Breed Popularity

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

I have liked Murray Gray since I was a little kid. Part of the reason I dabble with Durham Reds (I know they are different). Have often wonered what I would get if I bred them to a red bull. I assume black but don't know.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Hereford, Speckle Park, Shorthorn. All three are great on grass and in the feedlot, and typically are more low-cost to raise, even for winter feeding here in Canada. Speckle Park was only recently made officially a breed in 2006. The CHA hasn't had much luck marketing their breed, less than the Canadian Shorthorn association, and shorties aren't so popular because people are scared of getting cattle with PHA and TH that would hurt their operation.

 

[okotoks]

I think the Galloway is the most under rated breed and has a lot to offer especially in northern regions. Functional and hardy with good marbling.

 

[andybob]

African Sanga breeds and their composites, heat and parasite tolerant without the problem of selling "eared" cattle, unique Bos Taurus genetics maximising heterosis in crossing to both European Taurus and Indicus breeds, exeptional foragers and high quality, marbled beef. Increasing in popularity as stock becomes available, main reasons they are not more popular is too little stock available at present, and reluctance to try something new on a small scale in existing herds, several new breeders are impressed by their F1 damline cows fertility and mothering instincts.

 

[AllForage]

I would go back to Galloway and do Welsh Blacks. Galloways need a dedicated breederss lifetime to fix the profitable traits in to a herd.

 

[Lucky_P]

Braunvieh. Carcass traits are a strong point - if you look at some of the performance/carcass trials, they consistently rise to the top.

And, I think, probably Pinzgauer - but they can take a pretty big hit at the barn, 'cause buyers think they're a Longhorn-cross (or 'steal' them, claiming that they're a LHx).
I've had some halfblood PZ cows in the herd in the past, and they were top performers. Those I worked on, 25 yrs ago had good dispositions, good beef conformation, udder quality good to fair, and all the recent data I've seen suggests that tenderness is pretty good, across the board.

 

[2/B or not 2/B]

Our neighbor has a herd of Brahmans. They don't let me get too close, but they're very beautiful and they make the strangest sounds. They're like cattle from another planet.

 

[Gale Seddon]

Murray Grey.
Reason they aren't more popular, from what I gather there was to much infighting within the Associations.

Sizmic

When you look at where the rubber hits the road, sizmic hits a home run!

Facts are facts.

Don't want to highjack this thread, but I'd like to hear more about this if someone cares to tell me. Thanks!

 

[Tod Dague]

In the south Red Brangus.

 

[JeffMills517]

African Sanga breeds and their composites, heat and parasite tolerant without the problem of selling "eared" cattle, unique Bos Taurus genetics maximising heterosis in crossing to both European Taurus and Indicus breeds, exeptional foragers and high quality, marbled beef. Increasing in popularity as stock becomes available, main reasons they are not more popular is too little stock available at present, and reluctance to try something new on a small scale in existing herds, several new breeders are impressed by their F1 damline cows fertility and mothering instincts.

Is that what the Senepol breed used?

 

[andybob]

Is that what the Senepol breed used?

The Senepol is derived from the N'dama breed from the Northern African regeon (Senegal) crossed to Red Poll, the N'dama is a pure African Sanga breed so is a heat tolerant Bos Taurus. The two breeds in the USA at present the Tuli and Mashona are of this group, but have had more selection pressure as their ancestors migrated down the length of Africa through different hostile environments.

 

[sizmic]

Murray Grey.
Reason they aren't more popular, from what I gather there was to much infighting within the Associations.

Sizmic

When you look at where the rubber hits the road, sizmic hits a home run!

Facts are facts.

Don't want to highjack this thread, but I'd like to hear more about this if someone cares to tell me. Thanks!

Wish I could help but I have no experience with this just what I've heard. You might try a search of Murray Grey on this site. I do have some nice 1/2 MG's now though.

Sizmic

 

[u4411clb]

Chianina. They are not as popular because early on the Italians dumped all the junk semen they had on the Americans. Then to top it off the ACA Association has to be the worst Association ever how do you let people register such low percentage cows they have totally gotten away from the Chianina breed. The reason they should be more popular I had a full blood that was super gentle and I could grab by the horns he was so gentle. They are heat tolerant and nothing cleans up the underline or waste on Brahman crossed cattle like a Chi. You could breed a fullblood to Gerts or Brangus and have no deduction on the calves that is how much it cleaned up the navel and neck and underline. Should be the terminal breed of the south. But due to not being able to find good genetics now I breed the Gerts to Hereford Bulls and Brangus to Angus Bulls.

 

[charlie01]

I take anything!!

 

[Commercialfarmer]

African Sanga breed so is a heat tolerant Bos Taurus.

I read an article about the chasing of the genetic history of Sanga cattle. There was indication that he cattle were influenced by Bos Indicus as trading occured. I understand that with selection, you can increase the expression of certain traits. But I would argue that there has to be those traits available first, before they can be selected for. I tend to think that the heat tolerance that has been perpetuated came from the Indicus influence.

Not saying that Sanga cattle don't likely have a majority of Taurus composition. But on face value, it is hard for me to accept them as pure Taurus cattle that are just the product of selection. They remind me of a lot of some of the Aussie Shorthorns, that appear to have some heat tolerance bred in.

I would like to see more proven information on average wt gain, feed conversion, carcus quality/marbling, shear testing, compared to what we are getting from lines of british, continental, crosses and brahma influenced cattle.

If they have been able to truly capture the heat tolerance, without some of the drawbacks, they may have a solid place in the south competing with brahma.

