Difference between red and black angus?

[dun]

In my put together herd the reds out preform the blacks. I had a max price I would pay per cow and I usually got better reds than blacks for the money. Lots of black junk in this area - - while the reds are more consistent and may still sell for less.

Best value I ever bought was horned herf cows.Not many bidders for that kind and they always come up with a calf. :nod: I am thinking about adding some cows and rwf are at the top of my shopping list.

So the difference is wether you want rwf or bwf calves !

bears out the old saying "you can ru na Hereford cow around the dark side of the moon and she'll come back with a calf

 

[djinwa]

If you went with red Angus cows and put a black bull on them how would that work out with the calves? Seems you could have the positive of the red cows and the positive of black calves.
I am actually considering doing this.

I like that idea. Of course, all else being equal, the black calves will perform worse and die more in the feedlot from heat, but that's the next guy's problem. Although from a general marketing perspective, you wouldn't think stories of dying cattle would improve beef consumption. Some consumers care about the animals.

I am not hearing that there is much difference in meat quality between blacks and reds. Seems the red angus people should be really out there promoting good beef and more profits from more heat tolerance.

The individual stories of temperament issues don't mean much, since, as was stated, it all depends on what is being selected for in each herd. Give me not too many generations of hard culling and I could turn a herd of angus into a dairy.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

If you went with red Angus cows and put a black bull on them how would that work out with the calves? Seems you could have the positive of the red cows and the positive of black calves.
I am actually considering doing this.

I like that idea. Of course, all else being equal, the black calves will perform worse and die more in the feedlot from heat, but that's the next guy's problem. Although from a general marketing perspective, you wouldn't think stories of dying cattle would improve beef consumption. Some consumers care about the animals.

I am not hearing that there is much difference in meat quality between blacks and reds. Seems the red angus people should be really out there promoting good beef and more profits from more heat tolerance.

The individual stories of temperament issues don't mean much, since, as was stated, it all depends on what is being selected for in each herd. Give me not too many generations of hard culling and I could turn a herd of angus into a dairy.

to you, DJinWa!

 

[Deepsouth]

If you went with red Angus cows and put a black bull on them how would that work out with the calves? Seems you could have the positive of the red cows and the positive of black calves.
I am actually considering doing this.

I like that idea. Of course, all else being equal, the black calves will perform worse and die more in the feedlot from heat, but that's the next guy's problem. Although from a general marketing perspective, you wouldn't think stories of dying cattle would improve beef consumption. Some consumers care about the animals.

I am not hearing that there is much difference in meat quality between blacks and reds. Seems the red angus people should be really out there promoting good beef and more profits from more heat tolerance.

The individual stories of temperament issues don't mean much, since, as was stated, it all depends on what is being selected for in each herd. Give me not too many generations of hard culling and I could turn a herd of angus into a dairy.

I am in the process of converting 40 acres of timberland into pasture. I was intending to contract graze or buy some yearling to finish. But with the way the markets have been going I have been considereding going with a commercial cow and calf operation. If I do that the red angus cows are really attractive to me. They really seem to be well suited for the climate that I'm in but there are not many people around here who have them for some reason. Everything around here is black, I guess for marketing reasons. But as I said I was thinking red angus cows with a black bull giving me mostly black calves. If I did do this what kind of bull should I look at?
You mentioned meat quality of the two colors being similar. Looks to me like once you pull the hide that they would all be Angus.

 

[Oldtimer]

About $100 per cow here. :cboy:

Yep- same here..For whatever reason the solid blacks sell for more than the reds...

 

[Baldie Maker]

Give me not too many generations of hard culling and I could turn a herd of angus into a dairy.

With some of those milk epds close to 40 in the angus breed it could be accomplished sooner than later.

 

[Anguscattle]

Ive been told by association delegates, professors, and breeders that there is no true difference besides color. The red angus was derived from the black angus using selective breeding, focusing on the red recessive gene. Personally we raise black angus, but i have seen some pretty darn impressive red angus cattle. I dont have any problem with them. Plus, from a breeding standpoint, you have a larger selection of genetics to choose from vs the blacks. For those of you that dont know, red angus can be bred to registered blacks and still registered as reds, even if the calf is black. Reg blacks can only be bred to registered black and not crossed with reds.

 

[ANAZAZI]

If you went with red Angus cows and put a black bull on them how would that work out with the calves? Seems you could have the positive of the red cows and the positive of black calves.
I am actually considering doing this.

However there are plenty of terminal breeds in the us that come in black, so you could get CAB, terminal growth, and angus beef caracteristics, without using any black angus. I am sure this is what the AAA wants :lol2: :lol2:

 

[Anguscattle]

I think heat tolerance gets way over-thought. Yes, i know its important, but like someone else said, these black cattle are raised in a hot environment and adjust. Our black cows do just as well as our colored cows. Im not cutting red angus, i like them, i just think too much is put into the heat tolerance. And this idea that black cattle, no matter the breed, cant stand heat is just bogus! Tell that to the brangus, or the corrientes that have always been southern cattle, or any other breed thats gone black. I think its crap. And dying in feedlots bc theyre black?? C'mon now. I highly doubt that death loss of black cattle in feedlots is attributed to their color.

