Putting in the order for semen -- British White

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Kathie, how/why have you gotten into British White? I like the speckled color. I hear you about calving. I am building a feeding/calving area. It has been hot work. The main material is #2 gravel as a base and limestone/marble mine waste run which comes wet and sets up like concrete. It is free. I pay $150 to have it hauled. My total cost was $1,329.06. I still want to put in a wind/weather break. I plan to put sheets of probably exterior plywood on the fence near the rock pad so the cows can lay out of wind. It will provide a place to feed round bales and hold the cows and their calves in the calving season which corresponds to when I feed some hay. I do not feed much hay. Even though some of my fellow Kentuckians like Bigfoot have commented that they sometimes feed hay for 6 months of the year. My cows perfer to stay on pasture as much as possible. I will have a good size area to keep the cows out of mud. I get so tired of mud in the winter, I am doing this as much for me as the cows.
 
Hey Inyati13,

Theres a British White breeder around Ashland and another one around Somerset. My wife has wanted some since seeing a special on RFDTV on them a few years ago. But here in Ky if it's not black (or at least smoke) they don't sale well at the stockyards.
 
Inyati13, when we made the decision to get into some cattle a few years back, I did some research on several breeds -- black is boring; most everybody has black! Looked at Shorthorn, Red Devon, Red Poll and British White. We went with the British Whites because they have good dispositions, they are good beef, and if I have to feed em, they ought to be pretty to look at! Most frustrating is that there are no others near here raising them (which would have been true with the other breeds we thought about), so I have to travel to buy a cow now and then, and AI is the way we go for breeding.

Yeah, getting things set up right is all time and material! We are fortunate in that we have a big barn here, with grooved concrete floor; we've set up some pens in there that we can use for calving if need to keep a close eye on a cow or a pair for a couple days. By winter, I'm hoping that we have one end of that barn set up for feeding under cover, instead of out in the snow and the mud.
 
That's why I have Belties and shorthorns in my herd.....black cows are too boring to look at. To be fair, I'd rather raising the belties x angus cows over the purebred angus cows.
 
HughesFamilyCattle":391ld589 said:
Hey Inyati13,

Theres a British White breeder around Ashland and another one around Somerset. My wife has wanted some since seeing a special on RFDTV on them a few years ago. But here in Ky if it's not black (or at least smoke) they don't sale well at the stockyards.

That is what the buyers said loud and clear when they send you the check. 8)
 
In the Midwest and Eastern states, there are way more of the British Whites than out here -- they actually have a show circuit! For the first timed that I know of in this County's history, there will be a X-bred BW X Dexter shown in a 4-H class this year. Our customers are mostly custom order butcher beef people, and they've figured out that the "other white beef" tastes just as good as black. Our goal is not to raise show cattle, but I sure would be tickled to have a really nice bull calf born out here, that we could pair up with a 4-H or FFA kid, that would make the judges look real hard at a white steer.
 
I like Black as a color for cattle. First, I don't want to be called a Bovine Racist. Second, I like black cattle. Period. I have always been in love with hunting Cape Buffalo. Inyati is the Matabele word for Cape Buffalo. I hunted Cape Buffalo twice in Zimbabwe. Both times the Professional Hunter practically guaranteed me he would not go down with one shot. I was hunting in Chewore with Con van Wyk (famous for his range reputation during the Rhodesia War). Con said they never go down on the first shot. He was particularly concerned because I was using the minimum caliber, .375 H&H. Bull was facing me head on at about 80 yards. Shot off hand. Bullet took the bull right on the bridge of the nose, carried forward and took out a couple cervical vertebra. Went down where he stood like his legs disappeared. Shot my second buffalo in the Wankie area with Lion Dens. Same story. This time I took a side neck shot at about 45 yards in thick mopane and again, took out the spinal cord.

Inyati are black. And when you see them moving through mopane scrubs on the savanah of Africa, you just know that a Bovine is suppose to be Black. BTW, if you study wild cattle species, guess what color they are? To each his own, but Bovines are suppose to be black. But really, why does anyone care what color someone else wants their cattle to be? Isn't it really about performance. I just happen to think that a Black cow with white on the face is gorgeous.

