Domecq animal together with an excellent núñez, you can develop a really interesting lineage […] I’m not turning my back on the Núñez encaste if, in the end, the ganadería turns out to be best with Núñez cows.”
For the time being, the ganadero is focussed on producing novillos: “I’m very much a perfectionist, and I always have the feeling I’ve still a lot to learn, and each time it seems I know less instead of more. But, little by little, I’ve achieved a novillo that’s able to meet current demands.
“Seven years ago, when I began this transition, I thought I’d be in a different position by 2025 - one I still haven’t achieved. So, I’ve learnt not to set deadlines for myself. I’m on a path, but I don’t want to accelerate the change, with the costs and efforts that requires, only to take a step backwards. This is a matter of enjoyment; I prefer to be engaged with novilladas and enjoy them, than to gamble on a corrida de toros without knowing what’s going to happen.”
