Everybody that knows me, knows that I have been involved with and passionate about raising cattle since I was very young. I've always believed that there is good and bad associated with every breed, and that there is some useful traits within each breed. The thing with the black hide change kinda came to our area seemed like over night. I was working with a herd of registered Charolais, mainly comprised of females and herd bulls bought from longtime area breeders, and was utilizing AI, mainly from a nationally known ranch that was the Charolais equivalent to SAV at the time.
We were coming off of the debacle of the frame race, and the buzzword of the day was moderate. We as breeders were diligently trying to correct the problems and move forward. It just happened so fast, i remember talking with a fellow breeder that everything changed, demand dropped over night seemed like.
Pretty disheartening when you have a field of mostly AI sired bulls, arguably the best I had raised and they were worth less than black commercial steers.
Back in the early nineties semen was any where from $35 to $50 a straw and signing fee of $35 on most of them.
No market for them at all, and previously had always sold out of bulls fairly early
It was more than a fad it was industry changing, No financially feasible way for me to stay that course.
Over the next few years, we watched several large local Hereford, Santa Gertrudis, Charolais herds fold up,
Most just went commercial Angus, The Simmental breeders went from having red and white spotted cattle to black.
Limousins and the new comer at the time to our area Gelbvieh went black.
Years worth of breeding and work from many folks down the drain. Only to start over with mostly lesser quality animals that were the desired color.
Those were largely folks who had been making breeding decisions based on visual appraisal and experience compiled over decades. Now we have experts that make breeding decisions based on an ever changing numbers scheme, and yes by using the AI bull with the best numbers from a hand lull of breeders and all we really know about the bull is a couple sentences of how great he is below a possibly photoshopped image. And if that's not enough most of those bulls will be obsolete by the time their calves are on the ground. I think we were headed that direction with AI even without the black cattle stuff, but it kind of intertwined with the growing popularity of Angus.
There have been some inroads back into the bull market by other breeds. Simmentals are hot in this area, some Black Gelbvieh and balancers, and a few black Limousins. Herefords could have been in a good position, but seems like the mainstream movers and shakers are more focused on raising toads for the show ring than they are production animals.
I've always believed that if you pay attention to birthweights and calving ease, there's no better cross for anything than a Charolais. Sadly a lot of these breeds have lost some of the benefits that brought them to the table in the first place too just like Angus. It's across the board issues with all of them some are stronger than others in some areas and I think we tend to forget that there really isn't an actual curve bender do it all individual or breed even though that was a popular word for a long time.
