Old School Shorthorns

[LLBUX]

My uncle Warren Lakamp and son Roger of Chapin, Illinois have raised Shorthorn cattle forever.
They have never chased fads, consistently raising solid and broody cattle.
His name pops up here from time to time.

Though Warren passed away two years ago, I believe Roger has continued raising the type of
functional cattle you seek.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Coyote, those bulls and that cow are some of the best Shorthorns that I have seen! :tiphat:

 

[coachg]

My dad and I had Shorthorn cattle like that back in the 80's in NE Alabama. I love the breed ! Roans are my favorite ! But my dad and I struggled to sell breeding stock especially bulls. Everybody that saw our bulls love them but we couldn't sell a commercial cattleman a herd bull. We could sell every female we raised but not our bulls. It's hard to stay in business if you can't sell bulls and took a loss at the sale barn . I have black Angus now but flirt with the idea of a cross with at least 1/4 shorthorn females. I think some black frosty females would be great but know what the reaction to those calves at the sale barn would be.

 

[Muddy]

I like blue roan cows, especially if they're mostly black with blue belly and roan faced. Less chrome and the buyers don't care if the feeders has little roan, they won't dock for that. We have an occasional blue roan calf from a lone shorthorn and it always got sold with other blacks at the sale barn. Same with my neighbor which has occasional blue roan calf from blue Belgian x Angus crosses, and they got sold with other black calves too. But I don't know how a group of blue roan feeders do at this particular sale barn.

 

[Lucky_P]

coachg,
I grew up in Lee Co., AL... I remember, back in the late 60s-70s... one of my buddy's dad still had some OLD ShorthornxHereford cows in their herd... old dark cherry-red mottled-faced roans; good cows. Never saw any others with Shorthorn influence in that area... until the Gerts and Beefmasters came on the scene.

We just started using some Shorthorn sires in our breeding program here in the last 6-7 years...over high % Angus cows... You won't be sorry if you try them! As good as anything by a Simmental bull, and better than anything we ever had by an Angus sire.

 

[coachg]

Lucky P, I knew of a herd down in Brewton Al and several in N Al but it seems most purebred breeders in Al have gone out of business. Best cows I have ever owned were Shorthorns ! My Dad and I went out b/ c of health issues with my Dad and my busy schedule coaching 3 sports for our high school. Just got back in the business two years ago and decided to go Black Angus. Never planned to go in the registered business but that's the way my sons and I seem to be headed. I still am thinking about getting a Hereford bull and going black baldies but going with the flow for now.

 

[kickinbull]

They have done the same to the dairy cattle.

What do you meant by done the same to the dairy cattle? There is three large dairy farms, runs milking shorthorns near us.

Frail

 

[Lucky_P]

coachg,
Parnell Farms, at Stanton, are doing the Shorthorn thing there in AL... using stuff like Captain Obvious and Rob Sneed-bred SH bulls on commercial cows; Facebook page looks like they're doing some showring stuff, too - and don't seem to be afraid of the roan and rwm stuff.

 

[Nesikep]

I like that cow Coyote posted as well. SaskValley Bonanza is a very popular guy.

Fellow I worked for was the president of the BC shorthorn assn.. I think the name of his place was Dresden shorthorns, but I can't find much info on it now.. he's pretty much retired.. has about 7 cows, and a really good looking sire with them.. we got our first SH bull from him, and he made some good cows.

I found a cross that works really nicely is a red Gelbvieh bull on a SH cow.. the calves have a meatier butt, you tend more toward a solid color, and the heifers perform very well as cows.

 

[tamarack]

Sold some shorthorn bred cows yesterday the blue roans 10yr olds brought 2150 red shorthorns brought 2100 .White char bred cows same age 1700 . The herd dispersal 2nd 3rd calvers 2500. Wish i had more hay i would have kept them. I use coyotes genetics to ai some of my cattle just cant get hands on any Bonanza semen.

 

[coachg]

Lucky P , there are some folks still showing shorthorns in Alabama b/c of the hair. Don't know where they are getting them. Maybe from the folks you mentioned.

 

[turning grass into beef]

The original post was asking about old fashioned shorthorns for grass fed beef. I have never sold grass fed beef so I am not an expert but I would think that cattle that were frame 3 or 4 would work best for that type of operation. We usually don't try to breed cattle with a frame size that small but if you are interested in seeing some shorthorn bulls that are slightly bigger framed take a look at the following 2 links
http://www.saskvalleyshorthorns.com/bullsale.html
https://www.youtube.com/user/whosyourdaddybull
You can view coyotes bulls on these 2 sites as well as ours. Bell M farms bull are in the catalogue but are not on you tube as of today

As far as the discussion about selling calves, I will put my 2 cents worth in on that as well. I cannot comment on the price of fresh weaned shorthorn calves because we never sell weaned calves. We background all of our calves and sell feeder steers and heifers at about 750 pounds and we have found that at that weight, and after they have been backgrounded, in our area, good quality shorthorn calves bring just as much money as any other breed of calves.
Where the shorthorn breed shines is in the cow herd. Over the last 4 decades we have had crossbred cows of every major breed on our ranch. While some breeds do some things well, we have not found a breed of cow that does as many things well as the shorthorn cow. Our shorthorn cows excel in docility and milking ability compared to any other breed. In other characteristics such as fertility, mothering ability, structural correctness, ability to turn forage into body condition, etc., our shorthorn cows compare equally as well to some breeds, and are superior to other breeds.
Remember, this is just what we have experienced on our ranch. Take it for what it is worth.