A Question to Our Members.

[CattleHand]

Before being on this website I never realized people were so concerned about different breeds. My experience has always been if its a good beef cow then keep it regardless of breed and most people just refer to them by color rather than breed. I was just curious and wanted to here some comments about why many of you are concerend about what breeds you have on your farm. If so why did you decide to go that route (choose to be breed specific). And curious as to how many of you have operations like I grew up around where a good cow is measured by how much she can make for you. Also do alot of people buy semen now? we always just ended up with a a bull or two in each pasture to breed the cows. Just want to stay updated on what typical farmers are doing.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

with over 6000 members....its hard too get that many too all agree on brangus ;-)

 

[TexasBred]

with over 6000 members....its hard too get that many too all agree on brangus ;-)

Ala....well I'll at least "2nd" that motion. Now for the other 5898.

 

[Frankie]

We have a little more luck with getting them to agree on Angus.

Seriously, though, I think the reason you see more emphasis on breed is that several breeds offer marketing programs to producers who use their breed genetics. For example, Angus has the AngusSource tag, Gelbvieh and Red Angus have had marketing programs for their calves for a long time. Retained owership programs have helped producers identify cattle that actually fit industry standards and different breeds fit different niches in the market. If you're taking your calves right off their mommas to the sale barn, color might be the only thing you might worry about. But if you're retaining ownership through the feedlot, or selling direct to a buyer, specific breed or breed makeup can be important.

 

[IluvABbeef]

I think it's all to do with what we have available in terms of forage, our management goals and strategies, and environment, and personal preferences.

For me, I like a cow that'll do good on just grass and stockpiled forage, and that has a temperment that makes handling easy, both in the handling facility and if there's a calf that needs to be doctored, and that will be suitable for a northcentral Alberta environment. A crossbred cow is good, like a Angus/Hereford X or a straightbred cow like Shorthorn or Hereford are a majority of my personal preferences.

 

[redcowsrule33]

I grew up with a "rainbow herd" and back then we did just fine. Nowadays if the calves don't look like clones of each other you are docked at the market. I stick with red for two reasons: 1) I love the Red Angus temperament, even better than my Simmis and 2) I stubbornly insist that a Simmi (or Gelbvieh, Limmi, etc) should at least stay the color they have been since they became a breed. I even have blonde Simmis (shhh).

I believe that someday it will be more important what is under the hide and what genetics make up the animal, not the color. I may die before that happens but I'm okay with that. People have held on to stupider beliefs than mine and died at peace with themselves.

And FYI it will be (hopefully) quite a few decades before I kick off. ;-)

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I grew up with a "rainbow herd" and back then we did just fine. Nowadays if the calves don't look like clones of each other you are docked at the market. I stick with red for two reasons: 1) I love the Red Angus temperament, even better than my Simmis and 2) I stubbornly insist that a Simmi (or Gelbvieh, Limmi, etc) should at least stay the color they have been since they became a breed. I even have blonde Simmis (shhh).

I believe that someday it will be more important what is under the hide and what genetics make up the animal, not the color. I may die before that happens but I'm okay with that. People have held on to stupider beliefs than mine and died at peace with themselves.

And FYI it will be (hopefully) quite a few decades before I kick off. ;-)

that day is here actually probably more so than ever

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Based on our reading and research there is a National trend (nitch market, for some of you) toward organic as well as free-ranging natural grass fed beef, regardless of the color or breed. Some of this meat is commanding high premium prices in the supermarket...up to $6.95 a pound for ground and between $20 and $30 a pound for the designer cuts (tenderloin, ribeye, etc.). Kosher beef would also be included in this scenario.

That aside...

"We" chose the Longhorn path due to exceptional survival and health genetics, gentle and easily managed temperament, foraging and conversion ability, very high rates of easy calving with very rarely having to pull a calf (usually because it was breech). On the "down side", there is the ongoing "color" issue, horn issue, slower rate of maturity, etc., that the opponents usually cite.

Yet, some of our calves are gaining 2 to 2.5 pounds a day on "grass" conditions. Since we are in a USDA/FSIS grass fed program, we do not feed any range cubes or other bagged supplements. Just feed them pasture grass and grass or legume hay.

 

[Frankie]

I grew up with a "rainbow herd" and back then we did just fine. Nowadays if the calves don't look like clones of each other you are docked at the market. I stick with red for two reasons: 1) I love the Red Angus temperament, even better than my Simmis and 2) I stubbornly insist that a Simmi (or Gelbvieh, Limmi, etc) should at least stay the color they have been since they became a breed. I even have blonde Simmis (shhh).

I believe that someday it will be more important what is under the hide and what genetics make up the animal, not the color. I may die before that happens but I'm okay with that. People have held on to stupider beliefs than mine and died at peace with themselves.

And FYI it will be (hopefully) quite a few decades before I kick off. ;-)

that day is here actually probably more so than ever

I like to think as times get tougher, those people who have used these good years to improve their herd's genetics will profit from it. Or at least not get hurt as badly.

 

[CattleHand]

thanks for the input redcowlover. I think what you called a rainbow heard is what im use to and for the most part thought most people had. Im not saying we dont favor red or black cattle since they sell better. As for being concerned about their breed, Ive never seen such passion about a certain breed except on this forum/the internet. Do most of you guys buy your semen also or still have your own bulls?

 

[Brandonm22]

A bunch of the people on here are so concerned about breed; because they make their money selling selling seedstock from one or two specific breeds. I really don't care if somebody besmirches the honor of the Maine-Anjou breed (just for an example) or not. NOW if I had a $100,000 tied up in 50 of the things and needed to sell 15 pure bulls a year to fund my IRA and keep the lights on, I am sure I could get real defensive when somebody dared suggest that they were not the perfect breed of cattle for every situation.

 

[redcowsrule33]

A bunch of the people on here are so concerned about breed; because they make their money selling selling seedstock from one or two specific breeds. I really don't care if somebody besmirches the honor of the Maine-Anjou breed (just for an example) or not. NOW if I had a $100,000 tied up in 50 of the things and needed to sell 15 pure bulls a year to fund my IRA and keep the lights on, I am sure I could get real defensive when somebody dared suggest that they were not the perfect breed of cattle for every situation.

That might be true for some, but don't you think a lot of it is based on belief systems just like choosing religion or a political party? We all like to have a lot of good-natured sparring over it (well, mostly good-natured :roll: ) because it's fun and most of us are after the same thing - cows you aren't embarrassed to look at without their papers in front of you that can raise a great steak. But another part of it goes a lot deeper than that. Get into a discussion with someone on politics once and watch how fast it can turn into a personal ethics war.

Reading the discussions helps me see what people want and the strengths and weaknesses of different breeds. My herd is my expensive hobby, I admit that, but it's fun. I would own a few of each breed if I could afford it and keep it all straight, just to see what they're like. What it all boils down to is this: why do you prefer one brand of peanut butter/beer/whatever over another? Same thing with cows.

By the way, I'll defend Jif and Leinenkugel's to the end. :lol2:

 

[Brandonm22]

That might be true for some, but don't you think a lot of it is based on belief systems just like choosing religion or a political party? We all like to have a lot of good-natured sparring over it (well, mostly good-natured :roll: ) because it's fun and most of us are after the same thing - cows you aren't embarrassed to look at without their papers in front of you that can raise a great steak. But another part of it goes a lot deeper than that. Get into a discussion with someone on politics once and watch how fast it can turn into a personal ethics war.

Reading the discussions helps me see what people want and the strengths and weaknesses of different breeds. My herd is my expensive hobby, I admit that, but it's fun. I would own a few of each breed if I could afford it and keep it all straight, just to see what they're like. What it all boils down to is this: why do you prefer one brand of peanut butter/beer/whatever over another? Same thing with cows.

By the way, I'll defend Jif and Leinenkugel's to the end. :lol2:

Yes, if I were Ted Turner with unlimited land and $$$s, I would have about ten breeds (and a whole lot less Bison than Ted has) and I agree with you that it is sort of like Coke versus Pepsi or Auburn versus Alabama football or Chevie versus Toyota; but I also think that when folks have MONEY in the game (like a lot of the posters here do have) it takes it to a whole different level of intensity.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Somebody has to raise eating beef for Texas Bred. I beleive breed idenity is very important.

 

[1982vett]

Poorboyed 'em just like dad did for a long time. Was building the herd by saving heifers till it the got cheaper to buy than raise. Started buying some brafords, angus, brangus and herefords. Still had the poorboy syndrome, was buying reasonable priced animals instead of uniform animals. Since then have found out that reasonable priced is not always a good buy. Went thru a lot of culling and also have narrowed the focus to brangus. Still like what an angus bull can do on a braford cow but have had to cull most of them for their temperament. Not as young as I once was and not worth getting hurt over. My herefords just haven't produced as well as the brangus and angus and run several hundred more per head around here so we have gone towards the brangus. Was running angus bulls on the brangus, angus, and brafords and brangus bull on the herefords till I had some bad luck and lost two angus bulls. Now I have a hereford bull on the brangus and the brangus bull on the herefords, angus and brafords.

Come spring I'm going to have to either cull some more cows or buy another bull. Haven't made that decision yet.

 

[dun]

When restarting from scratch this last time, I wanted either straight bred cattle with EPDs or animals that I was familiar with on both the dam and sires side. I would have preferred Shorthorns, but I couldn;t find any that fit my criteria for size and breeding. We looked at Red Polls, Herefords, Gelbviegh, Simmenthal and Red Angus. The plan from the start was to crossbreed, but I wanted a known quantity to start with. Because of the depth of the gene pool and the availability of animals that fit my criteria, we started back with Red Angus. Some we breed for registered, some we breed for crossbreds. Depends on what the cow has to offer. If we could get away with ear we would have started with SantaGertrudis. If it was just for fun and didn;t care about making money it would have been Gyr.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

me too, it would be red brahman cows and fleckvieh bull. or gray brahman and hereford.

 

[Angus Cowman]

I run black cows they are commercial they are not purebred but carry alot of angus genetics and I use good Black angus bulls but if had them available would run Black baldies or Red Mott cows and Angus bulls but I have a situation set up to where I need to run the ones I have because of marketing ,used to run mixed herd and it is what ever a producer can make it with is what he should run ,kinda like using John Deere or New Holland can;t complain about my cows out of 76 hd of steers out of first calf hfrs had over 30% grade out at prime paid over 9000.00 in carcass premiums one of the top dressing set of steers for myers all natural beef for the year for % of prime

 

[Frankie]

I run black cows they are commercial they are not purebred but carry alot of angus genetics and I use good Black angus bulls but if had them available would run Black baldies or Red Mott cows and Angus bulls but I have a situation set up to where I need to run the ones I have because of marketing ,used to run mixed herd and it is what ever a producer can make it with is what he should run ,kinda like using John Deere or New Holland can;t complain about my cows out of 76 hd of steers out of first calf hfrs had over 30% grade out at prime paid over 9000.00 in carcass premiums one of the top dressing set of steers for myers all natural beef for the year for % of prime

Congratulations on the premiums.

 

[Angus Cowman]

thanx frankie I was impressed myself knew I had good genetics just didn't know they would do that well out of the hfrs