horned herefords

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You are opening a can of worms. I perfer poll cattle I don't have Herefords. So I can't say any thing about them
Bluegoose1
 
yea the only reasons i could see for horned herefords would either be for protection from predators or because thats what there daddy raised,which is fine,not everyone has to raise black cattle.
 
Why do people drink Pepsi when Coke tastes better?
 
Why don't you start two small herds. One being polled the other horned. Start with similar quality and background run them on similar conditions and then see which is the best in the long haul. That is the only way you will convince yourself honestly.

After being in and out of this situation for more than 50 years you couldn't give me a polled if I had to run them.
 
well being in a area where all things are """not"" equal market wise,, id have to run polled cattle,, because id have to dehorn the offspring any way,, and the best way i know is with a poll bull
 
Seems most of the larger herford operations especially out in the "wide open spaces" of the West will alaways prefer the horned variety.
 
i dont know about now,but back around 2002 i was doing a bit of work with show cattle ,prob 2001 i was introduced to it by a lady in the hunter who had really nice polled herefords ,she used to do really well.but when i moved to wodonga i got some work at the show and sales there and did do a bit of work for lady named pam shelly ,her bull were horned herefords and they seemed to have that extra xfactor her bulls use to do real well and some made top dollar.they seemed slightly bigger but both stud had extremely good doing cattle so id be interested if someone has the answer to this debate .they both had quiet cattle ,not just the ones being shown i might add ,what is more popular today??
 
You kind of need to raise what you can sell. Personal preference plays a roe. Environment is part of it. Many areas of the West are rough with various predators. The polled bulls have more soundness problems in tough environments ( rough terrain, sage, cactus, etc). They tend to drag their equipment. I know a man who runs a lot of Angus bulls. He tells me they are very difficult to keep sound. He knows good cattle and runs good cattle in my opinion. Also seems that polled bulls fight more than horned bulls. Anybody have any thoughts on that?
 
we had polled santa bull that fought more,and did alot of damage.I mentioned him in the angus temprement section ,he was mean in every way.he should have been culled .he cost us atleast 2 bulls .owner wouldnt hear of it though
 
You opened a can of worms.

I perfer horned. Customers WANT polled. Now that most of the U.S. cowherd is black and mostly polled,some of us have to try and give them what they want.

I can still put a polled bull and a dehorned bull in a pen and the customers will almost always try and buy the horned one till they find out he is horned.

I do think the horned are more rugged. And as to why we have them instead of black is just what some one else said on here. That is what dad or granddad or whoever had. Marketing is also a key and You can sell the horned for what the black ones will bring.

I think herefords are in a very good seat to sell some good quality bulls to the commercial black cow people.We just have to keep the B.W. and milk in check. Let them decide on horned or polled.

Most polled bulls have horned blood close in the pedigree since the merger of the associations.
 
We have two distinct herds of registered horned Herefords that are not as yet intermingled at all. We also have a small herd of registered Angus cows. We have a larger herd of commercial cows that is made up of pure blacks, pure horned Herefords, and lots of the crosses of the two.

We raise nearly all our own bulls of both breeds. Both breeds are bred with efficiency in mind. Low input, moderate to high out put.

There is no comparison in the injury rate between Herefords and blacks. All the range bulls are run together when they are not with the cows. It would be easy to say that there are way more than 10 times as many injuries in the black bulls. They also quit the cows when it gets hot and they also have the retractor muscle problem. If I remember correctly the retractor weakness is genetically linked to the poll gene in all cattle.

The blacks fight more as well as the polled Herefords. The horned bulls settle their differences quickly and then stay apart. The polleds fight all day everyday. We have witnessed this across the fence for 50 years.

We also have gotten some Polled Herefords in dam from horned cows we wanted so we got to try and compare them for a while. Like I said no comparison. We have at several times been next door neighbors to polled Hereford cattle and had the opportunity to really observe them as in driving through them a couple of times a week to get to our pastures on the other side of them. Like I have said many times I wouldn't run one for anything. All the neighbors laugh at the polleds here and their unproductivity.

If it were not for the market premium for blacks no one near me would run blacks except on heifers and no one runs Polled Herefords on the open range.
 
