Angus personality?

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if anyone can tell me about the Angus personality?? I am only familiar with raising Herefords. How do they compare? Looking to adding a couple young ones for improving my small herd. Any info would be great! What is the best way to find good quality w/out spending a fortune??Thanks!

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[Anonymous]

In most all breeds you have nuts cases and you have calm cattle. I would rank the majority of Red Angus and most blk Angus to be second to Herefords in calmness, docility, etc. They won;t be as prone to mug you for treats as Herefords and generally won't folow you around like a dog. Our angus are all higher on the pecking order then the Herefords or baldies. Dispersal sales are a good source of some very good genetics, some herds sell off all their cows over a certain age each year. If a cow has reached 6 or 7 years of age in most of these herds you can bet she's a pretty darn good cow. She may not be as good as their 2 or 3 year olds, but she must have something going for her to have stayed around that long. Whatever you do, get the best genetics you can afford, then breed via AI to the top bulls. You can make good prograss in a relatively short time this way.

dun

> I was wondering if anyone can tell
> me about the Angus personality?? I
> am only familiar with raising
> Herefords. How do they compare?
> Looking to adding a couple young
> ones for improving my small herd.
> Any info would be great! What is
> the best way to find good quality
> w/out spending a fortune??Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with dun that the best way to get the most money for your buck when buying beef females is to buy 6+ year old cows. As he said, they have proven themselves by this age and you can see if their udders are holding up well. Ask to see the producer's records to be sure that the cows you are looking at are weaning an above average (in weight) calf every year. Also make sure that they are calving within a 365 day period. It is easy to find lots of cows that calve every year, but too often they are taking 380 to 400 days to calve. After a few years your spring calving herd is now a summer calving herd.

I have noticed when I attend purebred sales that more often than not young heifers are averaging $1000 to $2000 more per head than good aged cows, and those heifers won't have their first calf for over a year. Part of the reason that young heifers sell so high is: 1. kids are buying them for showing and are willing to pay way above market price for a calf they perceive as a winner, 2. People want the latest and greatest genetics, so will often pay more money for a heifer out of one of the "latest & greatest" bulls.

Though I often agree with dun's comments, I have to disagree with him regarding the disposition of black Angus. We used to feed several hundred head of cattle of various breeds at a time and in general Angus had some of the worst dispositions (next to Charolais). HOWEVER, as dun indicated, there are gentle cattle and knotheads in all the breeds. As a matter of fact my first 4-H calf (years ago!!!) was a black Angus that was so gentle that I think a toddler could have walked him.

In my opinion, which isn't worth much, other breeds that are similar to Herefords in disposition are Shorthorns, Gelbviehs, and Simmentals....I'm sure some other's will disagree with my opinions here.

 

[Anonymous]

my dad and Grandpa always had herefords and i have registered angus and my cows are just as tame or tamer than dads herefords. But I think a lot of it (no matter what Breed) is messing with them. But sure you will find some nut cases in any breed

 

[Anonymous]

> I was wondering if anyone can tell
> me about the Angus personality?? I
> am only familiar with raising
> Herefords. How do they compare?
> Looking to adding a couple young
> ones for improving my small herd.
> Any info would be great! What is
> the best way to find good quality
> w/out spending a fortune??Thanks! call it maternial instinct or whatever the black angus cow has more than her share, great if your area has a dog or coyote problem but dont turn your back on her. The only time I have been hurt has been by a black angus cow.



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[Anonymous]

> my dad and Grandpa always had
> herefords and i have registered
> angus and my cows are just as tame
> or tamer than dads herefords. But
> I think a lot of it (no matter
> what Breed) is messing with them.
> But sure you will find some nut
> cases in any breed

I run a mixxed herd and just added a few Angus over the past 18 mths. I find that Angus are as easy to work as Hereford but not constantly in my hip pocket like the Herefords, which I prefer. I can hardly get out of my truck sometimes because of the Herefords I run. I will add that in a very short time the blacks did take over the pecking order. I also agree with an earlier posting that I don't turn my back on my Angus bull.

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[Anonymous]

Thank you all very much for your info! I agree with the Herefords being right on top of you! In fact I learned the hard way not to turn your back on a Hereford! I thought I got hit by a car , all I was doing was scratching another on the neck while watching a new baby that was just born ( I didn't even get run into by the one that had just calved , she was just a bystander!) That is a great idea to get an older cow too , I guess I was just thinking a young one , but was kind of worried about not knowing how well her udders would be ( been through that enough with bad ones) Thanks again everyone! Kelly

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[Anonymous]

Tend to agree with all the posts in this message thread. And, regardless of the breed, have a healthy respect for any bull or stallion, ok to turn your back most of the time, but keep eyes in back of your head wide open. And, agree, there are a--h--- cattle in any breed...when you get one, best to get rid of it...hamburger anyone? And "messing" with your cattle will definitely be an advantage, learn their individual personalities, don't antagonize them, and try to remain "Alpha" bovine in the pecking order.

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[Anonymous]

angus are idiots until they get older then they mellow out. they have a tendancy to kick but they can be broken in

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[Anonymous]

Some people are idiots and never mellow out.

