color

[Anonymous]

i was just wondering: why are solid colored animals better? does a solid colored animal mean better meat? do spots mean a lesser quality of animal?

i keep hearing about people having problems with spotted animals and i was just curious what was wrong with multi-colored animals or if it was just personal preference with many people?

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[Anonymous]

if my questions sounded rude i'm sorry, i was not meaning anything bad by these questions. i was just curious why solids are 'better'

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[Anonymous]

I assume you're talking about buyers in the sale barn? In my area, they discount almost anything with spots because they claim it's part Longhorn. (Sorry, Longhorn breeders, but it's the truth.) Longhorns are less efficient in the feedlot and generally are not a breed that marbles well (beef quality grade). Many of them are also light muscled which hurts yield grade, too. And I think that buyers discount just because they can. If there's not much demand for a particular breed or "type", there won't be many people bidding for him at the sale barn. If you have spotted cattle, your best bet is probably to feed them yourself. Once the hide comes off, good beef is good beef and the market rewards "good" beef. But spotted live cattle can take a beating.

i was just wondering: why are
> solid colored animals better? does
> a solid colored animal mean better
> meat? do spots mean a lesser
> quality of animal?

> i keep hearing about people having
> problems with spotted animals and
> i was just curious what was wrong
> with multi-colored animals or if
> it was just personal preference
> with many people?

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent point. Our bull calves go to a feeder lot and then to the slaughter house. That is where we sell them. Once the skin comes off, no one knows what they are beyond the quality of the meat. A longhorn typically has to be older to gain the size that most desire to be feedlot profitable. The meat also doesn't marble as well. Like it was already said, once the skin is off, good meat is good meat and I have plenty of longhorns that grade choice and yield #1.



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[Anonymous]

Good point! We should "think outside the box". For example: At the supermarket meat counter can anyone tell what color or brand of cattle are in that little package with shrink wrap on it? Can anyone tell what type of animal is in their ground beef? The other thing I would like to mention (am sure some people are aware of this too) is that there are basically "two schools of thought" with longhorns: The first is with the breeders that raise the more "traditional" longhorn look. The second is with the breeders that raise the "beefy" and heavy, full-bodied longhorn look. We combine both in our program, grow for full-bodied conformation along with color and horn. We have a several solid black and solid red longhorns in our foundation stock as well as a mix of colors and patterns. One cattleman in our area recently visited and was surprised to see one of our solid black beefy, sturdy longhorn cows.

 

[Anonymous]

Nah, a good cow can be any colour. The market rules cattle trend tho.

jo

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[Anonymous]

>I was just reading these posts and I too believe that any breed has it's good and bad. I raise Longhorns and I use a Longhorn bull on my beef cows (Beefmaster/Beefalo crosses). I have a black and white bull that consistently throws black calves when bred to these beef cows-these calves brought the highest prices of any we sold this past fall and I thought it was kind of funny that they will probably think that they just bought some Angus crosses when they actually have no Angus in them at all. In reality they should be paying a premium for good lean beef without all the waste and fat that other breeds have.