JHH":3p6x6iem said:
You opened a can of worms.

I perfer horned. Customers WANT polled. Now that most of the U.S. cowherd is black and mostly polled,some of us have to try and give them what they want.

I can still put a polled bull and a dehorned bull in a pen and the customers will almost always try and buy the horned one till they find out he is horned.

I do think the horned are more rugged. And as to why we have them instead of black is just what some one else said on here. That is what dad or granddad or whoever had. Marketing is also a key and You can sell the horned for what the black ones will bring.

I think herefords are in a very good seat to sell some good quality bulls to the commercial black cow people.We just have to keep the B.W. and milk in check. Let them decide on horned or polled.

Most polled bulls have horned blood close in the pedigree since the merger of the associations.
Click to expand...

I agree that horned Herefords are in a very good position to be used on the multitude of black cows and those resulting calves will be polled.

We have friends that have very good horned Herefords and their heifers consistently out sell their steers as well as everything else on the market that day.
 
I have both polled and horned Herefords, although I consider myself a polled Hereford breeder. I seriously doubt the connection between the polled gene and the retractor problems. You can select against that and still maintain the polled gene in Herefords. I have been told that prolapsing and the polled gene are linked in Herefords and that is definately false. There is some common sense to the claim about polled bulls fighting more than horned, but not sure how much it really matters. There are some awesome large herds of horned Herefords in big range country, more so than polled and I think the polled Herefords are probably better in the shows than the horned. Why? Probably selection and time. Polleds probably concentrated more on the shows than horned and the horned Herefords in range have been there a very long time. Maybe those big, old horned herds have been linebred and selected for range environment longer so they are more prepotent (or something) and they thrive there better than the polleds. Having the Miles City station linebreeding horned Herefords really helps the breed and they are horned, so that probably gives the horned Herefords some advantage over the polleds. The debate will never be settled, but I would hope we can breed the best Herefords possible, polled or horned.
 
alexfarms":2q8anzae said:
I have both polled and horned Herefords, although I consider myself a polled Hereford breeder. I seriously doubt the connection between the polled gene and the retractor problems. You can select against that and still maintain the polled gene in Herefords. I have been told that prolapsing and the polled gene are linked in Herefords and that is definately false. There is some common sense to the claim about polled bulls fighting more than horned, but not sure how much it really matters. There are some awesome large herds of horned Herefords in big range country, more so than polled and I think the polled Herefords are probably better in the shows than the horned. Why? Probably selection and time. Polleds probably concentrated more on the shows than horned and the horned Herefords in range have been there a very long time. Maybe those big, old horned herds have been linebred and selected for range environment longer so they are more prepotent (or something) and they thrive there better than the polleds. Having the Miles City station linebreeding horned Herefords really helps the breed and they are horned, so that probably gives the horned Herefords some advantage over the polleds. The debate will never be settled, but I would hope we can breed the best Herefords possible, polled or horned.
Click to expand...

I am a polled breeder, but appreciate good Hereford cattle horned or polled. I really do believe that good linebred cattle have the prepotency
you mentioned to sire more uniform and consistent cattle. Our herd has been closed since 1987 to outside females, and any bulls used that
we have not bred must be the same bloodline. Each year we see increasing consistency in our bull and heifer calves. At one time there were several linebred polled lines, but most are gone now. When you analyze the Hereford breed in general, you see many more linebred horned operations and not all are in the western part of the country. I believe these cattle contribute to the very favorable influence that the Hereford
breed has on the beef industry.
 
The biggest difference between polls and horned herefords is the quality of the breeders.
 
Prolapse of the prepuce is a common defect in bulls, particularly in Bos indicus cattle. In B taurus cattle, it is common in polled beef breeds. A long, pendulous sheath, a large preputial orifice, and absence or poor development of the retractor prepuce muscles are predisposing inherited anatomic abnormalities. Prolapse of the prepuce predisposes the animal to injury, which can lead to abscess formation, scarring, adhesions, or phimosis. Surgical correction of the prolapse is possible, but as genetic predisposition may play a role, castration should be carefully considered. - Merck Veterinary Manual- >Reproductive System>
Congenital and Inherited Anomalies of the Reproductive System.


Emphasis mine.
 

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