Market for Lowline Angus

[Muddy]

Some demand for bulls to use on large cows and thus reduce replacement frame size.

Yeah but you'll get killed with the steers tho.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Kit Pharo sells them by the hundreds for big bucks.

 

[Son of Butch]

Big demand for lowlines, BUT only among the guys who bought emus, jerusalem artichokes, llamas and ostriches.

 

[ChrisB]

I have been using a lowline bull on heifers the last few years and will probably continue doing so. I don't have any experience selling full lowline cattle but have sold crosses as fats the last 2 years. Both years they finished 1050-1100, maybe could have put more weight on them but they really looked finished. Two years ago they were sent with a trailer load of straight angus crosses (all fats) and all sold for the same price even though they were sorted out. This past spring they were again sold with a mixed trailer load and again the lowline crosses were sorted out, but this time they sold 10 cents back.

If you raise lowliness you might have a little market for bulls, but I would think you would have to finish out the others and direct market them. I don't know how many head you can carry on your place, but if it is 5,6 cows just raise whatever you want. If you will have more head than you can direct market, then I would advise going with a more conventional breed.

 

[Andyva]

Reason I asked was I looked at a guy's lowliness a while back and the only thing they were lacking was leg, they were scrubbing the sides of the chute, real nice looking cattle. Probably frame 3-4 with body condition scores off the charts. Maybe he didn't have good lowliness, but this fellow in particular generally tries to have the best of what ever it is that is his flavor of the week. Those calves would have brought a premium on the market, might not make the guys at the feedlot real happy, but maybe that would serve them right for picking cattle just because they have a black hide.

Have you ever been to the sale barn, Andyva? Just curious.

Mini cross and small framed calves do not sell very good at sale barns, no matter what color or how good they are. The buyers can spot a 450lbs lowline calf very easily and the dock on them is very bad. I sold a small framed angus calf last fall and I got docked harshly. It got sold for $800.

I've been to plenty of salebarns, some of them hundreds of times, sometimes even three times in the same day, and the lowliness I saw would stand beside the vast majority of regular Angus sired calves and if you didn't have them tagged, you wouldn't know which ones were which, until they got above 450. The cows looked to me just like regular old Angus from back before they crossed them up to play in the frame race. How many lowlines have you actually looked at, not just your crappy runt Angus calves, but real lowlines?

 

[Muddy]

Reason I asked was I looked at a guy's lowliness a while back and the only thing they were lacking was leg, they were scrubbing the sides of the chute, real nice looking cattle. Probably frame 3-4 with body condition scores off the charts. Maybe he didn't have good lowliness, but this fellow in particular generally tries to have the best of what ever it is that is his flavor of the week. Those calves would have brought a premium on the market, might not make the guys at the feedlot real happy, but maybe that would serve them right for picking cattle just because they have a black hide.

Have you ever been to the sale barn, Andyva? Just curious.

Mini cross and small framed calves do not sell very good at sale barns, no matter what color or how good they are. The buyers can spot a 450lbs lowline calf very easily and the dock on them is very bad. I sold a small framed angus calf last fall and I got docked harshly. It got sold for $800.

I've been to plenty of salebarns, some of them hundreds of times, sometimes even three times in the same day, and the lowliness I saw would stand beside the vast majority of regular Angus sired calves and if you didn't have them tagged, you wouldn't know which ones were which, until they got above 450. The cows looked to me just like regular old Angus from back before they crossed them up to play in the frame race. How many lowlines have you actually looked at, not just your crappy runt Angus calves, but real lowlines?

Few lowlines but I don't think you can mistake them for Angus calves, especially their frame and legs.

 

[Engler]

My in laws have a handful of them, some pure and some crosses. The pures they have been keeping pure and selling the steers and second cut heifers for locker beef and been getting along good with them. The good heifers either get kept back or sold as show/breeding stock. The beef that we've had the last two years has been silly good and the cuts are more what we should eat in terms of portion size.

