1. I thought beefalo was the recommended beef for heart patients?
2. I've seen Longhorn breeders on other sites complaining that increasing the "beef" on Longhorns hurts the calving ease they are so proud of. Have you experienced that?
3. I'd have to question your claim that breeding a Longhorn cow to a solid colored bull will "nearly guarantee" a solid colored calf. Our neighbor is at least three generations into using solid colored bulls on his cow herd. He still will get a few spotted calves out of his Longhorn-influenced cows, even though they are black or black baldies. He claims he has to sell those separate from the solid black calves or the buyers will discount the whole lot.
I'm not bashing Longhorns, there is a market for everything and those that identify their best market can do well. We see that in everything from Laura's Lean Beef to CAB.
We raise our longhorns for beef. I
> know that we do not have the
> marbling of other breeds or the
> amount of carcass but Texas
> Longhorns ARE the number ONE
> recommended beef for a heart
> patient. And many people have made
> great strides to get more meat on
> their animals. Although you will
> not see this if you pick up a
> Longhorn magazine, because most
> people that raise longhorns do
> raise them as a novelty breed for
> HORNS ONLY! Which i think is the
> worst thing for the Longhorn
> breed. And people that raise for a
> novelty breed usually have the
> money to advertise and dominate
> the Longhorn advertisements.
> However, if you cross a longhorn
> cow with a solid colored, polled
> bull you are nearly guaranteed a
> solid colored, polled calf. I dont
> know if you consider Iowa part of
> the northern plains, but i know a
> breeder that recently sold 30+
> longhorn cross calves to a
> commmercial breeder for $1.30/lbs.
> and straight longhorns for
> $1.05/lbs. So, i guess longhorns
> and longhorn crosses can bring
> decent money. And add such things
> as: longevity, docility, ease of
> calving, disease resistance and
> other things.
> Personnally i dont care about the
> length of the horns, but i do like
> them, and i think that if you go
> to a TLBAA sanctioned show you
> will see some fine animals, that
> are being bred for beef. If you go
> to an ITLA sanctioned show you
> will see animals bred for horn.
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