Bad temper questions...angus vrs herefords ?

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Lorenzo

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I am not an expert but I have noticed that most hereford's are more "docile" than angus, is this possible ? Don't kill me angus breeders... :D

From all the angus I have deal with the only one really docile is the red angus bull I have posted here and that was elected Grand National Champion this year at the Expo Prado 2008 Show (the biggest one down here, BTW, the judge was an american named Tim Oldhe, does anyone of you know him ?).

But in many of the other angus, not all, but most of them, I have noticed that when someone enter in their pens they have a weird look and walk strange, with the toplines curved up, ...and we are talking about show animals (most of them).

On the other hand, I have received show and farm herefords bulls and they all are VERY easy to work with being all extremely docile.

Are red angus and black angus different in temper ?? The red one I have behaves completly different than the others, he is always like a calm gentleman, while some of the others, well...quite the opposite :roll:

Strange uh ??

L
 
Hereford's are the most docile by far, but any breed can have nuts and individuals that are calmer than normal. Beefmasters are pretty calm as well. Don't ask me about &&^$^#*#%$# brangus.
 
I have mostly angus with a few herefords thrown in the mix. My angus are very gentle, as are the herefords. Can't really tell the difference between their temperments. Both are good.
 
Herefords are by far the most gentle. The worst aspect is though some people might let their guard down with them
 
most angus are very highstrung.an very jittery that ive seen.but then again ive seen a few herefords that are highstrung an jittery.but for most part herefords are gentle an easy to handle.
 
All breeds have high strung and mean cows/bulls in them alot has to do with genetics and alot has to do with the way they are handled
You can take old farmer Browns tame cows and move them to my place or let me and some other stranger go out and try to gather them and they will become beast

I have only had 1 angus bull out of 15-20 in the last few yrs that I got rid of because of temperment that is one of the first things I look at when buying new bulls because My wife and I do most of the working ourselves and I also lease them out and can't take the liability with them being mean
 
We run about 50% of each breed. Here is my experience, Hereford cows are most docile. The Angus cows are not jittery but you do have to watch about 50% of them when weighing/tagging their babies. On the Herefords I cant think of one we have to watch. By the same token the Angus cows tend to bring in slightly bigger calves when bred to the same bull (Angus bulls). The Angus cows are by no means mean or aggressive, they are just more protective with a new calf. After a week you can do anything you want to either group. We tend to ship our cattle that are too "zesty". We have pretty much gotten rid of most of those already.

We recently purchased some Hereford bulls (2). One of them has an average to above average disposition, one of them is lacking alittle in the brains department. One the Angus bulls, we have one above average on disposition, one average, and one is alittle lacking on disposition.
 
Herefords are more docile. Angus breeders will admit that. Whenever this topic comes up, in local conversations, the Angus guys say that the Angus are more, "rangey", and require less work around them. However, they admit subtly that Angus are not a breed you want to get up close and personal with. I actually know a few that like them for being crazy as they are easier to work with with less nonsense.

An example, I know one fella that runs 400+ Purebred Hereford and Red Angus and commercial cows and told us one time "I like those Angus. They run down the chute and never take a moment to think which way they want to go...it's always AWAY from YOU. Now those stupid Hereford cows, you have to get behind and push those stupid suckers down the chute and they are always wanting to turn around on you." I told him "it's because they love you and can't leave you behind" :lol: .

As a side note, this fella's dad (70+ years old) loves his cows, but won't be around the Angus when they are calving...only the Herefords.
An additional side note, locally, a lot more guys get hurt working Angus cowherds than Hereford herds. I can't remember that last guy locally that got seriously hurt by a Herf cow. I know I was never young or crazy enough to run Angus cows. :cowboy:
 
Aaron":26t2vn29 said:
Herefords are more docile. Angus breeders will admit that. Whenever this topic comes up, in local conversations, the Angus guys say that the Angus are more, "rangey", and require less work around them. However, they admit subtly that Angus are not a breed you want to get up close and personal with. I actually know a few that like them for being crazy as they are easier to work with with less nonsense.

An example, I know one fella that runs 400+ Purebred Hereford and Red Angus and commercial cows and told us one time "I like those Angus. They run down the chute and never take a moment to think which way they want to go...it's always AWAY from YOU. Now those stupid Hereford cows, you have to get behind and push those stupid suckers down the chute and they are always wanting to turn around on you." I told him "it's because they love you and can't leave you behind" :lol: .

As a side note, this fella's dad (70+ years old) loves his cows, but won't be around the Angus when they are calving...only the Herefords.
An additional side note, locally, a lot more guys get hurt working Angus cowherds than Hereford herds. I can't remember that last guy locally that got seriously hurt by a Herf cow. I know I was never young or crazy enough to run Angus cows. :cowboy:
Like I said all breeds have crazies if you think all herefords are docile lets go out to western ok or texas and I will show you some get in your pocket and hurt you herfs
I have had them try and gore horses and a man on foot was usually off his feet and on his back so saying Angus are crazier is too broad a statement

Yes I have seen some ill tempered Angus,Herfs and about every other breed or cross of breed out there My wife and I tag all our calves when they hit the ground and less than 1% has ever gave us a problem and when working I get on a 4 wheeler she honks them up on the tractor or truck and we take them a mile or more to the corrals at a slow easy walk to the corrals and we don't have any wrecks in the corrals

As for bulls we just turned them out the 10th of Nov. wife went and opened gates shook a cube sack and they all walked into the corrals we sorted them and loaded some on trailers and turned them out with their herds she even had to prod one of them to get him out of the trailer

I
So lets drop the Herfs are better or the Angus are better BS ALL breeds have problems and ALL breeds have good points

A wise man once said don't throw stones if you live in a glass house
I think several of the people on here could learn from this statement
 
So lets drop the Herfs are better or the Angus are better BS ALL breeds have problems and ALL breeds have good points

But for the sake of an argument, Angus Cowman, if I was to push you into making a gross generalization... which of angus or hereford would you say is the more docile?

