Aleutian cow herd

[regenwether]

I read an interesting article the other day in one of my Farm magazines. Kit Pharo was interviewed about this herd. They live on an Island near the peninsula of Alaska. They have been on their own for more than 80 years. Through "natural" selection they have adapted quite well to a harsh grass- only environment.

They are small to moderate in height but not in weight. They are thick and easy-fleshing. They have excellent calving ease. I wish I could post a picture of them.

Ayrshire was introduced in the 1700's. Hereford and Angus in the 1900's. Charolais in in the 1950's/

The article stated that a few winters had been harsh enough that over 25% of the herd died off. Only the strongest and most adapted survived.

I wonder how some some those genetics would "cross" with today's cattle.

 

[Julian]

Why would you want to use them? For what purpose?

 

[buymorebulls]

If Kit's not discrediting the 'high input" Schaff sale with a $7,000 plus bull sale average he's telling everyone how great some group of cattle is that he's probably only seen in pictures.

Ever the marketer, that Kit is.

 

[regenwether]

In this high input enviroment we raise cattle perhaps they would bring some cheap heterosis gain to a herd. A lot of "hard keepers" herds out there.

 

[buymorebulls]

Heterosis is never cheap nor expensive. It is free!

If you just want the benefits of heterosis, use any breed of sire different than what you have now. You don't have to "go to Alaska" to get heterosis. As far as the type/kind of the cattle, if you like "the Aleutians", you can find that type around the lower 48 states, and probably even in the great state of Iowa.

Also, I'm not kicking Kit. I'm not espousing any type of cattle that you should or should not be raising.

 

[alacattleman]

In this high input enviroment we raise cattle perhaps they would bring some cheap heterosis gain to a herd. A lot of "hard keepers" herds out there.

so what could you gain a F1 semi hard keeper,

 

[Beef Man]

I heard about these hereford cattle sometime ago and thought how interesting it would be to try to somehow get some semen and try them just to see what would turn up. If it is true[and I'm quite sure it is] that they have survived this long all, on their own they have got to be amazingly sound,super calvers,have great suvival instingts,naturally above average in fertility,and I would think they would be great converttors of any decent feed. Not nessarily a answer to any certan problems,but just to see what would develop. Do think that we have lost some natural ability's that the old range cattle had and beleive that as we continue molding the new beef cattle to be perfect to everyone in the industry we are loseing some very important things,especcially to the cow-calf producer. Willyou folks please excuse my poor spelling,been a long time since I went to school!

 

[buymorebulls]

I see them as an invasive species in that environment with no predators. Even the naturalists have complained that the cattle were damaging the indigenous bird populations. I don't think you can call weather a predator either.

It is not survival of the fittest. It is more like a nirvana. The cattle have all the feed resources they can eat so their is probably very little to no natural selection for feed efficiency. The pictures to me looks like the cattle are well conditioned and that doesn't necessarily mean feed efficient.

As vague as the story details are, that's some of what I took from the stories.

 

[dun]

If you hauled those cattle to an area with an average supply of decent feed they would probably go back to being just as big as they were when the population became isolated.

 

[alacattleman]

If you hauled those cattle to an area with an average supply of decent feed they would probably go back to being just as big as they were when the population became isolated.

and after man got in on the picture and decided well this could improve or that, plus i wonder what the meat would be like them being hard cattle.. like old dried out saddle leather,, but if we domesticated them then they wouldnt be what they are survivours

 

[BIZIN]

Stay away from the Aleutian Island cattle unless maybe you wanna try semen, but I doubt there would be any. It was an absolute wreck when they tried rounding them up and bringing them to Canada. Group of Alberta feedlot operators and ranch operators went on a fishing trip in Alaska and heard about this Island with wild cattle. They got the lease on the Island and started managing it. When they got it, there were 50% Bulls and 50% cows running on the island, not sure on how many, but it was in the thousands. They rounded em up with helicopters into some corrals they built near the coast, sorted bulls from cows, loaded the bulls onto barges to go to Vancouver. Bulls were so wild and rocked the barges so much that a few of the barge captains just opened up the gates and dumped em into the ocean so they wouldnt capsize the barge. The loads that got to Vancouver were sent to Brooks I believe to slaughter. One of our truckers hauled a few of the loads in. He said there was a dead pile as high as a semi at the plant, cattle were so worked up and stressed out they were dead on the trucks. The cattle they did kill, their carcasses smelled so bad of sea kelp that the meat wasnt safe for human consumption, I guess the cattle go down to the ocean in the winter and eat sea kelp. They sold a few hundred bred cows on the satellite sale we used to consign cattle too and we were actually gonna buy a few loads of them, they went cheap. Lucky thing we didnt, the cows that made it alive to Canada were taken to Thorlaksen Feedyards and most starved to death. They wouldnt drink out of waterers and wouldnt eat out of bunks. I dont think anyone ever got any for breeding purposes. They used to have alot of information on their website, Bearing Pacific Ranch, and I noticed a few years back that all the cattle information is gone and its just an outfitting ranch now.

