Recent content by ken

We've got between 20 and 40 feeder pigs in a half acre pasture year-round, about 50 feet west of our house, with very infrequent smell problems. We have a west wind 300 days a year here. The smell really depends what you feed them and how much room you give them. If they're bedded on straw you...

Located in southern Alberta. We bought 6 Gelbvieh's as bred cows last year. They impressed us with their purebred calves, enough that we bought 14 heifer calves from the same place last fall. The older cows should start dropping Shorthorn cross calves in a few weeks, we'll see how those turn...

Yellows and smokes/silvers almost always do better than blacks at the sales here, although there isn't a huge price difference, more focus on quality than colour.

We bought our first seven purebred unregistered Gelbvieh cows this winter, have three purebred calves on the ground from them so far and very impressed. Lots of milk, excellent concerned mothers but with zero aggression towards humans, and vigorous calves. We will see how the rest of the group...

A purebred dutch belted cow should throw 100% belted calves. The belt pattern is believed to be controlled by a single autosomal dominant gene, so they only need one copy to have the belt. A Beltedcross cow will have 50% belted and 50% non-belted offspring. It works just like the black colour...

I read some Alberta ranch reports from about 100 years ago; they had a lower percent of Shorthorns survive the winter than they did Angus or Hereford. Back then they made them dig through snow for feed during the winter. They lost a lot of cows because of it, of all breeds, it was just that the...

I think the following are some of the reasons? Colour can be too varied and unpredictable for certain peoples taste. Genetic Defects: Tibial Hemimelia (TH) and Pulmonary Hypoplasia with Anasarca (PHA) were present in certain lines, scaring off potential breeders. These are tested for regularly...

Shorthorns usually seem to be crossed with other British breeds in commercial cowherds? Has anyone on the boards crossed Shorthorn to continental breeds and is willing to share the results and/or pictures? Gelbvieh, Braunvieh and Salers are what I'm leaning towards. Fleckvieh/Simmental, Blonde...

We purchased a Shorthorn bull this spring. He is 2.5 years old right now. I am hoping to hear what people think of him, good or bad. Sorry the photos aren't great quality. He hasn't received any feed other than grass and grass hay, and salt/mineral, since birth.

Middle aged to older cows were going between 1250 and 1800, and bred heifers from 1900 to 2500 or so, here in southern Alberta this spring. No bred cows selling this late in the year but pairs were averaging a couple of hundred $ above that at last weeks sales. Red and black sell for about equal...

Maybe Hereford and Angus are similar enough that there isn't a noticeable difference in the F1 daughters based on which way the cross is made? In, say, a SimmXAngus or something, has anyone tried both ways? Some times it makes a huge difference. If I'm allowed to mention sheep, I've heard of...

I believe the reason the calf is 'white', from a speckled mother and father, is that the 'speckle park phenotype' is the result of heterozygous colour sided genotype. The calf got a colour sided allele from each parent, so he ended up with white park colouring. This pairing of two heterozygous...

I think the situation with Canadian Angus is a bit different than the American. Because of the narrower gene pool in red Angus here, I would say that black has more potential for quality, both in terms of carcass and behaviour. Since they are in the same registry, breeding black and red together...