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Cattle Boards
Grasses, Pastures & Hay
Grass-fed Beef Cattle Genetics 101
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<blockquote data-quote="brandonm_13" data-source="post: 694084" data-attributes="member: 7875"><p>I think I can answer those fairly adquately. Thick skin is like the insulation in the house. It keeps the temperature in and the temperature out as separate as it can. Brahman cattle have thin skin but have a loose hide, so heat dissipates. The also have very large sweat glands. Bos Taurus cattle havetight skin, so the skin that is the thickest has the most "insulating" properties. I think the South Devon has the thickest skin of any British breed, which is fitting since they were developed the farthest south.</p><p></p><p>As far as fat goes. I look at it this way. You don't want a fat cow, but you do want one that can fatten EASILY. Lets say you have three cows all on the same pasture. One falls apart without grain. One does okay, but you could definately see improvement with grain. And the last gets roly poly just on the forage available. The third cow produces the most beef the easiest in a system where there wasn't any grain to prop them up. Now if it was reversed and grain was fed to them, the first one that fell apart on grass would probably look the best. The one in the middle would look better, but not as much as the first one. And the last roly poly cow now would be waaaay too fat. We are discriminating against them at the sale barn because they will be wasty in the feedlot, but if they never saw a feedlot, they would be exactly what we are looking for. And even though they would be wasty in the feedlot, they would probably be prime.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="brandonm_13, post: 694084, member: 7875"] I think I can answer those fairly adquately. Thick skin is like the insulation in the house. It keeps the temperature in and the temperature out as separate as it can. Brahman cattle have thin skin but have a loose hide, so heat dissipates. The also have very large sweat glands. Bos Taurus cattle havetight skin, so the skin that is the thickest has the most "insulating" properties. I think the South Devon has the thickest skin of any British breed, which is fitting since they were developed the farthest south. As far as fat goes. I look at it this way. You don't want a fat cow, but you do want one that can fatten EASILY. Lets say you have three cows all on the same pasture. One falls apart without grain. One does okay, but you could definately see improvement with grain. And the last gets roly poly just on the forage available. The third cow produces the most beef the easiest in a system where there wasn't any grain to prop them up. Now if it was reversed and grain was fed to them, the first one that fell apart on grass would probably look the best. The one in the middle would look better, but not as much as the first one. And the last roly poly cow now would be waaaay too fat. We are discriminating against them at the sale barn because they will be wasty in the feedlot, but if they never saw a feedlot, they would be exactly what we are looking for. And even though they would be wasty in the feedlot, they would probably be prime. [/QUOTE]
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