beefalo cattle
- Thread starter peg4x4
- Start date
:lol:
warpaint
Well-known member
I'm sure there are many here, but you can try Rustler. He has a beefalo cross that just weaned another calf for him, and I don't remember how old she is. At least 15 or so.
One place I drive by had a lot of that cross..sold their older cows,do wish I could have bought them just to chance getting a calf..they were fat,weaned a fat calf every year ..they still have one I can keep track of(because of the markings) same story,weans a good fat calf ,this year her 3rd one..
Rustler9
Well-known member
We used a black Beefalo bull for several years on Beefmaster cows. Got alot of black heifers out of him that stayed. Dad still has a few of them but they're getting some age on them. Of course he threw all colors, not just black. He was an excellent bull, weighed about 2100 lbs. threw small calves that hit the ground running and growing. The calves gained weight like little monsters. The daughters that we kept are milking machines. I'd use Beefalo again. Good cattle from my experience. The 3/4 Longhorn, 1/4 beefalo steer in the freezer sure is good.
bgm
Well-known member
I had looked into them several times over the past few years. Here's what the owner of a sale barn had to tell me last year in an e-mail.
It was enough to convince me to stay with commercial cattle.
It was enough to convince me to stay with commercial cattle.
Rustler9
Well-known member
I don't understand why they sold for less unless they were in bad condition or there was something else wrong with them. The Beefalo cattle that I've seen look like about any other commercial breed. They're usually red, tan or black. All that I've seen were also polled. So they basically have the conformation and coloring of Charolais, Angus crosses. I don't know how the folks at the sale barn knew what breed of cattle they were unless someone told them. That's kind of what's happened with some of our crossbred Longhorn calves that were solid colored and of good conformation. The guys who unload them always holler out "Longhorns" so I figure they tell them what they are so they can get them cheaper.
JonB
Active member
The reason I have always been told why Beefalo are worth less is there shape. They are larger in the front and smaller towards the back. Most of your primal cuts of beef will come from the back rather than the front.
bullpeddler
Well-known member
Beefalo being a hybrid are difficult to get bred. I believe that is one of the main reasons they ;-) never caught on. A neighbor has both buffalo and cattle and I often see the beefalo offspring but seldom with a calf at side. I guess if you could ride them like a mule it wouldn't matter.
bgm
Well-known member
Why they sell for less, I can only make some guesses based upon what I've been told in my looking at them.
It's true a few, but not all, do have smaller rear ends than bovine and that would tend to affect it some, but mostly I think it has to do with two things. The first is the grade of the meat. Beefalo is high protien, LOW fat, low cholesterol meat. In my opinion, it's not going to grade high enough for the average feed lot buyer to want to fool with them. They'd need to sell them to a specialty place that deals in "healthier" cuts of meat in order to come out. I don't think it'd be worth their hassle on a few animals they would encounter to find the market. The second reason I think is just plain the unknown. They aren't all that common and I feel most people don't know how they'd do in given situation and tend to shy away from them for that reason. I also think there's lots of misconceptions about them floating about.
I also know from talking to the breeders that they sell most of their stock as freezer beef locally. The ones I've talked to that ran them thru a barn just kept their mouths shut about the bison content. You may legally sell Beefalo as beef and not declare the bison content, but not vise-versa.
As far as them being hard to breed, that's not what the breeders say or any of the info I've read says. But bear in mind that's being said by the people trying to sell the breeding stock and I wouldn't discount off hand any thing that was seen first hand that was contrary. There were major problems with fertility at first, but after they got the bison content down fertility improved. Beefalo is between between 35.16% and 37.5% bison. It's possible that the neighbors herd has a higher bison content, but's that only a guess since I've never actually had any, it could be that their marketing propaganda is just garbage.
If you want more info here's a couple of very good sites about them.
http://www.ababeefalo.org/
http://www.beefalobeef.com/
I'll stick with regular commercial cattle. Guess I'm a chicken, but I like the established market and the known product. Hard enough to make a profit without venturing that far into the unknown. But then I guess the person I know that had 60 Emu's and couldn't sell them probably has made me more cautious.
Good luck
It's true a few, but not all, do have smaller rear ends than bovine and that would tend to affect it some, but mostly I think it has to do with two things. The first is the grade of the meat. Beefalo is high protien, LOW fat, low cholesterol meat. In my opinion, it's not going to grade high enough for the average feed lot buyer to want to fool with them. They'd need to sell them to a specialty place that deals in "healthier" cuts of meat in order to come out. I don't think it'd be worth their hassle on a few animals they would encounter to find the market. The second reason I think is just plain the unknown. They aren't all that common and I feel most people don't know how they'd do in given situation and tend to shy away from them for that reason. I also think there's lots of misconceptions about them floating about.
I also know from talking to the breeders that they sell most of their stock as freezer beef locally. The ones I've talked to that ran them thru a barn just kept their mouths shut about the bison content. You may legally sell Beefalo as beef and not declare the bison content, but not vise-versa.
As far as them being hard to breed, that's not what the breeders say or any of the info I've read says. But bear in mind that's being said by the people trying to sell the breeding stock and I wouldn't discount off hand any thing that was seen first hand that was contrary. There were major problems with fertility at first, but after they got the bison content down fertility improved. Beefalo is between between 35.16% and 37.5% bison. It's possible that the neighbors herd has a higher bison content, but's that only a guess since I've never actually had any, it could be that their marketing propaganda is just garbage.
If you want more info here's a couple of very good sites about them.
http://www.ababeefalo.org/
http://www.beefalobeef.com/
I'll stick with regular commercial cattle. Guess I'm a chicken, but I like the established market and the known product. Hard enough to make a profit without venturing that far into the unknown. But then I guess the person I know that had 60 Emu's and couldn't sell them probably has made me more cautious.
Good luck
frenchie
Well-known member
Rustler9":3l21ftjg said:
Likely were bison hybrids ,not beefalo there is a difference
