Angus personality?

[Lucky_P]

Certainly calm gentle handling has the potential to improve disposition with many cattle, but there is a genetic component, and I'm glad to have Docility epds available for some breeds to take into consideration in making breeding decisions.

Not cattle, but this breeding experiment with farmed Arctic foxes illustrates that selection for docility may have some profound effects down the road...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... R1ITwikUzw

 

[djinwa]

Certainly calm gentle handling has the potential to improve disposition with many cattle, but there is a genetic component, and I'm glad to have Docility epds available for some breeds to take into consideration in making breeding decisions.

Not cattle, but this breeding experiment with farmed Arctic foxes illustrates that selection for docility may have some profound effects down the road...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... R1ITwikUzw

Thank you - I was just about to emphasize the genetics end of it. Perhaps you can generalize with a breed average, but if you select strongly for docility, you can change any breed or herd. Better to consider the breeder than the breed.

I can tell on about day 2 if a calf is going to be calm or not - just run your hand down their back and see how much they flinch of crouch down. Sure, you can improve their docility with handling, but if genetically wilder, there will be a limit to tameness, and they will always react more to new, potentially dangerous (in their minds) situations. I've halter broken wilder cows, and handled daily, even milked, but eventually got tired of having to watch my every move to avoid spooking them.

I also wonder when people mention a couple wild cows of a certain breed, if they didn't buy them at the salebarn, and they were someone's culls. Would be nice if the crazies became hamburger. Though I've sold somewhat crazy heifer calves to people, telling them to butcher them, and I hear later they bred them anyway. One told me the heifer they bred (that I told them to butcher) was trying to kill her calf. No kidding!

 

[pdfangus]

otheer than feeder calves.....nearly everything you buy at the sale barn is someone elses problem.

 

[dun]

I just noticed this origianl post was resurrected from 2003. I would think that the OP has gotten their answer in the intervening 10 years

 

[CKC1586]

:lol2: :nod:

I just noticed this origianl post was resurrected from 2003. I would think that the OP has gotten their answer in the intervening 10 years