Newby buying first cows

[raven-moon]

I've been visiting the board and noticed that quite a few of you mention crossbreds as the cattle of choice. Why would you want to buy purebreds and then cross them?? Are the characteristics of most purebred breeds not sufficient for most operations? I've heard udder quality, temperment, size and a multitude of other things mentioned. I just purchased 102.9 acres in East Texas and I am trying to decide which breed of cattle to begin with. I love Charlois but know absolutely nothing about them. If you plan on starting a cow/calf operation how does the color of the resulting calf affect the price that it brings at local auction? Is there a huge variation in price that each calf brings? I guess I need to go visit a few more cattle auctions in my area. Thanks for the advice - :cboy:

 

[dun]

I've been visiting the board and noticed that quite a few of you mention crossbreds as the cattle of choice. Why would you want to buy purebreds and then cross them?? Are the characteristics of most purebred breeds not sufficient for most operations? I've heard udder quality, temperment, size and a multitude of other things mentioned. I just purchased 102.9 acres in East Texas and I am trying to decide which breed of cattle to begin with. I love Charlois but know absolutely nothing about them. If you plan on starting a cow/calf operation how does the color of the resulting calf affect the price that it brings at local auction? Is there a huge variation in price that each calf brings? I guess I need to go visit a few more cattle auctions in my area. Thanks for the advice - :cboy:

We've used a lot of purebred cows and crossed them because that was a way of getting predictable results. Many corssbreds when purchased as such are more of a heinz 57 and the predictabliity of the claf when sired by a particular bull/breed is out the window.
Purebred cows when bred to abull of the same breed doesn;t produce th heterosis in the calf that a cross will have. In some areas one particular color calf will bring more then others of equal quality. It isn;t as prevelent as it was a few years ago, but it still happens. Herefords get hammered around here at the sale barns, solid color calves bring a little more per cwt. But when you're selling multiple calves and multiple thousands of pounds, that little difference soon adds up to a serious amount of money.
You still have to have cattle that will perform in your environemnt and under your managment, that's the bottom line. But you have to like what you're looking at in the pasture.

dun