Angus are generally even tempered, but if they are from a 'wild' environment they will be harder to handle.

Personally the breed I have seen the most trouble with is Simmental, but many will say they are very tame. My uncle had a pet Simmental that killed him. I have had only a handful of Simmentals in the last few years (our vet that does embryo work uses them as recips) and have had 2 that have been nuts. I am working with one but have to be very careful, the other was too dangerous and had to be culled immediately. It has been 18 years and hundreds of Angus cattle later since I have had one so bad it needed to be culled on disposition.

Jason Trowbridge Southern Angus Farms Alberta Canada

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[Anonymous]

> Some people are idiots and never
> mellow out.

> Angus are generally even tempered,
> but if they are from a 'wild'
> environment they will be harder to
> handle.

> Personally the breed I have seen
> the most trouble with is
> Simmental, but many will say they
> are very tame. My uncle had a pet
> Simmental that killed him. I have
> had only a handful of Simmentals
> in the last few years (our vet
> that does embryo work uses them as
> recips) and have had 2 that have
> been nuts. I am working with one
> but have to be very careful, the
> other was too dangerous and had to
> be culled immediately. It has been
> 18 years and hundreds of Angus
> cattle later since I have had one
> so bad it needed to be culled on
> disposition.

> Jason Trowbridge Southern Angus
> Farms Alberta Canada

are you telling us that your black angus cows will allow you to work the new calves without any protection?

I generally like the black angus cow, except at calving time

now tell me why a red has such a different attitude?

Art (red country farms)

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[Anonymous]

> are you telling us that your black
> angus cows will allow you to work
> the new calves without any
> protection?

> I generally like the black angus
> cow, except at calving time

> now tell me why a red has such a
> different attitude?

> Art (red country farms) Art, my reg. black angus never bother me when I tag the calf at birth. Although I'm sure that in all breeds there are some that would bother a person.

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[Anonymous]

The only time we've had a cow be pretective is when we had a little jack russle that would pester them that year we had a few that were a lil protective but that was because the calves were skittish and would baul the first instant you would touch them besides that we seem to get along with our angusX cows

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[jrk53]

Hmm - very interested in this thread.
Was thinking of crossing a couple of my Red Devons (which are VERY VERY tame) with a red angus for an F1.
like my cattle tame though - not looking to disrupt the herd feng-shui.
am i asking for trouble? should I keep to the Devons or will i be OK with a devon/red angus (love the red color, want to keep it that way)
thanks, Joanie

 

[j&lfarms]

I personally only own 4 angus and a Hereford but I've worked with large herds of top quality angus and herds of top quality herfords. I feel like Hereford are less worried about strangers while angus that aren't used to me keep their eye on me.

However, like someone mentioned it all depends on how much they are messed with. Even then though it depends on that individuals personality. I've got two angus who are pets and two who really don't care much for people. They aren't mean, just prefer their space.

 

[dun]

Our Red Angus are as calm as any of the others. That said, we had a guy over looking at our cows a while back and one yearling heifer crawled under a gate (bent the crap out of it) when he tried pushing her up the lane. Her mother is one of the biggest PITA pets we've got. She had never acted goofy before and hasn;t since.

 

[pdfangus]

Dun,

cattle mostly reflect the disposition fo the person or persons who interact with them most....
my neighbors red angus are as calm as kittens....the second time I saw them they let me approach and pet them just like they did him.

but then my black angus are mostly pet cows as well....

 

[dun]

Dun,

cattle mostly reflect the disposition fo the person or persons who interact with them most....
my neighbors red angus are as calm as kittens....the second time I saw them they let me approach and pet them just like they did him.

but then my black angus are mostly pet cows as well....

But every once in a while you get a nut case. The second worse I've been hurt by a cow was a weanling Hereford heifer calf that launched herself square at my chest (and connected) as she was walking up an alleyway. She looked like on of those big horn sheep butting heads. I swear she had all for feet off the ground and they were pointing back at a 60 degree angle. Had no idea she could fly that far and high

 

[pdfangus]

oh yeah....too many experiences like that are the reason I deicded that disposition was going to be a serious selction criteria....

I had one cow that took it too far....she was fine with electric fences but figured out how to walk thru barb wire....she would just calming stike her nose thru and lean on it till something gave....and she was so calm she really didn't care if I was running at her and having a coniption fit to get her to stop....she just got worse and worse and wore out a lot of fence before I got wheels under her....I waved bye bye to her without a tear in my eye....it was more like bye bye butch.....

 

[dun]

oh yeah....too many experiences like that are the reason I deicded that disposition was going to be a serious selction criteria....

I had one cow that took it too far....she was fine with electric fences but figured out how to walk thru barb wire....she would just calming stike her nose thru and lean on it till something gave....and she was so calm she really didn't care if I was running at her and having a coniption fit to get her to stop....she just got worse and worse and wore out a lot of fence before I got wheels under her....I waved bye bye to her without a tear in my eye....it was more like bye bye butch.....

I had a heifer like that except it was hot wire if the power was off. She would just walk right through it. To make it worse, if it was poliwire she would chew on it till it broke.