Bring Back The Old Colors

[Bright Raven]

The original Simmental as introduced from Europe was not an ideal beef animal. What the Simmental brought to the table was frame, milk production, growth, and rapid maturity. Those traits also fostered some negatives. The size and frame resulted in calving issues when crossed with smaller framed American beef cattle. As a result, some of those traits were moderated by breeding. The modern American Simmental is more moderate framed. They still produce a lot of milk. In my herd, maybe too much. And as is often lamented, they have been selected for a mostly a black hide.

I would like to see a return of the chrome. I am doing my part to put more chrome in my Simmentals. How about you? Anyone want to join me in bringing back some of that wonderful color? I dream of the day when folks will look at Gimli and say - I wish he had more chrome. ;-)

 

[Davemk]

Ron I say this with all the respect in the world. Who gives a be nice what color the hide is as long as I can get the animal to a marketable carcass weight and finish without going broke.

I am just in a pissy mood. Mowed giant ragweed that is throwing pollen, on an open station tractor. 2 hours of it have me feeling like be nice.

 

[Davemk]

I do like chrome, just had to say that.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I'd like to see black hide done away with entirely on Simmentals.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Colors don't mean anything to me if the animal is going to be used as commercial. I'd like to see the Simmental breed have some consistency and repeatable accuracy of what you might get when you cross breed using a Simmental. Angus = black, Hereford = white face, Simmental = ?

 

[Bright Raven]

Ron I say this with all the respect in the world. Who gives a be nice what color the hide is as long as I can get the animal to a marketable carcass weight and finish without going broke.

I am just in a be nice mood. Mowed giant ragweed that is throwing pollen, on an open station tractor. 2 hours of it have me feeling like be nice.

Dave. That is the essence of my thread. I hear a lot of whining about color. Why does color matter????????

I have been mowing common ragweed. My tractor is YELLOW. If I didn't have a cab, I would be in intensive care. Lol

 

[True Grit Farms]

Ron I say this with all the respect in the world. Who gives a be nice what color the hide is as long as I can get the animal to a marketable carcass weight and finish without going broke.

I am just in a be nice mood. Mowed giant ragweed that is throwing pollen, on an open station tractor. 2 hours of it have me feeling like be nice.

Dave. That is the essence of my thread. I hear a lot of whining about color. Why does color matter????????

A good black hided steer or heifer is worth more $MONEY.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Ron I say this with all the respect in the world. Who gives a be nice what color the hide is as long as I can get the animal to a marketable carcass weight and finish without going broke.

I am just in a be nice mood. Mowed giant ragweed that is throwing pollen, on an open station tractor. 2 hours of it have me feeling like be nice.

Dave. That is the essence of my thread. I hear a lot of whining about color. Why does color matter????????

A good black hided steer or heifer is worth more $MONEY.

That's the premium that rightfully belongs to Angus cattle only.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Black hide on Simmental is not NEW. My very first half blood Simmentals were black back in 1971. Black gene is dominant. We had commercial cows, black, bwf, angus x shorthorn - quite a mixture. We could not get away from black calves. My herd developed into about 1/2 blacks, and I never bred to a black Simmental bull until I used my Simme Valley Macho As U (my avatar picture) in 2003. He was a purchased embryo - homozygous black and homozygous polled.
I love the chrome. I have to be careful and watch how much chrome my buyers are willing to pay for. A few here and there will always sell, but not sure there is a BIG demand for heavy chromed cattle. Blaze, star, snip - any face white attracts buyers.

The name of the game is to make money. I sell fairly expensive breeding stock, so I pay attention to what my market wants.

Consistancy??? just get yourself a homozygous black bull or a red bull (which has to be homo red). Not too difficult to get consistent color. I was at the Angus show today in NYSF. There were numerous females with white udders almost all the way to their naval. I know that is the "allowed" amount of white to register Angus, but it was quite colorful. Thought there were some Simmies in the ring. LOL

Black hide premium? That does NOT belong to the Angus (premium that is). They developed a PROGRAM that promoted black hided cattle, but did not protect their "Angus" involvement in the steers. They helped ALL beef breeds that wanted to jump on the band wagon to make more money.

 

[Davemk]

Ron I say this with all the respect in the world. Who gives a be nice what color the hide is as long as I can get the animal to a marketable carcass weight and finish without going broke.

I am just in a be nice mood. Mowed giant ragweed that is throwing pollen, on an open station tractor. 2 hours of it have me feeling like be nice.