The % cows were bred to a simi bull last year and to a char bull for this years calves. We have been selective in terms of picking low(er) BW bulls, but to date no problem with getting the calves on the ground. The 1/4-3/8 lowline calves sold right with the standard cattle.

Keep in mind that we are talking about a total of 10 head of cows and this is a hobby for my brother in law to get him out of the house, so as long as it breaks even for him it's great. I wouldn't mind having some half LL cows that come in around 1100# to make commercial feeder cattle, but I sure wouldn't want a whole pasture full of 800# fullbloods trying to go to a conventional market.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

How do you get seed stock?

. :?:

 

[glacierridge]

I think it's pretty easy to pick out Lowline from Angus.
The whole amimal has a more "mature" look at a smaller size.
The head tends to be bigger and other markers of maturity would show up on the Lowline if you had a 450-500lb animal of each side by side.

 

[AllForage]

I think it's pretty easy to pick out Lowline from Angus.
The whole amimal has a more "mature" look at a smaller size.
The head tends to be bigger and other markers of maturity would show up on the Lowline if you had a 450-500lb animal of each side by side.

Uuhhhhh, no. Nice try though

 

[Muddy]

I think it's pretty easy to pick out Lowline from Angus.
The whole amimal has a more "mature" look at a smaller size.
The head tends to be bigger and other markers of maturity would show up on the Lowline if you had a 450-500lb animal of each side by side.

Uuhhhhh, no. Nice try though

Really? Its not that hard to tell the difference between these two animals at same weight.

 

[glacierridge]

At least in my area there's a SIGNIFICANT difference.
maybe other places have mutant lowline or runt Angus...

Unless you do not know cattle at all...
you know a lowline when you see one.

I think it's pretty easy to pick out Lowline from Angus.
The whole amimal has a more "mature" look at a smaller size.
The head tends to be bigger and other markers of maturity would show up on the Lowline if you had a 450-500lb animal of each side by side.

Uuhhhhh, no. Nice try though

 

[glacierridge]

Our crossbred against a lowline.
Same age.

You mean to tell me if they were the same weight you couldn't tell that the lowline wasn't a lowline?

 

[greybeard]

Big demand for lowlines, BUT only among the guys who bought emus, jerusalem artichokes, llamas and ostriches.

You left out Alpacas and Chinchillas......
Considering the current egg prices, Is it too late to get in on the Emu thing?
Decades ago, I was gonna make it big in the chinchilla fur business, but that didn't work out. It ain't everybody that can say a rat snake ate their herd sire...

 

[WalnutCrest]

How do you get seed stock?

. :?:

Research, patience and check-writing.

Me? I researched for well over a year, making contacts with people, listening to what they had to say, looking for independent verification of the statements, etc. Then, after making the relationships, let them know what I was looking for and when they were ready to do something, I was their first call. Then, it was time to write the checks. From the start of research to the arrival of my 'seed stock' was about four or five years. I traveled all over North America looking at herds of cattle of various breeds (and cross breds) before finalizing my choices.

Good luck to you.

 

[M.Magis]

How do you get seed stock?

. :?:

Research, patience and check-writing.

Me? I researched for well over a year, making contacts with people, listening to what they had to say, looking for independent verification of the statements, etc. Then, after making the relationships, let them know what I was looking for and when they were ready to do something, I was their first call. Then, it was time to write the checks. From the start of research to the arrival of my 'seed stock' was about four or five years. I traveled all over North America looking at herds of cattle of various breeds (and cross breds) before finalizing my choices.

Good luck to you.

I don't think that's what he was asking. I think it was in reference to the comment that just because an animal is registered, that doesn't make it seedstock.
People raising and selling registered animals choose only the animals that best represent the positive attributes of that breed to sell as seedstock, and the rest are (or should be) slaughtered. Starting out with registered cattle doesn't mean they'll be worth any more than common commercial cattle.