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Opinions on miniature cattle?
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<blockquote data-quote="KNERSIE" data-source="post: 632869" data-attributes="member: 4353"><p>I raise regular sized cattle, but I can see the merit of the miniature cattle. They must be easier on fences, just compare a bull to cows, its just a fact that a bull will do more damage simply because he is bigger and heavier. Both just want a bite of the grass on the otherside, the one can just continue to walk on with the fence if he wants.</p><p></p><p>On the smaller carcass issue, at a time I sold a lot of freezer beef and I've done my own processing, handling "baby beeves" is just so much easier than a bigger heavier carcass. I prefer to butcher mine young (11-12 months), for a specific market, but I can see where minis could fill this role.</p><p></p><p>Handling them would most likely also be alot easier and require much cheaper equipment, but you still need handling facilities.</p><p></p><p>My main gripe is with the selection process and the lack of a set benchmark when it comes to size. In the miniature world smaller is better and sells for more money, regardless of overall quality. This means that the drive is there for continual selection for smaller stock, this simply means the selection of runts. If you continue to breed the smallest (slowest growing) bull to the smallest cow (slowest growing). You are effectively selecting for runts. This single trait selection shows up in the miniature stock, even in the Largent's stock who started the miniature hereford breed many years ago.</p><p></p><p>For the miniature breeders to be taken seriously by the full sized cattle breeders they firstly need to decide on an ideal sized carcass, I would think it should be around a frame 0 or 1, then select the fastest growing stock to get to that frame 0 or 1 as effectively as possible with the best possible FCR. Throughout they need to pay attention to overall quality including phenotype, maternal and carcass traits. </p><p></p><p>I think there are many opportunities to do this simply by buying the miniature culls (those that are just to big to be sold for a good price) and breeding them to a really old pony style bull and retain your own breeding stock from this cross and linebreeding them. Unfortunately it means that this eliminates the hobbyist who isn't prepared to do some serious study on breeding methodologies. The other downside is that you need to be willing and able to do you own beef marketing as the current market might not be as excited about your product as you are.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KNERSIE, post: 632869, member: 4353"] I raise regular sized cattle, but I can see the merit of the miniature cattle. They must be easier on fences, just compare a bull to cows, its just a fact that a bull will do more damage simply because he is bigger and heavier. Both just want a bite of the grass on the otherside, the one can just continue to walk on with the fence if he wants. On the smaller carcass issue, at a time I sold a lot of freezer beef and I've done my own processing, handling "baby beeves" is just so much easier than a bigger heavier carcass. I prefer to butcher mine young (11-12 months), for a specific market, but I can see where minis could fill this role. Handling them would most likely also be alot easier and require much cheaper equipment, but you still need handling facilities. My main gripe is with the selection process and the lack of a set benchmark when it comes to size. In the miniature world smaller is better and sells for more money, regardless of overall quality. This means that the drive is there for continual selection for smaller stock, this simply means the selection of runts. If you continue to breed the smallest (slowest growing) bull to the smallest cow (slowest growing). You are effectively selecting for runts. This single trait selection shows up in the miniature stock, even in the Largent's stock who started the miniature hereford breed many years ago. For the miniature breeders to be taken seriously by the full sized cattle breeders they firstly need to decide on an ideal sized carcass, I would think it should be around a frame 0 or 1, then select the fastest growing stock to get to that frame 0 or 1 as effectively as possible with the best possible FCR. Throughout they need to pay attention to overall quality including phenotype, maternal and carcass traits. I think there are many opportunities to do this simply by buying the miniature culls (those that are just to big to be sold for a good price) and breeding them to a really old pony style bull and retain your own breeding stock from this cross and linebreeding them. Unfortunately it means that this eliminates the hobbyist who isn't prepared to do some serious study on breeding methodologies. The other downside is that you need to be willing and able to do you own beef marketing as the current market might not be as excited about your product as you are. [/QUOTE]
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