Maine, would they work in a Range operation?

[FarmGirl10]

Maine's often are "clubby" like the majority of shorthorns, atleast all ofthe ones that I have seen. Are they just show cattle or would they actually be able to perform in a pasture? I'm talking about the breed as a whole, but if you know lines that do good or bad I would like to know them.

Please don't get this shut down, this is something that I've been wondering about for like a month.

 

[blackcowz]

Maine's often are "clubby" like the majority of shorthorns, atleast all ofthe ones that I have seen. Are they just show cattle or would they actually be able to perform in a pasture? I'm talking about the breed as a whole, but if you know lines that do good or bad I would like to know them.

Please don't get this shut down, this is something that I've been wondering about for like a month.

The Meyer 734 line is supposed to work in the real world. I don't know that first hand, though.

 

[LoveMoo11]

I'm sure they know how to eat grass :lol: They'd probably do fine, but I doubt they would be as efficient and hardy as some breeds. I've honestly never seen a Maine anywhere but a fair but then again here in Maine we only have the basic boring breeds :roll:

 

[Ryan]

Maine's often are "clubby" like the majority of shorthorns, atleast all ofthe ones that I have seen. Are they just show cattle or would they actually be able to perform in a pasture? I'm talking about the breed as a whole, but if you know lines that do good or bad I would like to know them.

Please don't get this shut down, this is something that I've been wondering about for like a month.

The Meyer 734 line is supposed to work in the real world. I don't know that first hand, though.

I'm sure you can find Maines that will work in range conditions. Although I can't help you specifically, you might call the Maine association and talk to someone there.

Meyer 734 does make some nice, easy fleshing females, but he is a simmental.

Ryan

 

[Oldtimer]

I know of a few folks that run Angus X Maine bulls..3/4 black angus and 1/4 Maine..I've worked their calves a few times- and they are nice calves come shipping time...

 

[blackcowz]

Maine's often are "clubby" like the majority of shorthorns, atleast all ofthe ones that I have seen. Are they just show cattle or would they actually be able to perform in a pasture? I'm talking about the breed as a whole, but if you know lines that do good or bad I would like to know them.

Please don't get this shut down, this is something that I've been wondering about for like a month.

The Meyer 734 line is supposed to work in the real world. I don't know that first hand, though.

I'm sure you can find Maines that will work in range conditions. Although I can't help you specifically, you might call the Maine association and talk to someone there.

Meyer 734 does make some nice, easy fleshing females, but he is a simmental.

Ryan

Woops, I coulda sworn he was a Maine. :???: Huh, I learn something new every day.

 

[FarmGirl10]

Thanks everybody.

Old timer - Just out of curiosity are you in a high desert area (like Campbell Co Wyoming) or do you have decent pastures?

 

[Busterz]

I've got some Maine x Angus cows. They seem to do fine out here on short grass. I haven't got any feed yard data on the calves back yet but they throw nice looking calves and there are always a couple that look like they could be show cattle.

I don't know how you go about finding cattle like these, I just happened across them at the sale barn. But I tried for a while to find someone producing commercial type maines or maine x angus and almost ever breeder you come across is doing club calf to some extent. So it tough to tell how much focus is being placed on commercial production v. club calf production.

I think there is a guy in Oregon who has a fairly large herd that maybe have a lot of commercial focus but I can't remember his name. And there is a place called Brushy Park that I think is in South Dakota. And I think there is a guy in Oklahoma who has a herd of some size.

If you get RFDTV you might have seen the "Cattle Show". There was one with Maine Breeders on it a while back. You might got to RFD TV and see if they have that show archived or something.

You could try their association also.

 

[Arkieman]

We AI'd some commercial Angus heifers (3) to Cowan's Ali. We wanted a live calf and live momma. They had 2 heifers and a bull. They were born in Feb 2008. Also had a reg. Hereford cow that we AI'd to Ice Chest another Maine bull (we were hoping for a show steer for my kid - she had a heifer.

I still have them all. The Ali calves were real easy doers. They have held condition really well on just hay (not very good hay at that). The Ice Chest heifer has struggled to keep condition (I think her momma shares some of the blame). I plan on keeping the 2 Ali heifers. I don't know what kind of momma's they will make, but I like their efficiency. Here's a pic of one taken in July last year.

