First Pied Born

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glacierridge":iwhiagqs said:
I think it's a carcass thing, we raise Belgian Blue cross and love them. To help calving we mostly cross with Simmental. We don't sell live weight so a higher yielding breed is what we go for and my brothers customers like that it's leaner but still very palatable.
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Buddy of mine raises fullblood BB's and I think the market is passing him by. Thing is he knows it. He pulls to shows but almost always ends up at the bottom because he can't compete with the crosses they have him classed with. He swears he'll stay fullblood and let the cross folks come to him for seed stock.
 
slick4591":3vfm08e3 said:
glacierridge":3vfm08e3 said:
I think it's a carcass thing, we raise Belgian Blue cross and love them. To help calving we mostly cross with Simmental. We don't sell live weight so a higher yielding breed is what we go for and my brothers customers like that it's leaner but still very palatable.
Click to expand...

Buddy of mine raises fullblood BB's and I think the market is passing him by. Thing is he knows it. He pulls to shows but almost always ends up at the bottom because he can't compete with the crosses they have him classed with. He swears he'll stay fullblood and let the cross folks come to him for seed stock.
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I hope he will. I know BB comes up as an excellent cross but it's hard with full bloods. We have gotten highly criticized with our high percentages in the show ring. Judges usually hate most double muscled breeds, I think they see them as a freak and a menace. However, I do know that ANY breed against it's own breed will get judged fairly. I've gotten so terribly screwed in my 4h years because we won't raise Angus or Hereford cause its not what our customers want. We were fortunate to have a niche for lean meat.
I'm scared for the breed, I don't want to see it disappear as it still has a lot of purpose. So hard for us to find semen around here but not impossible.
Tell your neighbor thanks for fighting the good fight and to hang in there. If we were closer I would look into him for seed stock. I'm hoping the not as muscular Canadian BB gain popularity. They have virtually no calving issues and still pretty thick.
 
Slick, congratulations on the beginning of your Piedmontese herd! I have stayed pretty much silent on a lot of the banter about Piedmontese, was a hard lesson for me to learn but I got it after getting beat up by some folks that had never put their eyes on a Pied. As you know not for everyone especially those that think black hair is the only good beef producer.Thats fine then don't buy white. But health issues make Piedmontese a wise choice for those that do not want to give up red meat. The message is out there and interest is growing. One huge misconception is confusing the breed with Belgian Blues. Pied calves do not develop the muscling until 6 to 8 weeks old. Okay I'm done (again) . Those that want real info on Pieds talk to a real breeder of the cattle. :tiphat:
 
I hear you there. So many people discriminate against the lean breeds, they think it has no value but they don't realize that many people with heart disease still like their red meat, the gives them a chance to have it and have a healthy life style.
Honestly, with all Americas health and weight issues these breeds SHOULD gain popularity... It's just a matter of how long will it take?
Europe already concentrates on leaner meat of all breeds. I've already seen Angus that are tight ribbed and thick muscled on some of the showing sites.
 
glacierridge":2bdpczfs said:
I hear you there. So many people discriminate against the lean breeds, they think it has no value but they don't realize that many people with heart disease still like their red meat, the gives them a chance to have it and have a healthy life style.
Honestly, with all Americas health and weight issues these breeds SHOULD gain popularity... It's just a matter of how long will it take?
Europe already concentrates on leaner meat of all breeds. I've already seen Angus that are tight ribbed and thick muscled on some of the showing sites.
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:nod: Yup Italy worked hard to prevent the exports of Pieds. Only been in North America since the 80s
 
Thanks, I'm doing the best I can being that I'm a green hobby farmer. :D

Cindy, I knew what I was getting into when I posted. I just thought I could bask a little in the fact that I've taken on a new adventure and I haven't killed the entire herd to this point. :lol:

glacierridge, I'm not going to use the word discriminate, I'd rather think of it as folk struggling with something different. I know when I first thought of getting Pieds it took a while to get my mind straight about them.
 
slick4591":3t0bhlfc said:
Thanks, I'm doing the best I can being that I'm a green hobby farmer. :D

Cindy, I knew what I was getting into when I posted. I just thought I could bask a little in the fact that I've taken on a new adventure and I haven't killed the entire herd to this point. :lol:

glacierridge, I'm not going to use the word discriminate, I'd rather think of it as folk struggling with something different. I know when I first thought of getting Pieds it took a while to get my mind straight about them.
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That's probably a better way to look at it. I guess I felt like it was discrimination when I was in the show ring.
My possibly worst experience was with my steer that was 1/4 Holstein, 1/4 Belgian Blue and 1/2 Piedmontese (we used to have them too, but BB is a lot more accessible in my area, even though that's limited too)
My steer was over 1300 pounds and 17 months old. It wasn't until the judge asked me what breed it was that I was placed very last and told it wasn't ready for slaughter, and I was barred from the fair market sale.
A fellow who had some pull at the fair at the time saw what happened and was so disgusted that he told me that he wanted to buy the whole steer and put it in the carcass contest against the other cattle that made it in the sale.

My steer ended up 3rd place in the carcass contest with a ribeye around 13 1/2 sq inches. (I can't remember the exact hundreths)

And that man still gets beef from my brother today (my dad retired and sold to my brother)
The meat speaks for itself.
 
gizmom":12zcb3b6 said:
Interesting thread made me realize that other than pictures I have never seen a pied. I looked at your Facebook page it looks like your building a nice herd congrats!

Gizmom
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Checkout Piedmontese Breeders Network on Facebook!
 
Thanks, but I guess with more than 50 views I was hoping for a few more comments. I don't want to get into a meat quality discussion (we all know how those turn out), just looking for comments on how these guys are put together. Thanks again.
 

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