All breeds have strengths, all breeds have weaknesses and all breeds have qualities that are somewhere inbetween. One breed may generally be better for a certain situation than the other, doesn't make the other breed bad, just more suited for another set of circumstances.
 
KNERSIE":rg79udh1 said:
So lets drop the Herfs are better or the Angus are better BS ALL breeds have problems and ALL breeds have good points

But for the sake of an argument, Angus Cowman, if I was to push you into making a gross generalization... which of angus or hereford would you say is the more docile?

All breeds have strengths, all breeds have weaknesses and all breeds have qualities that are somewhere inbetween. One breed may generally be better for a certain situation than the other, doesn't make the other breed bad, just more suited for another set of circumstances.

Actually Knersie I don't really think I could answer either way because I have seen the good and bad side of both and I think the largest contributing factor of any breed of cow being hot is the handling practices
I think if you handle a set of Angus wrong you will get some really hot cows with that said and I am not trying to start anything and I owned them the Hottest set of cows I ever had were charlois and they were flighty and fighty

I think it was a blonde thing :lol: :lol:
 
Angus Cowman":2bbf6xhq said:
KNERSIE":2bbf6xhq said:
So lets drop the Herfs are better or the Angus are better BS ALL breeds have problems and ALL breeds have good points

But for the sake of an argument, Angus Cowman, if I was to push you into making a gross generalization... which of angus or hereford would you say is the more docile?

All breeds have strengths, all breeds have weaknesses and all breeds have qualities that are somewhere inbetween. One breed may generally be better for a certain situation than the other, doesn't make the other breed bad, just more suited for another set of circumstances.

Actually Knersie I don't really think I could answer either way because I have seen the good and bad side of both and I think the largest contributing factor of any breed of cow being hot is the handling practices
I think if you handle a set of Angus wrong you will get some really hot cows with that said and I am not trying to start anything and I owned them the Hottest set of cows I ever had were charlois and they were flighty and fighty

I think it was a blonde thing :lol: :lol:

Come on be daring and just say it!

I'll help you out by saying angus, in general, are better milkers.
 
I go to a guys sale almost every year. He raises angus and herefords. Consistently every year the herefords mosey into the ring and wander around, where the angus has many individual animals that come in snorting riding the fence jumping around looking for a way to get the heck out of there. Same owner, same handling.......the blacks are just higher headed.
 
This is an interesting quesiton. My grandfather once got a bunch of Hereford cows, the short legged fat type. They were very docile and easy to work with. My mother rememberd them for years. We went and got three purebred Herefords although they were the taller, longer more modern looking Hereford - two of them left after the first calving season for being too difficult to work with. One of them we still have and she is an embryo recip for us, although not as gentle as our Red Angus recip we used this year. I have never had dealings with Black Angus, I have heard some commercial cattlemen say the reason they buy red instead of black is because the blacks are meaner, don't know if this is true not having a black. Our Red Angus are extremely docile as a whole. We have a couple that aren't as nice but most of them are the follow the bucket types and love to get scratched. Strangers are perfectly safe with them. I will say that we have always bought and bred for disposition but I think that is more the key than breed. I could be wrong though...
 
I think a lot of it has to do with environment. In the right situation, anything can be calmed quite a bit, however, on the open range, I would imagine all would be a little high strung and out of their comfort zone, when handled in close quarters. I think you will find extremes in any breed. My brother purchased some pasture from a neighbor that included the hereford cows on it. They would run to the far end of the pasture any time they saw him, for quite a while. Once they learned the new routine, they calmed down a lot and now are all quite docile. Sometimes getting rid of a bad apple or two helps immensely.
 
We get the unsual "crazy" one once in awhile. We send them down the road. Only black bull we ever owned was nasty tempered and would try to take you if you didn't have something in your hand. Now the reason I call him black is because we are not 100% sure of his breeding. He's been long gone though.
 
A couple of months ago I bought a bred cow and a 3 in 1 package all registered Herefords from the same produciton sale. We discovered that a lunatic 300 lb heifer can go through a 5 strand barbwire fence without slowing down, so can it's lunatic mother. It took almost a month to get them in a small enough pasture that we could finally entice them up to the loading chute. The bred cow is as big a pet as I've ever seen. Even when she was calving (breech) and after she was calm and gentle as a dog.
 
I vote for neither one. My experience with both of these breeds is that neither have a bad temper on the whole. Herefords are the most calm or docile....with the Red Angus not far behind. Of course my Beefmaster cows are also very calm cattle.
 
I am not sure if this is scientifically proven, but i believe it is and I cannot think of the term name. Otherwise, this is a hunch. I believe there is a genetic mechanism whereby a bovine's environmental experiences and interactions, such as the handling of specific owners, can modify the genetic makeup that is transported to the next generation.
 

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