Breed Popularity

[Stocker Steve]

Not enough Herefords here. They don't wean the biggest calf but they are money makers.
Some Limi breeders in this area. Great gaining cattle but they still get the old rap for disposition problems.
Increasing interest in South Devon in this area. Sounds like a good maternal breed. Any comments on them?

 

[Wisteria Farms]

Thank you UG... that was a great response and exactly what I was hoping for (others to tell me what they know about my options).
And as for your comment, no, bottlefeeding for 6+ months doesn't work for me but I've never bottlefed one that long... typically 3-4 months max before they're eating enough starter grain/hay to sustain their growth but YES I would be willing to pay whatever necessary and do whatever necessary to put additional quality females into the market. If anyone reads this and knows of such an operation in the Midwest, please P.M. me... I'd be interested to talk with them.
Thanks!

 

[Chuckie]

Piedmontese! If you have never had a steak, then you will not understand why. Extreme tenderness, cuts with a fork; a lot of beef on the hoof, higher feed efficiency, and very very docile. It just doesn't make sense that this breed is passed over. I do raise Angus, but would put a Piedmontese in the freezer.
Chuckie

 

[HDRider]

Piedmontese! If you have never had a steak, then you will not understand why. Extreme tenderness, cuts with a fork; a lot of beef on the hoof, higher feed efficiency, and very very docile. It just doesn't make sense that this breed is passed over. I do raise Angus, but would put a Piedmontese in the freezer.
Chuckie

Are all Pieds double muscled?

 

[Rowdy]

Piedmontese! If you have never had a steak, then you will not understand why. Extreme tenderness, cuts with a fork; a lot of beef on the hoof, higher feed efficiency, and very very docile. It just doesn't make sense that this breed is passed over. I do raise Angus, but would put a Piedmontese in the freezer.
Chuckie

Are all Pieds double muscled?

No but it is a mandatory registry requirement.

 

[Chuckie]

HDRider,
Go to the Piedmontese site and they can explain it the best.

http://www.piedmontese.org

Chuckie

 

[HDRider]

HDRider,
Go to the Piedmontese site and they can explain it the best.

http://www.piedmontese.org

Chuckie

Thanks. I learned a new word today. "Myostatin".

These cattle look almost freakish. I have to wonder how they cross with more mainstream breeds.

I guess Arnold would run Piedmontese if he ran cattle.

 

[CKC1586]

Piedmontese! If you have never had a steak, then you will not understand why. Extreme tenderness, cuts with a fork; a lot of beef on the hoof, higher feed efficiency, and very very docile. It just doesn't make sense that this breed is passed over. I do raise Angus, but would put a Piedmontese in the freezer.
Chuckie

Are all Pieds double muscled?

Fullbloods, yes. Double muscling doesn't manifest in the calf till it is a month to 6 weeks old. Piedmontese Breeders Network on Facebook is NOT association connected. Just breeders and folks that are interested in the cattle. Check it out. Piedmontese have much to offer the beef consumer. Pieds cross well with other breeds, a good combination I have tasted is shorthorn/Pied. Also Hereford.

 

[Taurus]

Wasn't aware of there's a composite pied cattle (naturalean) existed. Do they have homo black naturalean pied cattle?

 

[CKC1586]

Wasn't aware of there's a composite pied cattle (naturalean) existed. Do they have homo black naturalean pied cattle?

You can contact North American Piedmontese Association get the scoop on the "black pieds", also the Piedmontese Association of the United States may have some information too. I am not endorsing either association. You can also discuss the breed with breeders on the Facebook page Piedmontese Breeders Network, it is NOT association affiliated.

 

[UG]

Though I think Pieds have a place in the beef industry, my biggest concern is the calving ease of the Pied influenced females. My understanding is due to their double-muscling many Pied influenced cows and heifers struggle when giving birth and often require assistance, and require more c-sections that many of the more common breeds.

I'd be curious to hear from Pied breeders and their experience calving out Pied and Pied influenced females.

 

[Taurus]

Though I think Pieds have a place in the beef industry, my biggest concern is the calving ease of the Pied influenced females. My understanding is due to their double-muscling many Pied influenced cows and heifers struggle when giving birth and often require assistance, and require more c-sections that many of the more common breeds.

I'd be curious to hear from Pied breeders and their experience calving out Pied and Pied influenced females.

Usually they are using Pied bulls as a teriminal sire when using them over British breeds and longhorns.

 

[CKC1586]

Though I think Pieds have a place in the beef industry, my biggest concern is the calving ease of the Pied influenced females. My understanding is due to their double-muscling many Pied influenced cows and heifers struggle when giving birth and often require assistance, and require more c-sections that many of the more common breeds.