PS Just wanted to check myself. Black is the dominant color of wild cattle. Water buffalo, cape buffalo, Gaur, Banteng, Kouprey, Auroch, Anoa, and Tamaran are all predominantly dark or black.
 
inyati13":2a3y6fip said:
I like Black as a color for cattle. First, I don't want to be called a Bovine Racist. Second, I like black cattle. Period. I have always been in love with hunting Cape Buffalo. Inyati is the Matabele word for Cape Buffalo. I hunted Cape Buffalo twice in Zimbabwe. Both times the Professional Hunter practically guaranteed me he would not go down with one shot. I was hunting in Chewore with Con van Wyk (famous for his range reputation during the Rhodesia War). Con said they never go down on the first shot. He was particularly concerned because I was using the minimum caliber, .375 H&H. Bull was facing me head on at about 80 yards. Shot off hand. Bullet took the bull right on the bridge of the nose, carried forward and took out a couple cervical vertebra. Went down where he stood like his legs disappeared. Shot my second buffalo in the Wankie area with Lion Dens. Same story. This time I took a side neck shot at about 45 yards in thick mopane and again, took out the spinal cord.

Inyati are black. And when you see them moving through mopane scrubs on the savanah of Africa, you just know that a Bovine is suppose to be Black. BTW, if you study wild cattle species, guess what color they are? To each his own, but Bovines are suppose to be black. But really, why does anyone care what color someone else wants their cattle to be? Isn't it really about performance. I just happen to think that a Black cow with white on the face is gorgeous.

PS Just wanted to check myself. Black is the dominant color of wild cattle. Water buffalo, cape buffalo, Gaur, Banteng, Kouprey, Auroch, Anoa, and Tamaran are all predominantly dark or black.

WoW! Your adventures are way bigger than mine. Sound like you've had some real fun, Inyati. That said, I like my white cattle. And everyone else can keep whatever trips their triggers.
 
Kathie, I know someone who has a commercial herd of British White cows running with registered Red Angus bulls. The breeder don't take the calves to the salebarn, he backgrounded the xbred calves along with some commercial red angus calves. He must be have over 40 commercial British White cows.

My bud used to showing BW cows in 4-H few years ago, used both Angus and Hereford bulls on them and got rainbow batch out of them.

Very quiet cows I gotta say.
 
Taurus":2lr01flq said:
Kathie, I know someone who has a commercial herd of British White cows running with registered Red Angus bulls. The breeder don't take the calves to the salebarn, he backgrounded the xbred calves along with some commercial red angus calves. He must be have over 40 commercial British White cows.

My bud used to showing BW cows in 4-H few years ago, used both Angus and Hereford bulls on them and got rainbow batch out of them.

Very quiet cows I gotta say.
Like hearing that, Taurus! Those calves probably hit the ground white or marked on white, didn't they?
 
Kathie in Thorp":3ly7wplo said:
Taurus":3ly7wplo said:
Kathie, I know someone who has a commercial herd of British White cows running with registered Red Angus bulls. The breeder don't take the calves to the salebarn, he backgrounded the xbred calves along with some commercial red angus calves. He must be have over 40 commercial British White cows.

My bud used to showing BW cows in 4-H few years ago, used both Angus and Hereford bulls on them and got rainbow batch out of them.

Very quiet cows I gotta say.
Like hearing that, Taurus! Those calves probably hit the ground white or marked on white, didn't they?
Yup and that was with homo blk bulls! You can get a solid black calf out of BW cow and RA bull too. If you are doing a cross with British Whites, be expecting a rainbow batch.....unless it's White Park or White Galloway.
 
Taurus":156rq4p7 said:
Kathie in Thorp":156rq4p7 said:
Taurus":156rq4p7 said:
Kathie, I know someone who has a commercial herd of British White cows running with registered Red Angus bulls. The breeder don't take the calves to the salebarn, he backgrounded the xbred calves along with some commercial red angus calves. He must be have over 40 commercial British White cows.

