Aubrac Bull Sale

[houstoncutter]

Anyone watch the sale. Seemes to me that about a fourth of the bulls need a knife taken to em. There were some good looking bulls in the sale, but a good body and substandard cods equals problems. Their were a few bulls with excellant scrotal size. Is this a problem in the Aubrac breed? I dont know much about them.

 

[Chuckie]

Was the sale on RFD-TV? I didn't see it. But I would like to have seen it. Next Tuesday or on the 15th, a sale will be on RFD-TV, Kit Pharo's "no grain-all grass" bull plan bulls. The Aubrac and Piedmontese cattle are set up to do the same thing. For some reason the public is down on these breeds. They are tiny when born and then as they grow, the muscle begins to grow. We have the meat in the freezer and it is the most tender meat without a lot of fat. The cattle look like you have put the grain to them and it comes from the grass.

As I read over Kit Pharo's sale book, it remarks over the tenderness gene in each of the bulls.
And this is what the Piedmontese is known for. Now we are looking for this quality in other cattle when it is a natural charecteristic of the Piedmontese or Aubrac. It will be a very economic breed to feed. I eat the meat every day and I am not seeing what the controversy is.
I raise Angus because it is what the buyer wants. And I like the Angus. But I would like to mix some Piedmontese in the pot as well. I have not seen any Aubrac around here. But they have the same qualities it appears.

Now to the scrotal deal. I am definitely an Angus person, (but like the Piedmontese cattle charateristics) I have noticed when trying to find the right bull for carcass qualities, it is difficult to find one that had numbers we were looking for and have a decent scrotal size. For some reason, when the Ribeye, Marbling goes up, the scrotal size dries up and the milk almost doubles. I prefer the scrotal to stay average and the milk to drop below average. I am not sure what causes the trade off. Money I guess! :shock:

How old were the Aubrac bulls they were selling? The Piedmontese calves that I see are born tiny and start getting big before they are weaned. They look like they have been lifting weights. They were on pasture where as the other cattle looked OK, not poor, but not fat, but the Piedmontese had no bones showing what so ever and were flat backed and very round rumped. They were beautiful. They were only half Piedmontese. I can't take my eyes off of them. Someone had a picture where they had crossed an Angus with a Piedmontese. It was a nice looking animal.
Chuckie

 

[Frankie]

Anyone watch the sale. Seemes to me that about a fourth of the bulls need a knife taken to em. There were some good looking bulls in the sale, but a good body and substandard cods equals problems. Their were a few bulls with excellant scrotal size. Is this a problem in the Aubrac breed? I dont know much about them.

I think that's a common problem with new/small breeds. Breeders don't want to put their best cattle in a sale; they want to retain them. But they need to put the best of the breed out there for potential breeders to see. I can remember when we were practically the only breeder putting AI sired heifers in local consignment sales. There were lots of AI sired bulls, but breeders were keeping the heifers to build their herds. Time has cured that for the Angus breed. If Aubracs stay around, time will probably cure them, too. I think it was a better sale than last year for them.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Houston its like the old double muscled limis. And alot of the imported limi bulls today. It has to do with the double muscling gene.

 

[houstoncutter]

Houston its like the old double muscled limis. And alot of the imported limi bulls today. It has to do with the double muscling gene.

Hmmm dont know if thats quite right Red Bull, some early lines of Limmis had muscle and nuts, some didnt. IMHO its more of a greed factor that can end up biting the breed. Angus bulls have always been known for their scrotal, but if you look at some offerings in the catalogs you are seeing yearling bull scrotals lower than what I remember them being. You still have a lot of good ones but being Angus is the hot breed right now, I think some breeders are not quite as quick with that knife as they once were, and thats bad for the breed. Limousin is a prime example, way too many bulls should have become steers in the early days of the breed, both for scrotal and disposition

 

[rkm]

Imo the best cattle of the sale were the low percentage Aubrac. Maybe they are just a good cross or the breeders need to sell better purebreds.

 

[FCC]

Hello,

I have been reading the comments on the National Aubrac sale, and wanted to thank everyone for your interest in the breed. My family hosted the sale and we also consigned the lower percentage Aubracs (out of composite cows), either from our own herd or Cooperator herds.

The sale averages were (roughly) 2600.00 on the bulls and near 3000.00 on the females. The top selling bull was one of our herd bulls, a black, 75%, scurred bull that sold to Ford Cattle Co in Alabama.

Please feel free to check out our website at http://www.fickecattle.com. for more info related to our program and the Aubrac breed.

Thanks
FCC

 

[Frankie]

Hello,

I have been reading the comments on the National Aubrac sale, and wanted to thank everyone for your interest in the breed. My family hosted the sale and we also consigned the lower percentage Aubracs (out of composite cows), either from our own herd or Cooperator herds.

The sale averages were (roughly) 2600.00 on the bulls and near 3000.00 on the females. The top selling bull was one of our herd bulls, a black, 75%, scurred bull that sold to Ford Cattle Co in Alabama.

Please feel free to check out our website at http://www.fickecattle.com. for more info related to our program and the Aubrac breed.

Thanks
FCC

Welcome to the Cattle Today discussion boards, FCC. Don't let rude people run you off.