 

[andybob]

The Sanga types that developed from the domesticated African wild Aurochs, had migrated with their herders to the south before the introduction of Idicus breeds from the Indian continent, so the southern breeds were not affected by hybridisation common to the northern breeds, some northern breeds such as the N'dama remained pure Taurus as their owners did not trade new lines into their herds. When I was at college, we were taught the southern Sanga were a Taurindicus derived genotype, based on their phenotype, it was only in the 80's that gene testing in Australia proved them to be pure Taurus, this has been supported by archaelogical evidence of the early arrivals, and their unique genotype linking them to African ancestory rather than imported European domesticated cattle. Most of the research done on the carcase quality shear force etc has been done in the USA, and the information is available from several universities including Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona (which are still doing trials on the Wagyuli). Most of my links are no longer available so I will need to find some new references, but the USA and Australian research matches the Tuli to Angus in marbling and shearforce. The Sanga do not need to compete with Indicus cattle as they are also complimentary to the Brahman in crossbreeding programs and composites with British Taurus, Brahman and Sanga genetics such as the South African Veldmaster developed in Zimbabwe by Johann Zietsman. http://sangacattle.webs.com/apps/photos/ This site has some pictures of pure and composite breeds, and some worthwhile links.

 

[Wisteria Farms]

Hello folks...
I haven't been on here for quite some time but couldn't sleep and decided to check in.

As for the post on Murray Greys and the fighting between associations... you are 100% correct... sort of... well, maybe not. LOL.

I served on the Board of Directors of ONE association for several years and am now with a different association. For ME it was a choice I had to make because I was ready to abandon the breed entirely.
If you look at the website that I maintain for the Midwest Breeders http://www.midwestmurraygreybreeders.comyou will see that I am CONTINUALLY trying to bring breeders together.
For the most part, its working... and the lines of communication are opening. I DONT CARE what Association you belong to because I'm going to help you regardless and breeders who know me will tell you that I don't try to sway them one way or another, I simply encourage them to keep growing and learning.

When I said (sort of)... what I meant was, Id like to offer a different "spin" on why the Murray Greys haven't become more popular and it comes down to several factors.

1. I find the vast majority LOVE their cattle but they aren't willing to take extra steps to PROMOTE them. We need people to stick their neck out and host field days, appear at state Expo's, get universities to use our cattle in their ag programs, etc. but its just not happening...

2. Breeder commitment to higher quality... I know ALL breeds experience this at some level but the ONLY way we can get other breeds to consider using our bulls is if we can show that we're an asset to their program. Some of us are continually working on getting our ADG higher and our RFI lower but then you have Joe Breeder who wants to sell bulls for $2000 but can't give you legitimate reasons WHY that animal is worth that money... some breeders (not all) just don't want to educate themselves and it can be pretty frustrating.

3. Numbers. We don't have them. I'm dying to come up with SOME KIND OF PROGRAM for putting embryos from top performance females/sires into non MG recip cows. I could sell MG females all day every day... there just aren't enough to meet the demand and THAT is hurting us as well. I'd like an opinion here... What do you think the chances are of cooperating with a dairy to implant embryos?
I would love to hear from you dairy people as to if this is something "logical" to consider and what the terms of such an arrangement might be...
Yes, I LOVE MY BREED. They deserve better and I'm going to continue to fight for that.
Thanks for listening...
Angie Nason
http://www.wisteriafarmsmurraygreycattle.com

 

[UG]

Wisteria wrote
3. Numbers. We don't have them. I'm dying to come up with SOME KIND OF PROGRAM for putting embryos from top performance females/sires into non MG recip cows. I could sell MG females all day every day... there just aren't enough to meet the demand and THAT is hurting us as well. I'd like an opinion here... What do you think the chances are of cooperating with a dairy to implant embryos?
I would love to hear from you dairy people as to if this is something "logical" to consider and what the terms of such an arrangement might be...

There are some well managed commercial beef herds that routinely put embryos in their commercial cows for seedstock producers. The arrangements vary but often the commercial producer pays for synchronizing the recips, and the seedstock producer pays for putting the embryos in. At weaning the commercial producer is paid a premium of $100-200 over the market price for the ET calves. One commercial producer told me that it is the most profitable segment of their farming operation.

If you go with this, make sure you find a producer who has a good herd health program and will keep detailed records of birth dates, birth weights, and whatever other information you want collected. I would probably shy away from dairy producers, since I would be more concerned with some of the health issues that seem more prevalent in dairy herds. Also, I don't want to be in the business of bottle feeding baby calves for 6+ weeks, but maybe that works for you.

You may want to check with some of the ET techs and see if they know of any commercial herds that are wanting to raise ET calves.

 

[UG]

In regard to what breed do I think should have more popularity, it would be Braunvieh.

Like many of the other more popular Continental breeds they have good growth, the females in milk well and are fertile, and they compliment Angus by adding muscle and taking off fat, resulting in improved yield grades. However, they are probably one of the best Continental breeds at maintaining (and sometimes increasing) carcass quality grade (marbling).

Whereas Limousin, Gelbvieh, and Simmental were quicker to produce more black purebreds in their breeds, it seems that Braunvieh breeders have been slow to go black, though there seems to be more of a trend toward black Braunvieh in recent years.

The other two areas where the Braunvieh breed has been slow to improve on is with polled cattle and lower birth weights. You can look through several Limousin, Gelbvieh, or Simmental sale catalogs and rarely find a horned bull being sold. Yet, in most Braunvieh sale catalogs more than half the cattle being offered are horned. Also, as a breed it seems that Braunvieh still tend to have more big birth weight cattle than many of the other Continental breeds.

 

[cow pollinater]

If you go the ET route, it needs to be on grass fed beef type cows where the calves are raised like commercial cattle if you want commercial cattlemen to pay attention to your breed. Boosting your genetic base won't do anything for you if nobody knows how they'll perform as commercial cattle.