Ancient White Park

[adammck15]

I've recently been really interested in this breed and reached out to the U.K. White Park (not to be confused with British White or American White Park) Society. They have frozen semen available to be shipped, and possibly embryos too. Just curious, is anyone else interested in this breed?
They supposedly are a good sized breed, very hardy, and have well marbled beef.
Distant relative of pretty much everything but Highland and Galloways, so should have a good amount of Heterosis. (All of this is just stuff I have found in my "studies", don't take it as gold.

 

[Ky hills]

I don't have any first hand knowledge with White Parks or British Whites so I can't advise one way or the other. Years ago I remember seeing a White Park bull advertised in a semen catalog. On a rare occasion would see an animal matching that description sold at a stockyards and they were always referred to as White Park, I had never heard of a British White till just very recently on this forum. Was sitting behind an order buyer at a sale on day and a couple calves came in about 600 lbs a black one and a White Park marked calf. The buyer said split them he told the person next to him that any of the White Parks he had seen were bad tempered. Sure enough when that calf came back in the ring it was aggressive. He said see I told you it would be. Don't know if that's true of the majority or not but would be something to look into before getting involved with the breed. Also those kind are docked pretty heavy at the stockyards, so cull animals would sell pretty disappointingly. I know about the dock we have some Herefords.

 

[WFfarm]

I've been interested in them for a few years. It's still a little confusing what the breed(s) are. If someone could comment on that would be helpful: White Park, British White, American British Whites, etc. I think the original White Park Cattle are always horned. The American Whites are largely polled?

I think either breed you're going to get docked heavily at the sale barn. I have asked a few truckers and buyers if they see or deal with many and most all advise to steer clear of them unless you have a your own farm to freezer business. I really like the Randall cattle too. A threatened heritage breed that probably has some origins from British White Park. But, they have the same issue for a commercial cow/calf operation. It would have to be a "pasture pet" for us and my partner is not onboard.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Big British White operation not far from me. Good looking cattle, dog gentle,
They just don't do well at the barn.

http://www.texasbritishwhitecattle.com/SemenSalesBritishWhite.htm

 

[SBMF 2015]

I sorted in a sale barn for years. In general the horned parks would try and kill you every time. Most polled one's were as even tempered as the group they came with.
I consult for a neighbor who had a few. There spooks,but so is his whole herd.
Just remember those color markings are VERY dominant. Ten generations and it can still show up.

 

[RockinRB]

I believe the actual ancient white parks are very rare and listed somewhere as an endangered breed or something like that. Anything going through a salebarn most likely was not an ancient white park, but a British white park or some sort of cross of BW.

 

[mdt192]

I'm pretty sure I have a crossbred one. Black and white speckled (mostly white) with black ears. Bad spooky, and so is her offspring.

 

[adammck15]

From what I have heard/read, the white and black markings belong to a lot of different, hardly related breeds, and can even show up in Texas Longhorns. Like SBMF said, it's very dominant. I have heard the British White are very docile, it very well could be the Ancient White Park (which is what I'm looking at) could be aggressive, it sounds like they were developed in a similar way to the Texas Longhorn, but were just wild for a much longer time.
I am planning on selling freezer beef, or to some local restaurants and not to the sale barn, although I'm sure naturally I'll end up there occasionally.
I would love to play a part in preserving a rare breed, as well as use some of them in a crossbreed program.

 

[Redgully]

I breed red polls, a fairly small breed. One of my reasons for getting into them was to help save a dying breed. The problem you will have is sourcing genetics, everything seems to be related and there is no new genetics to breed from. Then what is available can have some pretty ordinary traits and you cannot find the genetics to improve and if you do some other ordinary traits come as part of the package. It is very frustrating at times and your cull rate will be extremely high. Then after all the work you get nothing for them and can't sell any bulls. If it is a sideline as an intetest like it is for me no worries, but if you need to make a few dollars and not just break even best look for some angus or simmental.

 

[andybob]

The White Park is on the rare breeds list, here is some information from the rare breeds trust - https://www.rbst.org.uk/white-park