 

[BIZIN]

I checked and it looks like their website doesnt even exist anymore

 

[3waycross]

Don't count Kit Pharo out. If he says he's gonna get some of that semen he will do it. Now whether or not anyone wants it is a different story.

Like a lot of things those cattle might just make for a very interesting ingrediant somewhere along the line.

One thing I would PAY to see is what an Igenity panel would look like off one of those old Aleutian bulls.

My guess is they wouldn't score real high for Docility

 

[alacattleman]

ive seen a inbred herd were the cattle were about 50-50 like you say each one a exact copy of the other and red color, and would be lucky to make it to my waste, im thinking they were redpoll you could tell where the weak and and old were, there bones were laying every where

 

[dun]

Like a lot of things those cattle might just make for a very interesting ingrediant somewhere along the line.

Sure would be all natural and organic

 

[3waycross]

Like a lot of things those cattle might just make for a very interesting ingrediant somewhere along the line.

Sure would be all natural and organic

I say breed em to Wagyu and call the resulting offspring,"Tuff and Tasty" he[[ who knows if the Wagyu are homo blk they might even qualify for ___ ___ B (and that's how the fight started)

 

[alacattleman]

found this while looking for pics of these cattle....http://www.pharocattle.com/Sept_Oct_2009.pdf

 

[ANAZAZI]

The bulls sure looks good. A composite of sorts, where the chars contributed to a few white and yellow coats and not much else. Old style ayrshires and herefords seem to be closer to the natural state of cattle.The only problem I see with this cattle is that they are not tame. This can be altered in one generation (for example by "kidnapping" calves and feed them out indoors, halter break e.t.c). However; there are still good carefree cattle around, closer to home (where ever you live!). And mr Pharo seems like a thinking, yet practical person.

 

[BSKDixie]

I'm sure this is a different Alaska beef producer, and this isn't technically in the Aleutians, but Alaska Meat Company run by the Mudd family actually has a well run beef operation, they lease the island of Sitkinak in the Kodiak Archipelago from the State of Alaska. Wild cattle run on this island, but unlike the story Bizin told, the Mudd's are actually doing very well with their operation. They built a mobile beef processing center that allows them to process cattle directly on Sitkinak, and I think they try to use as low stress as possible methods for handling of the cattle, some of which they said have flight zones of up to a mile. They also have a diversified outfitting and tour business I believe. I think the Mudd's capitalize on the all natural aspect of the beef, and they sell it as prepackaged beef products, which is a pretty good niche market for them I believe.

As for capturing these genetics, why would you want to? Unless you were raising cattle that you were going to sell as packaged beef all the time, and would be grazing in a harsh environment with ample forage (not many other locales in the U.S. fit this description anybody know of any?) these cattle would be able to forage for themselves yes, but they are on an island with no predators and ample forage? You would end up losing the money you saved on inputs when these cattle put all your hired help (and you would need a lot of hired help to get these guys rounded up) in the hospital and tore up every facility you tried to put them in. This isn't even to mention that they would grade horribly if you were to try and sell feeder calves, and they wouldn't do well in a feedlot setting because they have no genetic background to do so. These cattle haven't even been bred to gain or marble well on forage so they wouldn't even be good for a grass fed type producer.

It sounds like a novel idea to try and capture these genetics, but I believe that all evidence points to it being a very bad idea... I mean they though it was a good idea to breed Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and look how that turned out, that being said if anyone does have the opportunity to lease an island from the State of Alaska and build a mobile beef center, take the chance, but all in all that's where these types of cattle should stay

 

[alacattleman]

ive heard of those folks,, their name is mudd, in alaska :cowboy: