Beef Cattle Industry - The Last 25 Years - What Happened?

[Herefords.US]

I've talked to old breeders and read "The Battle of Bull Runts," but I'd love to stop by WHR one day.

The Battle of Bull Runts should be a must read for anyone in the purebred breeding cattle business. Not only does it give insight to the workings/politics involved in breed associations, it also demonstrates the importance of "checking" your genetics through some closebreeding/linebreeding/inbreeding. Hidden recessive genes for dwarfism were undetected for years because the practice at the time was to not closebreed and when dwarfism became a problem, it was a real puzzle to sort out.

Prince Domino's reputation suffered greatly during that time as the most well-known carriers of dwarfism were his descendents. I still occasionally hear someone say that he was responsible. The truth is that Prince Domino was a straightbred Anxiety 4th bull and no animal that was straightbred Anxiety 4th ever carried the dwarfism gene. Prince Domino's descendants got the gene from their other ancestors.


George

 

[Tom Underwood]

I agree with all you say, George, and I learned a lot from the book.

Here's the pedigree of the daughter of my young herd bull, mated back to his mother.

http://www.herfnet.com/online/cgi-b...56&5=2B3C2B3C3A&6=5A5D5C252124242F2E&9=50525B

She weaned at 110%, despite (or because of) the innbreeding, but she is going to be a smaller-framed cow than most of my herd.

Tom

 

[Herefords.US]

To those who don't know, to be "straightbred" Anxiety 4th, an individual animal has to trace back to the cattle owned by Gudgell and Simpson 100%. If an animal has a single ancestor that doesn't trace back to Gudgell and Simpson's herd, they are NOT straightbred. The Anxiety 4th Breeder's Association used to issue certificates, just like registration certificates, for those animals that qualified. The Association's last secretary (that I'm aware of) was John Montgomery, who lived in Town Creek, Alabama - if I'm not mistaken. I suspect he still has all the records in his possession.

George

A correction -

I've talked with my friend who's still involved with Anxiety 4th cattle and he told me that John Montgomery turned over all the records regarding the Anxiety 4th Association to Roland Lang, Lang Herefords, Lampasas, Texas.

George

 

[topsquar]

just out of curiosity, was there an exceptional Hereford bull to come from the U.K? country of origin? where the Herefords in the U.K diferent to the Herefords in the U.S around the 1900s.
My grandparents once had herefords in the 1950-60s and they where alot shorter with poor muscle development.

 

[Herefords.US]

just out of curiosity, was there an exceptional Hereford bull to come from the U.K? country of origin? where the Herefords in the U.K diferent to the Herefords in the U.S around the 1900s.
My grandparents once had herefords in the 1950-60s and they where alot shorter with poor muscle development.

There were a lot of importations of Hereford cattle from the UK in the latter half of the 19th century. The most notable would be Anxiety 4th himself, imported by Gudgell and Simpson in 1881. Virtually every American Hereford traces back to him. There have been some subsequent importations from the UK over the years, and now that AI has been perfected, occasional importations of Hereford genetics from Australia and other countries as well.

I would guess that the Herefords in the US and the Herefords in the UK were much the same around 1900.

George

 

[OKrancher]

I am definitely not an expert on Herefords but I have made several trips to Uruguay and attended their yearly expo. In my opinion the have some top hereford cattle there. Herefords are by far the dominate breed there. They are extremely partial to herefords and still practice keeping closed herds there. At the expo I attended last year the herefords were far superior to the Angus.

 

[rocket2222]

the herefords were far superior to the Angus.

You know, I like this guy already.

 

[backhoeboogie]

the herefords were far superior to the Angus.

You know, I like this guy already.

Me too.

I've been following this thread with interest.

This is what happened. We were all "hoodwinked" and they are still at it. They are still pushing the other breeds and they just don't fare as well in this hot climate. You bring those breeds in from nothern climates and they get smaller and smaller with each generation, no matter what you do. In the hot summers they lose and hang out in stock tanks. We let go of the Herefords for the other breed. It was a mistake for this climate. People are looking back with 20/20 hindsight now and realizing they were lied to and the folks pushing that breed are still at it. If they would come out and honestly say, this breed is not suited for hot Texas summers, I coud have respect for them. They are not honest and won't be any time soon I fear. So who do you trust?