My bud used to showing BW cows in 4-H few years ago, used both Angus and Hereford bulls on them and got rainbow batch out of them.

Very quiet cows I gotta say.
Like hearing that, Taurus! Those calves probably hit the ground white or marked on white, didn't they?
Yup and that was with homo blk bulls! You can get a solid black calf out of BW cow and RA bull too. If you are doing a cross with British Whites, be expecting a rainbow batch.....unless it's White Park or White Galloway.
There are British White Parks and American British White Park -- they are the same cattle; were all in the same registry years ago, and then there was a political feud and 2 registries came to be. Now, they cross-register. White Galloway are not the same breed, but in their colors, Galloway are black, belted and white park. I have not seen, yet, a calf out of a BW cow sired by any other breed that wasn't colored like mom.
 
Kathie in Thorp":2i8vykqz said:
Taurus":2i8vykqz said:
Kathie in Thorp":2i8vykqz said:
Like hearing that, Taurus! Those calves probably hit the ground white or marked on white, didn't they?
Yup and that was with homo blk bulls! You can get a solid black calf out of BW cow and RA bull too. If you are doing a cross with British Whites, be expecting a rainbow batch.....unless it's White Park or White Galloway.
There are British White Parks and American British White Park -- they are the same cattle; were all in the same registry years ago, and then there was a political feud and 2 registries came to be. Now, they cross-register. White Galloway are not the same breed, but in their colors, Galloway are black, belted and white park. I have not seen, yet, a calf out of a BW cow sired by any other breed that wasn't colored like mom.
You are right, most F1 BW crosses doesn't looks like their BW momma, but there's an odd one that looks like their momma. I always liked BW cattle with red points. Makes a good cross with Angus or Hereford.

I don't know why most commercial producers don't using British Whites or Speckle Parks. My guess? Blame on the longhorns for the skunks.
 
Have done business with J WEST for yrs.... also like tom sawyer any bull that traces back to popeye is good...


Have 5 straws of elvis in my tank out of 15 left. got 7 calves 0ut of the 10 straws i used... found them to be a little small at weaning time bout 30# below the rest
 
I bought a herd of 26 cows in nov 2012 from a local farmer. That herd had some black angus, Charolais, Simmental, and British white(a few with red points). All cows calved this spring but 3 I was told they were all bred to a Charolais/simmental cross bull. Very interested what hit the ground, mostly solid white calves but some took the Simmental coloring. The British whites however kept the mommas markings. I bred them back to a good black angus bull to see what happens. I have all black angus on another farm in southwest, va that is king at barn sale. I will say this however the cows appear to be good milkers, good mommas, and good cows(some 1st year heifers). Didn't lose a calf either. They was very pretty cows, docile cows. I plan on trying to sell privately on Facebook farm pages and Craigslist to see what happens while I wait on the angus crosses. I do like everything about this breed other than getting docked a the barn sale.
 
ChWorley":24dmyll8 said:
I bought a herd of 26 cows in nov 2012 from a local farmer. That herd had some black angus, Charolais, Simmental, and British white(a few with red points). All cows calved this spring but 3 I was told they were all bred to a Charolais/simmental cross bull. Very interested what hit the ground, mostly solid white calves but some took the Simmental coloring. The British whites however kept the mommas markings. I bred them back to a good black angus bull to see what happens. I have all black angus on another farm in southwest, va that is king at barn sale. I will say this however the cows appear to be good milkers, good mommas, and good cows(some 1st year heifers). Didn't lose a calf either. They was very pretty cows, docile cows. I plan on trying to sell privately on Facebook farm pages and Craigslist to see what happens while I wait on the angus crosses. I do like everything about this breed other than getting docked a the barn sale.
Thanks for sharing that, ChWorley. I'm sold on the BW cattle. Our butcher is always impressed with our hanging beef. They work good w/ X-breeding, too. Wish they weren't so few and far between here. Where are you?
 

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