Hereford ? How or why is this true.

[Kingfisher]

The purpose of selective pure blood breeding was to bring a deep-bodied,
broad loined, short legged, massive hind quartered animal to our dinner
tables in a relative short time. In the early days of Hereford breeding, it
took four years of grass feeding to get an animal to 1,000 pounds and ready
for the butcher shop. Today, the animal can reach weights of 800 to 1,000
in just two years, which increases the rancher's profits and provides twice
as much meat for the American dinner table.

 

[3waycross]

What part of it?

 

[Kingfisher]

What part of it?

In the early days of Hereford breeding, it
took four years of grass feeding to get an animal to 1,000 pounds and ready
for the butcher shop. Today, the animal can reach weights of 800 to 1,000
in just two years,

Sorry for the confusion.

 

[3waycross]

So which part the early days or now. They both sound pretty plausible to me.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

you pay any attention to the chicken industry?? how fast they go from a chick, to the frying pan in just a few weeks... i bet they long for the old days pecking around in the yard,, and life were'nt a blur

 

[ga.prime]

:lol2: Life weren't a blur - haha - that was funny, AL.

It's selective breeding, Kingfish. I don't know about purebred Herefords, but crossbred calves today reach 800-1000 in 7 or 8 months, not 2 years.

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

xbreds CAN reach that weight in that time period, most do not.

 

[TexasBred]

:lol2: Life weren't a blur - haha - that was funny, AL.

ga.some day we're gonna make this guy give us a list of all these hillarious sayings he comes up with. :lol2:

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

The statement is true - especially if they are referring to grass fed animals today. Producers easily can reach 800-1000# in a year with some grain suppliment - and I would venture to guess that there are grass fed steers reaching that weight (or close to it) in 1 year.

 

[jkwilson]

The big selling point for Herefords at one time was the early maturity. It wasn't Herefords that took 4 years to mature, it was the other breeds.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Better forage and better genetics better management today.

 

[HEREFORD ROADHOG]

Better forage and better genetics better management today.

BINGO!!! We had a hereford heifer last year that went to the butcher at 1325 # @ 13 mos. of age !

 

[Idaman]

On one of the ranches we owned the old way of doing things was to wean the calf and feed hay through the winter. From weaning through May of the next year they wouldn't have gained a pound just maintained but heading for the compensatory gain the next summer. Every fall they would gather everything but the cows and calves put them in large holding pens and then a packer buyer would come and pick out the ones that were ready at that time. I am sure some graded prime although at that time the grades were probably different.. After he took out what was ready for slaughter then they turned out the rest to go another year and hopefully be ready then. The next year the same process and so forth. Some of the yearlings might have made the grade but I doubt very many. Most were two or older. The ones that were turned back out ran on winter range and spent another six months during the winter with no gain. The following summer hopefully they would finish. No feedlots and only about 18 months of gain. Sure they were two or three but the cost was very low and they sure never saw a bite of grain just nothing but grass.

Later these cattle were all sold as long yearlings and averaged about 800 lb. Again they had about a year of gain because of the no gain for six months in the winter. These 800 lbers. went into a feedlot for 90 to 110 days and reached killing weight of ideally 1080 lbs. Today the stay in the feedlot is more like 150 days and tons more grain.

In recent years the ranch has sold weaners that go either into a feedlot, back grounding lot, or to winter pasture.

With the price of grain now being tied to the price of fuel how much longer can the feedlots be able to put at least an extra 50 days of grain into them and stay in business. Between 2007 and 2010 there was 7 billion lost in feeding cattle and most of the large lots near us went through reorganization. Will they make it through the next inevitable time of high grain and high feeders? Surely their departure will make changes in marketing clear back through the system. The largest lot near here that didn't go through reorganization has in this time gone through 3 different types of cattle they feed. First was the conventional 150 day finish normal beef type mixed breed feeders, next they turned to holstein steers which also had a long finishing time and finally they now primarily feed old cows who finish very quickly with not near as much grain required.

The cattle I want to produce now are ones that need very minimal inputs, get fleshy on grass alone, can finish in 90 days in the feedlot, or on grass alone if that time comes.

 

[SRBeef]

...The cattle I want to produce now are ones that need very minimal inputs, get fleshy on grass alone, can finish in 90 days in the feedlot, or on grass alone if that time comes.

As HR said above, "BINGO"! Flexible cattle that do not need to have room service to finish out to a tasty but maybe leaner beef. And maybe our age-old reliance on visual marbling alone for grading and pricing needs to be reviewed also as maybe not as applicable to these new "Flexible" cattle...