The other breeds that fare well here are another factor. The F-1 brindles that come from crossing Herefords and Brahman are highly sought for this climate. And yes Brangus does well too. It would be really nice to have more brindles (Tiger Stripes they call them now) from the old lines.

Sorry for jumping into this thread with opinion. I have really enjoyed the dialog - most of it.

 

[Idaman]

George:

I, like you raised herefords until 1980 then out of Ag altogether until a return to Hereford Cattle in 2000. From what I gather the herefords were so popular very little attention was paid to quality because of demand and the quality suffered. Milk flow, udder quality and other problems surfaced and herds were not properly culled. In the past few years most hereford breeders have worked very hard to correct these problems and hereford cattle are on the rise. I have a small herd around 30 brood cows and mine tend to look more like the cattle of the mid 70's picture. Smaller framed, easy doing cattle that calve outside in January and raise effeicient good doing calves.

Regards,

Tom

 

[Idaman]

George:

I, like you raised herefords until 1980 then out of Ag altogether until a return to Hereford Cattle in 2000. From what I gather the herefords were so popular very little attention was paid to quality because of demand and the quality suffered. Milk flow, udder quality and other problems surfaced and herds were not properly culled. In the past few years most hereford breeders have worked very hard to correct these problems and hereford cattle are on the rise. I have a small herd around 30 brood cows and mine tend to look more like the cattle of the mid 70's picture. Smaller framed, easy doing cattle that calve outside in January and raise effeicient good doing calves.

Regards,

Tom

The heart of the problem is well stated here and that is being the future problem for the Angus. There are so many and everyone has a few purebreds that the quality has to go down. I have posted that in our own herd as we have selected for the black hides it only improved the quality of the Herefords that made the cut.

 

[andybob]

What value if any do modern breeders see in the remaining herds of heritage Herefords and Aberdeen Angus, having an unbroken pedigree to the original foundation cattle?
The main interest in the Laverstoke herds is from breeders looking for cattle that do well on pasture with no subsidised feeding.

 

[Brandonm22]

Good sound functional easy doing cattle that will produce a calf on grass always have a place in the industry. I don't know enough about those particular herds to necessarily recommend them over Lents, Pharo, Ohlde, etc but the more sources of unique, distinct genetics the better for the cattleman. I like AI; but the widespread use of it in the seedstock business has often led us to a situation where 40+ breeders in a general area are using the same 14 or so popular AI (often outcross) sires. Theoretically AI gives us a wider selection of bloodlines, but in actuality we have a lot of seedstock guys who are highly susceptible to promotion (probably why I get 20 emails a week promoting the latest and greatest sires to hit the AI studs).

 

[JWBrahman]

Just thought this one would be a good read with all of the Hereford discussions right now.

Like somebody said on here a while back, "your opinion is worthless without a photo".
:lol2: :roll: :clap:

 

[Herefords.US]

This old thread seems to find its way back up to the top every few years. And it's remarkable the changes that have occurred in USA Herefordom since I first posted it 8 years ago.

George

 

[JWBrahman]

Australian Cattleman nailed it with this quote:

"The mark of a good cattle breeder is one that can satisfy new demands but not to sacrifice the doing ability of their cattle. Not to chase trends and fads."

The biggest thing to change here in the last five years has been the outside money that has poured into cattle. Instead of family operations we have corporate operations with investors expecting a certain percentage return and accountants running the numbers from hundreds of miles away. Many of these operations have such high input costs I am wondering who is getting stuck paying for them. Looks to me like if you get in bed with these guys you are probably going to eat a lot of that yourself. That makes satisfying demands without satisfying the doing ability of cattle more important than ever.

 

[Cotmore]

It is coming out now that the modern North american Hereford is only a crossbred Simental. Recent government research in the UK has identified in their report as crossbreds and one of the worlds leading farm animal gene it's has described them as only a DISTANT RELATIVE of the Hereford..