Devons

[Andyva]

The beef kind, don't see much mention of them. Seem to be geared toward the small grass fed freezer beef farmer. Might have more market acceptance than the belties or highlanders kept for this purpose. Especially if you bred them to a black bull.

Anybody know anything about them?

 

[Son of Butch]

Kind of scarce, at least around here. Several years ago there was a small herd that I looked at, Big Beautiful cows
raising Big calves owned by an older couple, not even sure if they still have cows.
Easy to drive past a group out in the pasture and mistakenly say red angus without giving it a 2nd thought.
When it comes to minor breeds, my first reaction is always, IF they're really that good why aren't there more of them?

 

[Andyva]

You say big, would you happen to know if they were south devons? I think they run bigger. The ones I have seen are nice looking, not what I would call overly big, but still wondering what the catch is, because you are right, if they are that good you would think there would be more of them. Of course there is an awful lot of some breeds that aren't all that good, but they have people out there telling people how good they are. Maybe it's a matter of they don't charge high enough association dues to hire PR people, lobbyists, and advertising agencies.

 

[bball]

I picked up a couple Devon x Ang cross cows a couple years ago from a fella selling out. I honestly really like the cross. Not too big, easy keepers, no calving troubles so far, breed back quick enough and raise very nice, growthy calfs. They aren't real fancy to look at, but they have been moneymakers for me. I wouldn't hesitate to have a few more if I could find some.

 

[townfarmer]

The beef kind, don't see much mention of them. Seem to be geared toward the small grass fed freezer beef farmer. Might have more market acceptance than the belties or highlanders kept for this purpose. Especially if you bred them to a black bull.

Anybody know anything about them?

We've just purchased a small herd of Devons. I posted a few photos in another thread. I can tell you a little about them. They are moderate in size and are very hardy for a british breed. They can't compete with high performance cattle like angus charolais etc for growth and frame but they do very well in grass finishing operations. In Australia they are a small player in the beef sector but in the UK they have exploded in popularity since the mad cow crisis as a lot of consumers are now very wary of feedlot beef and are willing to pay a premium for grass fed beef.
The guy I bought my cows from was the guest speaker and judge at this years Red Devon Conference in the United States. He just visited a lot of Devon herds over there. He tells me they are growing in popularity within the "organic grass fed direct to consumer beef type sector. He said there are some excellent Devon cattle there but one issue is that a lot of the growth of the Devon breed is to people who are new to cattle breeding.

We've only had our cattle for six months but one thing I can vouch for is they are extremely docile and easy to handle.

Andrew

 

[townfarmer]

removed double post

 

[townfarmer]

When it comes to minor breeds, my first reaction is always, IF they're really that good why aren't there more of them?

It's a good question. If a breed sounds too good to be true they probably are.

In Australia the market generally wants bigger blacker cattle. Devon are a smaller lighter boned animal who's biggest assett is that they're low input. However in our marginal tougher country brahman and brahman composites tend to be the choice for a hardy lower input beef cow.

Andrew

 

[Andyva]

With the red devons, when you say, smaller and lighter boned, how small are we talking? What kind of weaning weight are we looking at? I'm all for small and efficient but sometimes you need to go to the sale barn and if a spring calf is a deer legged 300 pounder in the fall that doesn't work out so good.

 

[Stocker Steve]

When it comes to minor breeds, my first reaction is always, IF they're really that good why aren't there more of them?

Most are the wrong color.
Many got on the boat late.
Some don't fit the feedlot system well.

 

[townfarmer]

With the red devons, when you say, smaller and lighter boned, how small are we talking? What kind of weaning weight are we looking at? I'm all for small and efficient but sometimes you need to go to the sale barn and if a spring calf is a deer legged 300 pounder in the fall that doesn't work out so good.

I don't have any actual data that I can give you. But the straight bred devons I've seen certainly would lag a little behind hereford and angus when it comes to weight for age. Although I've never seen any weaned calves as catastrophic as your description above . There are several big commercial operations here that have devons as there primary cow base. I've seen some really impressive santa/devon and shorthorn/devon steers. Talking to the big Devon breeders here it seems like the majority of there bull sales go into Santa herds.

Andrew

 

[Andybob2]

The British North Devon breeders website - the Sussex is very similar in most traits but has a higher heat tolerance and walking ability, the highest of any British breed. http://www.redrubydevon.co.uk/