Stocker Steve":2zuvvkhe said:
js1234":2zuvvkhe said:
I view them as one of the best crosses going for our Northern Nevada high desert (5,200 feet) country.
Do you see benefits to this RA cross other than the color?
Absolutely. In the last 10 years the Red Angus Association has done a much better job of moving their breed in a direction that helps to improve their commercial customers much more than the American Angus Association has. I'm 100% convinced (even though I don't own one, though that is very soon to change) that the "average" Red Angus bull today is a better tool for the commercial cattleman, at least here in the West than the "average" Black Angus bull.
Myself and Duane Martin Jr. discussed this at length at a cattle feeder function in Colorado over the Holidays and they are quickly forming the same opinion.
I feel that Black Angus breeders in particular and their association in general has become so obsessed with it's overwhelming dominance of market share and their desire to maintain it, that way too many inferior Angus bulls are being marketed by inferior breeders and name one's alike. Couple that with the bastardization of the "Angus Beef" programs (for the most part other than CAB, though they're not entirely immune) and you have a recipe for market saturation with an average animal that is many ways inferior to his relative from a few generations ago.
I'm trying to remain objective and I think I'm a reasonably honest participant in the situation. As an example, when I mention how they have diluted the "Angus Beef" programs in the name of selling more "Angus" beef, I feel like I'm speaking from a position of first hand knowledge. In the last 20 years, I've fed thousands and thousands of cattle through our cattle feeding segment that were no more 51% Angus than I am, and the programs took them with open arms, and paid the premium, with all my cards on the table, because they were black and could fill a boxed beef order.
While I don't buy as many Angus bulls as Martin Livestock who I earlier mentioned does annually, I do buy 50-70 Angus bulls a year depending on a few variables at the present between the CA and NV cow/calf operations and that takes me to a fair amount of bull sales and garners me an awful lot of sales pitches from an awful lot of Angus breeders and breed reps alike and these have been the observations I've made.
I have become convinced that outside of a very small percentage of sales, almost all Angus breeders who put on a sale would do the breed on the whole a major service if they cut the nuts off the bottom 10-20% of the bulls in their annual bull sales. Of course, that would drive down their receipts and possibly erode a little bit of that precious market share the breed cherishes.
That's not to say that I don't like Angus. I use an awful lot of Angus bulls and of the 25,000 or so stockers that we buy personally to run on grass annually, I'd say 80% of them have some Angus influence. They're an outstanding animal and that isn't going to change in our operation in particular or the beef industry in general anytime soon. Another of the strong suits of Angus is their crossbreeding value. They do an awful lot to put a little shine in terms of both appearance and perfomance on plainer cattle and bred to truly good cattle of another breed, such as Hereford, the resulting calf is truly fantastic. It's just that they are not without their warts and the current condition and outlook of the Red Angus breed helps to make these flaws a little bit more visible.
I feed an awful lot of cattle and I can tell you that more than anything else, if I had a gun to my head and had to pick one set of steers to go on and perform, grade and convert, all with an attractive COG, I'd pick a set of straightened out Red Angus yearlings from a commercial Red Angus based program that has been a Gridmaster Award recipient.
Of course, this is just one guy that's not smart enough to do anything other than punch cows opinion and I'm sure it will get some less than positive feedback, LOL