Thank you Mr Idaman.

Jim

 

[dun]

One problem is the rules about slaughtering over 30 month cattle

 

[Idaman]

One problem is the rules about slaughtering over 30 month cattle

The quicker maturing easier fleshing cattle of not too long ago that went on grass until the end their yearling summer and then went into a feedlot for 90-110 days would make it. Now we sell weaners in the fall that either go to a backgrounding lot or winter grass in California. Both reach 1000 lbs. at the end of the next summer so they must be making the requirements of the rule.

Transportation has made it easier to move them around to keep them on gaining instead of maintainance grass. That may change too with the price of fuel which dictates the price of corn as well. I read just the other day that at some point 90% of the food for major population centers would be produced within 100 miles of them.

I believe we are in for some major changes in the next few years.

 

[dun]

One problem is the rules about slaughtering over 30 month cattle

The quicker maturing easier fleshing cattle of not too long ago that went on grass until the end their yearling summer and then went into a feedlot for 90-110 days would make it. Now we sell weaners in the fall that either go to a backgrounding lot or winter grass in California. Both reach 1000 lbs. at the end of the next summer so they must be making the requirements of the rule.

Transportation has made it easier to move them around to keep them on gaining instead of maintainance grass. That may change too with the price of fuel which dictates the price of corn as well. I read just the other day that at some point 90% of the food for major population centers would be produced within 100 miles of them.

I believe we are in for some major changes in the next few years.

I was addrressing the running them multiple years on just grass to get them acceptable to butcher.

 

[Stocker Steve]

There are some fancy titled studies out there around called Nebraska summer calving system. I am trying the same thing in MN but don't have the advantage of cheap corn stock grazing. Basic point is you should make more money per acre timing your calving AND retaining those calves through the second summer:
1) calve on grass
2) overwinter calves on the cow
3) graze yearlings second summer
4) sell heavy feeders (framy 750 to 900# long yearlings typical) into the feed lot

Key success factors here are good windbreaks and cheap hay. Some folks spike it with a little DDG.
Best genetics I had last year were a couple 15 month old growthy RA that went over 1000# on grass alone.

 

[pdfangus]

There are some fancy titled studies out there around called Nebraska summer calving system. I am trying the same thing in MN but don't have the advantage of cheap corn stock grazing. Basic point is you should make more money per acre timing your calving AND retaining those calves through the second summer:
1) calve on grass
2) overwinter calves on the cow
3) graze yearlings second summer
4) sell heavy feeders (framy 750 to 900# long yearlings typical) into the feed lot

Key success factors here are good windbreaks and cheap hay. Some folks spike it with a little DDG.
Best genetics I had last year were a couple 15 month old growthy RA that went over 1000# on grass alone.

makes sense to me.....
I have never understood why folks in the coldest parts of the country choose to calve during the coldest part of the year. I did it for three years while I worked another mans cattle. that was enough to cure me.

In my climate i like to calve in Sept and October. No later though. I had a calf this year on dec 1 and he has had to struggle. The september calves are thriving. september is right at the end of the heat and flies and the calves have time to acclimate for the winter and grow some hair. wean in april and hit the grass. to calve in the winter I would probably be feeding pairs through our hot dry summer. dry cows can make it but nursing cows would need feed.

 

[dun]

There are some fancy titled studies out there around called Nebraska summer calving system. I am trying the same thing in MN but don't have the advantage of cheap corn stock grazing. Basic point is you should make more money per acre timing your calving AND retaining those calves through the second summer:
1) calve on grass
2) overwinter calves on the cow
3) graze yearlings second summer
4) sell heavy feeders (framy 750 to 900# long yearlings typical) into the feed lot

Key success factors here are good windbreaks and cheap hay. Some folks spike it with a little DDG.
Best genetics I had last year were a couple 15 month old growthy RA that went over 1000# on grass alone.

makes sense to me.....
I have never understood why folks in the coldest parts of the country choose to calve during the coldest part of the year. I did it for three years while I worked another mans cattle. that was enough to cure me.

In my climate i like to calve in Sept and October. No later though. I had a calf this year on dec 1 and he has had to struggle. The september calves are thriving. september is right at the end of the heat and flies and the calves have time to acclimate for the winter and grow some hair. wean in april and hit the grass. to calve in the winter I would probably be feeding pairs through our hot dry summer. dry cows can make it but nursing cows would need feed.

For some of the big outfits in the west it's a 2 fold reason. Snow is easier on the the calves then mud and they have to be old enough to travel to the summer range.