 

[ANAZAZI]

I think heat tolerance gets way over-thought. Yes, i know its important, but like someone else said, these black cattle are raised in a hot environment and adjust. Our black cows do just as well as our colored cows. Im not cutting red angus, i like them, i just think too much is put into the heat tolerance. And this idea that black cattle, no matter the breed, cant stand heat is just bogus! Tell that to the brangus, or the corrientes that have always been southern cattle, or any other breed thats gone black. I think its crap. And dying in feedlots bc theyre black?? C'mon now. I highly doubt that death loss of black cattle in feedlots is attributed to their color.

Heat tolerance has to do with many things, light hair better than dark, slick and shiny hair better than long and coarse, sweating ability, feeding pattern, and so on. Brangus and corriente are heat adapted breeds that are black, but all things alike, most heat adapted breeds are non black (of course most breeds are non black period).
Death loss in feed lots has much to do with colour, there are numbers to prove it.

 

[Taurus]

Personally I don't buy this "blacks are heat intolerant and are dying in feed lots" thing. There are plenty of black breeds that handle hot environment, even in Africa. Our summers here can get up to 90-100F.

 

[3waycross]

I think heat tolerance gets way over-thought. Yes, i know its important, but like someone else said, these black cattle are raised in a hot environment and adjust. Our black cows do just as well as our colored cows. Im not cutting red angus, i like them, i just think too much is put into the heat tolerance. And this idea that black cattle, no matter the breed, cant stand heat is just bogus! Tell that to the brangus, or the corrientes that have always been southern cattle, or any other breed thats gone black. I think its crap. And dying in feedlots bc theyre black?? C'mon now. I highly doubt that death loss of black cattle in feedlots is attributed to their color.

Even Frankie wouldn't have tried to float that balloon :bs:

 

[dun]

I don;t think it's the heat as much as the exposure to the direct sun that makes blacks less tolerent.

 

[Massey135]

black folk are from Africa and the whitest of the white, the nordics, are from well... where its freezing cold!

I don't care if its skin pigment or color or w/e. The lightest color'd(whether you're talking about hair color or skin pigment)animals(humans included) are from the coldest climates. THe darkest colored animals/humans are from the blazing heat.

 

[highgrit]

MF135, common sense makes no sense sometimes. There's more black cows in the south than ever before. And if they were dying from the heat
I don't think that would be the case. And you sure wouldn't be getting a premium price at the sale barn for black cows either.
But then again common sense makes no sense sometimes. :2cents:

 

[3waycross]

black folk are from Africa and the whitest of the white, the nordics, are from well... where its freezing cold!

I don't care if its skin pigment or color or w/e. The lightest color'd(whether you're talking about hair color or skin pigment)animals(humans included) are from the coldest climates. THe darkest colored animals/humans are from the blazing heat.

Must be one hot sumbych in Scotland then, for all those BLACK Angus to evolve there!

 

[3waycross]

http://vetmed.iastate.edu/vdpam/extensi ... eef-cattle

Not the longest scientific tome but certainly appropriate to the question at hand. Being FAT and being BLACK seems to be the worst combination there is.

Simple test for ya'll. I don't care where you live. Take three bricks paint one red, one black, and one white. Set them side by side in the sun at the exact same ambient temp and measure the temperature of all three thre to four hours later. Then you tell me there's no common sense involved.

BTW this is not just pertinent to the south. Come up to my country and walk around in a black shirt in the summer where there is very little atmosphere to protect you from solar radiation and let me know how that works out for ya!

 

[ALACOWMAN]

this spring i burned off the hay lot,, as i always do... on hotter days you could feel the heat radiate off the blacked soil like a torch... days after it had burned

 

[Anguscattle]

I think heat tolerance gets way over-thought. Yes, i know its important, but like someone else said, these black cattle are raised in a hot environment and adjust. Our black cows do just as well as our colored cows. Im not cutting red angus, i like them, i just think too much is put into the heat tolerance. And this idea that black cattle, no matter the breed, cant stand heat is just bogus! Tell that to the brangus, or the corrientes that have always been southern cattle, or any other breed thats gone black. I think its crap. And dying in feedlots bc theyre black?? C'mon now. I highly doubt that death loss of black cattle in feedlots is attributed to their color.

Even Frankie wouldn't have tried to float that balloon :bs:

Im close friends with guys at rather large feedlots in Texas, never heard them say anything about black cattle dying because theyre black. Ill be sure to ask them though. And if they do, then why do they send so many to feedlots? As high as cattle are i cant imagine a feeding company buying black cattle, just to have them die all bc of color. I still think thats a bogus statement, but ill agree to disagree.

 

[Anguscattle]

MF135, common sense makes no sense sometimes. There's more black cows in the south than ever before. And if they were dying from the heat
I don't think that would be the case. And you sure wouldn't be getting a premium price at the sale barn for black cows either.
But then again common sense makes no sense sometimes. :2cents:

I laugh at these people that say black cattle cant stand heat. Youre dead on with your statement. Last summer it was around 100 or more degrees for what seemed like months! All my black cows kept condition (on grass), bred back when they were supposed to, and carried calves full term! What more can you ask from a cow?? Ive never lost a cow due to heat. Blacks included. But some people just refuse to listen to reason.