I'd be curious to hear from Pied breeders and their experience calving out Pied and Pied influenced females.

Usually they are using Pied bulls as a teriminal sire when using them over British breeds and longhorns.

My brother has been involved with Pieds since 1999 along with two other breeders in our area. In those years I know of one Csection but there is a long story with that one and only. That cow had many calves and never required another CS. We have used a Pied bull sucessfully on Shorthorn, Hereford, Simmental and some crossed cows. The half and half beef is wonderful tasting beef. Personally I love the fullblood beef best. Each association has come up with their composites , you can go to each association to speak about get information on them.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Murray Greys should be the most popular. I have had some of their grass-fed beef and it was easily choice in grading. They've got calving ease and they are extremely docile.

 

[andybob]

Murray Greys should be the most popular. I have had some of their grass-fed beef and it was easily choice in grading. They've got calving ease and they are extremely docile.

http://www.beefcentral.com/p/news/article/2576

 

[CKC1586]

Gelbvieh, Shorthorn, Hereford. Typically not black is one problem. Gelbvieh started coming in late in the continental import period, Shorthorns got too screwed up with the show world and ruined most of the breed, Herefords for the udder, pinkeye, prolapse problems (either real or perceived)
Just an old pharts opinions

I learned something about Gelbvieh, there are "golden" ones as well, a diluter gene makes them a light color, beautiful animals. If I were to get back into the game I would probably stick with my Piedmontese (infighting with two associations has NOT been good for the breed, cattle do great. People not so much.) But I really like what I hear and learn about the Gelbvieh. :tiphat:

 

[SPH]

Gelbvieh, Shorthorn, Hereford. Typically not black is one problem. Gelbvieh started coming in late in the continental import period, Shorthorns got too screwed up with the show world and ruined most of the breed, Herefords for the udder, pinkeye, prolapse problems (either real or perceived)
Just an old pharts opinions

Anything not black is a drawback for some breeders. If you follow what state Expo sales are bringing the Herefords have been putting up some impressive sale averages lately. It just depends on the breeder and how set in their ways they are because you can pick out breeders in any breed or cross breeding program that won't ever consider using certain breeds just because that is how they have always done it. Heck I have a breeder just down the road from me that has a large black crossbred herd that their herdsman finally convinced them to try the same AI Hereford sire I have been using on their black cows yet I can't get them to try out one of my bulls because they don't want to have a white faced bull on their farm just because of "appearances." Their herdsman who has no ties to our program has even told them they should just not mess with the time and money on AI and just buy a bull off us and we even have a son of the AI sire we are both using and they still wouldn't consider giving him a try.

I have a registered Polled Hereford herd and I will tell you that my bulls are in high demand with breeders that have black cattle looking for the benefits of breeding black baldies. I feed out about 3 or 4 yearling bulls and have sold out of them before June 1 every year lately. I have had repeat customers that tried a Hereford bull for the first time on black cows and liked the results so much they came back for another bull to run with some more cows. Yes, I will admit pinkeye can be an issue with Hereford cattle. We have summers we really fight it but one thing is if you can breed bulls with some pigment around their eyes that can help prevent it but if you aren't careful any breed can get pinkeye. The neighbor down the road had a black bull nearly go blind from pinkeye last year so just proof it can happen in any breed. Prolapse issues I think is a myth, all the prolapses we have had we traced back to certain bulls that seem to pass on that trait. Once we got rid of the females with the bloodlines we had prolapse problems with its a rare thing now.

We used to have a few crossbred females in our herd. We bred a little bit of Gelbvieh to some our Angus/Hereford/Shorthorn cross cows and got some nice calves but outside of that it was mostly breeding the red crossbreds to Angus sires and the black ones to Hereford.

 

[IABeef]

How about Yak cross cows for feed efficiency? Weigh about 750 and eat about 60% of typical cow's intake.

 

[Stocker Steve]

We have the only herfs in the neighborhood and not had any problems with them. They are getting a bit old now... Tom L said you should cull 25% of your cows each year to improve your herd.
The wf heifer calves have been a mixed bag and hard cull'in was called for. About 80% of the ones we selected have been good ones with maternal instincts.
Most of the neighbors pay big $ for growthy BA bulls and then complain about how many young replacements get culled for being open... Go figure.

 

[Taurus]

How about Yak cross cows for feed efficiency? Weigh about 750 and eat about 60% of typical cow's intake.

I've heard of some commerical operationers used Yak bulls on their heifers for calving ease. The heifers just farted the calves out and sell these crosses as Yak meat.