 

[JR Cattle Co.]

We AI'd some commercial Angus heifers (3) to Cowan's Ali. We wanted a live calf and live momma. They had 2 heifers and a bull. They were born in Feb 2008. Also had a reg. Hereford cow that we AI'd to Ice Chest another Maine bull (we were hoping for a show steer for my kid - she had a heifer.

I still have them all. The Ali calves were real easy doers. They have held condition really well on just hay (not very good hay at that). The Ice Chest heifer has struggled to keep condition (I think her momma shares some of the blame). I plan on keeping the 2 Ali heifers. I don't know what kind of momma's they will make, but I like their efficiency. Here's a pic of one taken in July last year.

Every "Ali" calf I have fed out was very difficult to get a good finish on. They had good hair, can sometimes cover up the lack of fat cover, but I have found that you have to get your hands on them to really see what kind of finish they have. "Ice Chest" has usually worked pretty well for finishing out for me, but any "club calf" type animal that I have had couldn't compete with my other cows for feed efficiency. I would suggest staying away from the club claves if you are concerned with efficiency.

 

[Arkieman]

I agree w/ you JR, the consensus is club calves are not the way to go. However, I've seen these 3 perform pretty well over the winter. Granted, we don't have the weather some have north of us, but relatively speaking they've done well. As for Ice Chest, like I said I'm thinking that heifer is getting alot of the inefficiency from the cow side.

We have more pasture than we have cows and with prices the way they are, we've decided to give them a try. If we're pulling calves the first of next year from them then I guess I'll know for sure :cry2:

 

[Oldtimer]

Thanks everybody.

Old timer - Just out of curiosity are you in a high desert area (like Campbell Co Wyoming) or do you have decent pastures?

We're shortgrass country...Some areas are 200+ acres/cow- others are 2-3 acres/cow- average is around 20-25 acres/cow...North part of the county has some of the best and most powerful grass in the country- if we get the rain and the grass..Average rainfall for the year is under 12 inches and we can get good grass with 10 if it comes at the right time...

The thoughts of the grass we will have coming in May and June is the only thing that makes all the snow we have now look good... ;-)

 

[FarmGirl10]

Thanks everybody.

Oldtimer - That is nice to know. 200+ acres/ per cow? That is crazy, apparently i've never been in that part of Montana. :lol: Well, most of the time i spent in Montana was in the winter and it was all covered in snow. So that would have more difficult to see dry ground.

 

[Oldtimer]

Thanks everybody.

Oldtimer - That is nice to know. 200+ acres/ per cow? That is crazy, apparently i've never been in that part of Montana. :lol: Well, most of the time i spent in Montana was in the winter and it was all covered in snow. So that would have more difficult to see dry ground.

Yep-- most folks think of Montana and they think of the mountains and trees--but there is a large section of it that is part of the Great American Desert...

 

[Busterz]

We AI'd some commercial Angus heifers (3) to Cowan's Ali. We wanted a live calf and live momma. They had 2 heifers and a bull. They were born in Feb 2008. Also had a reg. Hereford cow that we AI'd to Ice Chest another Maine bull (we were hoping for a show steer for my kid - she had a heifer.

I still have them all. The Ali calves were real easy doers. They have held condition really well on just hay (not very good hay at that). The Ice Chest heifer has struggled to keep condition (I think her momma shares some of the blame). I plan on keeping the 2 Ali heifers. I don't know what kind of momma's they will make, but I like their efficiency. Here's a pic of one taken in July last year.

Every "Ali" calf I have fed out was very difficult to get a good finish on. They had good hair, can sometimes cover up the lack of fat cover, but I have found that you have to get your hands on them to really see what kind of finish they have. "Ice Chest" has usually worked pretty well for finishing out for me, but any "club calf" type animal that I have had couldn't compete with my other cows for feed efficiency. I would suggest staying away from the club claves if you are concerned with efficiency.

Finishing is the knock on Maines that I've heard. I had a feeyard manager tell me they tried several pens of maine influenced cattle and they just didn't finish well. I don't know if they all came from the same place or what and I haven't seen that problem in any of my cattle yet but since someone mentioned it I thought I'd mention I had heard that could be a problem too.