Dave. That is the essence of my thread. I hear a lot of whining about color. Why does color matter????????

A good black hided steer or heifer is worth more $MONEY.

Why? marketing mostly?

 

[Muddy]

If the color doesn't matter, then why the blacks and BWF bringing more money than the other colors even if theyre all same quality? A solid black Sim calf brought more than his spotted sibling from same herd, yet they have same genetic makeup. The diversity in the beef cattle of Americas are getting smaller and smaller. It's easier to selling the black hided bulls of any breed than the chromed up bulls.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Muddy - the "perceived" lower quality of the "spotted" Simmental still sticks around. I don't play the sale barn game. All my steers are sold direct to a feedlot, sight unseen. Red, Black or chromed. Can't say I have had more than maybe 1 or 2 spotted in past 6 years. Buyer loves them, always tells me he makes money on my cattle.
It amazes me that more of you producers don't deal direct market for your steers??? sale ring can suck! Although, I determine my price to the buyer based on the highest price paid at the best feeder sale location for NY.

 

[elkwc]

Colors don't mean anything to me if the animal is going to be used as commercial. I'd like to see the Simmental breed have some consistency and repeatable accuracy of what you might get when you cross breed using a Simmental. Angus = black, Hereford = white face, Simmental = ?

Hereford used to = White face. Sadly that isn't always the case anymore.

 

[kentuckyguy]

Ron I say this with all the respect in the world. Who gives a be nice what color the hide is as long as I can get the animal to a marketable carcass weight and finish without going broke.

I am just in a be nice mood. Mowed giant ragweed that is throwing pollen, on an open station tractor. 2 hours of it have me feeling like be nice.

Dave. That is the essence of my thread. I hear a lot of whining about color. Why does color matter????????

A good black hided steer or heifer is worth more $MONEY.

Maybe where you are. Here BWF steers and heifers almost always bring more than solid blacks.

Bring on the chrome

 

[elkwc]

Several breeders in this area used to sell direct to the lots or to a Stocker buyer. Selling directly to the lots has diminished due to the fact that most of the lots are now owned by the big corps and their policies don't allow it. My supervisor used to sell direct and his cattle fed well. The manager always paid a premium for them. But after a corp bought it that stopped. A few smaller lots buy some feeders direct. One buys Herefords and Hereford crosses for the CHB program. Understand it works well for him. And some buy them for the grass fed beef market. I have been spoiled by corn fed beef. And I haven't adjusted to the grass fed yet.

 

[Silver]

I am fortunate that where I am white Charolais and chromy red Simmental sell just as good as any black hided cattle. Usually much better because they weigh more. There was a few years when Angus cattle out sold the others but that seems to have passed. I spent way too many years of my life watching black and Hereford coloured cattle take a beating at the auctions to get caught up in it myself.

 

[Davemk]

Dave. That is the essence of my thread. I hear a lot of whining about color. Why does color matter????????

A good black hided steer or heifer is worth more $MONEY.

Maybe where you are. Here BWF steers and heifers almost always bring more than solid blacks.

Bring on the chrome

Mt. Sterling Ky. is one the markets where BWF will outsell anything. Body and legs have to be solid black.

 

[Muddy]

Muddy - the "perceived" lower quality of the "spotted" Simmental still sticks around. I don't play the sale barn game. All my steers are sold direct to a feedlot, sight unseen. Red, Black or chromed. Can't say I have had more than maybe 1 or 2 spotted in past 6 years. Buyer loves them, always tells me he makes money on my cattle.
It amazes me that more of you producers don't deal direct market for your steers??? sale ring can suck! Although, I determine my price to the buyer based on the highest price paid at the best feeder sale location for NY.

Sorry that we didn't marketing our animals the same way as your precious "Simmental" steers. My point is that many people seek out solid or BWF bulls for commercial purposes and ignoring the spotted ones. If these bulls ever threw a spotted calf, they usually get rid of the bulls that throws spotted calf.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Dave. That is the essence of my thread. I hear a lot of whining about color. Why does color matter????????

A good black hided steer or heifer is worth more $MONEY.

Maybe where you are. Here BWF steers and heifers almost always bring more than solid blacks.

Bring on the chrome

I don't consider baldie or brockle faced cattle chromed up. I've run Hereford bulls just for the baldie look in my herd. But a red baldie heifer won't bring nearly as much as a black baldie heifer.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I do not intend to EVER even try to adjust. I like my corn fed beef, thank you. I eat Venison. That is grass fed.