Mashona Bull at 28 months old

[Joe Hopping]

We used two Mashona bulls and a Tuli bull to breed right at 200 Beefmaster females of Casey and Lasater breeding this year. The bulls stayed in excellent condition all through the breeding season despite the heat here this Summer in Northeastern Oklahoma and lots of females to cover. We're working with Johann Zietsman in developing a Veldmaster composite much like he did in Zimbabwe. We feel the African breeds have a lot to offer cattlemen here in the United States especially in areas where the heat and humidity is an issue.

The bulls we used are moderate framed and muscular with a high meat to bone ratio. They're heat tolerant and nutritionally adapted and are the picture of "easy-care". Can't wait for next year's calves.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Joe ... have you preg checked you're girls to see how your bulls did at that sort of a ratio (3:200)?

 

[Joe Hopping]

We'll be pregnancy testing them before long. We would have liked to have used more bulls but we wanted to use exceptional bulls and they're hard to find. They were in a grazing cell being moved twice a day so during most of the breeding season they were never in an area over three acres in size. We used mature bulls and they didn't have to travel much to breed females. We saw lots of activity during the first part of the breeding season and not much toward the end. We've used a ratio of 1:50 with success in the past so hopefully we'll get a decent breed up with these bulls. They were sure none the worse for wear when we took them out. We have Mashona and Tuli semen for sale at this time and if anyone would like to take a look at the bulls we're using there are several pictures on our website. We bought them with Johann Zietsman's encouragement and they are very nice bulls. Our website is www.HoppingLivestock.com.

 

[andybob]

Recent research from two archaeological digs indicates that there was a possible separate domestication of Auroch in Africa which might explain the difference between the traditional Taurus breeds and the Taurus Africanus - https://news.nationalgeographic.com/new ... attle.html

 

[Angus Rocks]

Joe Hopping how did the preg check turn out?

 

[Brute 23]

Reminds me of the Bonsmara cattle.

 

[WalnutCrest]

I've got two fullblood Mashona cows. I really like them ... sweet temperaments and never ever give me any trouble ... just don't grow as quickly as I'd like.

Can't have it all, I guess.