 

[FCC]

MasterBreeder,

Thanks for checking out our website. I always appreciate the input from all areas of the country. I guess I haven't had any problems in my program with "Nut" sizes. To give you a little background on the reproductivety of our cowherd, we just had 94% of our calves in the first heat cycle. Our cows get 50 days to breed and our heifers 48 days, no second chances. So far this has worked extremely well. I would enjoy searching your website, as maybe it would be beneficial to my program.

Thanks again for input and the warm and professional response..

Regards
FCC

 

[ALACOWMAN]

MasterBreeder,

Thanks for checking out our website. I always appreciate the input from all areas of the country. I guess I haven't had any problems in my program with "Nut" sizes. To give you a little background on the reproductivety of our cowherd, we just had 94% of our calves in the first heat cycle. Our cows get 50 days to breed and our heifers 48 days, no second chances. So far this has worked extremely well. I would enjoy searching your website, as maybe it would be beneficial to my program.

Thanks again for input and the warm and professional response..

Regards
FCC

the nut deal i see on the is they don't hang as low as other breeds. when the circumference is the important part. do the cows have tight udders?

 

[FCC]

To answer the udder question, Aubracs have a fairly small udder, as the milk has a high butter fat content. With this said, I don't forsee having any real udder problems and I have had a very good experience with udder quality in our own herd. The bulls are aggressive breeders and are extremely fertile.

On the calving side, we have had roughly 400 plus Aubrac sired calves in our own herd (ranging from 37.50% to 87.50% Aubrac). Our birth weights have ranged from 62 to 92, with most of them in the 75 to 80 pound range. Aubrac sired calves are born easy with a ton of energy, and then about 2 weeks after they are born they start to muscle up.

Thanks so much for the great questions.

FCC

 

[Chuckie]

FCC,
Those are some really good looking cattle you have. I do like the muscle they pack. They are huge as in muscle vs bone. With that kind of muscle, I would hate to see what kind of "nuts" they had to tote around to look in proportion to their build. A basketball between the legs would hinder breeding.
I see in the other breeds, the higher carcass value, the smaller the scrotal size. A lot in the minus numbers. When I was looking for a high carcass value bull, it was extremely hard to find one average and find the other numbers close to average. I found one above average, but the milk was higher than I wanted. But the smaller scrotal bulls don't seem to be having trouble multiplying. Their babies are at every sale and seem to be in evey pasture.
You talk about their udders being small with higher milk fat. I like a cow to give less milk. A calf needs a good start when he is born, but most of his growth is from the clover and what he eats. I hate to see a mama cow eat herself to death. I noticed that the calves with good quality food from a mamma cow that is a heavy milker and one that is a light milker, there is little difference in the growth, other than which one of the cows shrinks the most and which one takes longer to get back in condition.
Your cattle are in really good shape too. Are you going to post any pictures of the calves from your bulls with the cows at your farm any time in the future? I am impressed with your operation. Thank you for posting your site.
Chuckie

 

[Chuckie]

I was reading where another poster had mentioned that someone had given up raising Aubrac or Piedmontese because of difficulties in birth. They are small and spit right out.
Chuckie

 

[3waycross]

[Thank you for your professional response. You sure took that a lot better than I or a lot of other people would have. There is a lady right down the road from us who has a Aubrac bull and cow that is the stoutest made cow I have ever seen. Stick to your guns, and ignore the abuse here. Good luckb][/b]

MasterBreeder,

Thanks for checking out our website. I always appreciate the input from all areas of the country. I guess I haven't had any problems in my program with "Nut" sizes. To give you a little background on the reproductivety of our cowherd, we just had 94% of our calves in the first heat cycle. Our cows get 50 days to breed and our heifers 48 days, no second chances. So far this has worked extremely well. I would enjoy searching your website, as maybe it would be beneficial to my program.

Thanks again for input and the warm and professional response..

Regards
FCC

 

[FCC]

Chuckie,

Thanks for the kind words.

I'm with you on the cow milking deal. I'm scared to death to get too much milk in my cowherd, as you tend to get cows that "milk themselves out of production". I will probably open up a new "can of worms", but I don't creep feed either. I expect my cows to raise a calf every year without exception and to wean off a decent sized calf that has the genetics to fit as many programs as possible, do I hit everyone's target, No!

Cow condition- I try to run my cows as economical as I can. Our location of good grass and an abundance of good fall/winter grazing helps a bunch. Also I feel that the composite cow with all her hybrid vigor is easier to keep in shape.

I will try to get some new pictures on our website of cows, calves, and herd bulls.

Thanks for your interest.

Best,

FCC

 

[ANAZAZI]

Creepfeeding is a real nuissance only available for those seedstock producers who thereby cheat us bullbuyers that wish for complete bulls that inherit some milk.

 

[Chuckie]

What is the difference in an Aubrac and a Piedmontese other than what I see visually? They have some of the same light and dark points. Then they have the same growth genes.
Chuckie

 

[ANAZAZI]

Not so, different mutation, and the piedmontese c313y is a better option for calving ease as it expresses itself later than nt821 present in the aubrac.

 

[Chuckie]

OK, I have to take a bite here. Break that down just a little bit more. I'm a little green on this. If you have time to type it or a website would be fine.
Chuckie

 

[ANAZAZI]

Double muscling can come from at least six different mutations or genes. the gene fond in piedmontese gives less problems calving as the calf is lean and long and do not get thick until several weeks later.
the gene has a name c313y. aubracs have another variety that shows before the calf is born. Therefore calving issues.