Red Poll

[Cada22]

Haven't seen any posts about any on here in quite a while when I did some searching. Anyone running any anymore? Pros, cons, pics?

 

[Aaron]

Neighbor runs them because of misplaced nostalgia as a kid. They really are dual purpose. Cows milk far too much, ligaments and teats go right to hell. Calves and yearlings are tall and skinny. He gets hammered on the price so hard it makes my Herefords look like gold nuggets. But he has tremendous off-farm job, so it doesn't matter.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Grandpa thought they were easy fleshing dairy cows.

Some are used for grass fed beef. Not sure if they have select genetics.

 

[Redgully]

I am a red poll breeder, there is some really good genetics here in Australia and i know some semen is being exported too. Here in the last 40 years they have really concentrated on the beef side of things and the udders are holding up really well. There is a lot of semen around here of a U.S. bull called m-m hoosier classic and i know a breeder who used him a lot. He said his daughters grew fast and produced heaps of milk and their udders fell to pieces. I will get some photos of some of mine and post.

 

[Cada22]

I am a red poll breeder, there is some really good genetics here in Australia and i know some semen is being exported too. Here in the last 40 years they have really concentrated on the beef side of things and the udders are holding up really well. There is a lot of semen around here of a U.S. bull called m-m hoosier classic and i know a breeder who used him a lot. He said his daughters grew fast and produced heaps of milk and their udders fell to pieces. I will get some photos of some of mine and post.

Can't wait to see. I am looking for a niche breed and came across red poll and wanted to looked deeper into them.

 

[Redgully]

Well having been in red polls a while i can tell you if you select the right genetics they can do everything other breeds can do and more. Heaps of carcass comp wins, blind taste test wins, interbreed show winners, highest ema in the bull category a few years in a row at local shows. Problem is there is some poor breeding and poor genetics around that give them a bad name. Temperament can be the best of the best where i can walk up to a bull in the paddock and get his ear and lead him all the way to the yards. But there is some real nut jobs too that we have had to cull. If you can get your hands on semen from the Eurimbla stud i have found they are the best around. I know they have three or four bulls where semen is available for export. But if you go into red polls be prepared to find it hard to sell your animals unless you find the right market. I have found a lot of older cattle people have fond memories of red polls and have sold them bulls and they have loved them all over again.

 

[Redgully]

A few photos taken with my phone.

 

[Redgully]

 

[Redgully]

 

[MNBelties]

Beautiful cattle

 

[Logan52]

During the 1970s and 1980s I farmed full time. Bought dairy cross heifers at the stockyards at low prices and made cows from them. Got away from this and drifted into Red Polls as they were pretty to my eye and sort of the same kind. By this time I was working in a career and could survive the lower prices at the stockyards.
I loved the disposition of Red Polls, as calm as Herefords but not as stubborn to load or work through a chute. They almost have a kindness and personality that I trusted around my wife and kids.
I agree about the udder problems and I had some problem with swollen tits in one line of breeding. It was the coming of CAB and 15 to 20 cent dock for the red calves that finally got me.
They are long-lived and fertile cattle that do well on grass, noted for the tenderness of their beef. I was pleased with how they weighed at weaning, I liked them. At the yards I would be told I needed to get a black bull.
I finally did get a Charolais bull and kept back two sets of buckskin colored heifers. They now make up most of my small herd as I drift into retirement.
I get about 50% black and 50% smokey calves that really perform and top the market from a registered Angus bull I bought from a topnotch herd a county away.
I wish I could find some nice Red Poll heifers to breed to a Hereford and then breed the resulting calves to an Angus.
Red Polls bring a lot to the table in crossbreeding for the commercial market. They are just hard to find in any numbers.

 

[darcelina4]

My neighbor raises Red Polls. He has a pretty uniform looking easy fleshing herd. I've always been impressed by them. My daughter won a calf scramble at the state fair. We used the certificate to purchase a heifer from the neighbor. She is a march 2019. Beautiful. Great topline. Long body. Good depth. And so gentle. We got her on a Sunday untouched except for vaccines. In 2 days she was halter broke and you could walk right upto her in the pen and catch her. She is very food motivated. And very vocal. We love how she looks. Next Saturday we are taking her to a district show. As there wont be other Red Polls, she will show in aob classes. I guess we will figure out if others think she looks as good as we think she looks.

 

[farmerjan]

We had several Red Polls that were more of the dual purpose line. They did not have the "beefiness" that we wanted, but didn't have any problems with the udders even though the cows made some serious milk. Calves were real nice while still on the cows, but tended to get more "lanky" looking after they were weaned. The cows were VERY GOOD momma's, a few were a bit "protective" with their calves for the first few days. We still have some that are part RP and they are the hardest to get the calves weaned off because they holler for their calves for weeks when the rest are done and over it in a week. None of ours have the nice builds that you see in the pictures that Redgully posted. Mostly ours had more of the "dairy looking butt". But they were good dispositioned and we still have a registered RP bull that is super quiet, and easy going. We use him on hard to settle cows or cows that are a "2nd chance" breeding. And have put him back on a few of the RP crosses just to not lose all the RP genetics. Had another bull that was the most fertile bull we've ever used. He had arthritis in a hock that had been broken at 6, that finally got so bad at 13 or 14 that we knew he wouldn't make another winter. I still miss ole BUBBA.

 

[Logan52]

My experience with Red Poll bulls mirrors Farmerjan. They were very fertile and easy to handle, lasting a long time on the farm. Their calves came easy out of most any cows and delivered a uniform set of calves. Once bred a group of full blood Hereford heifers to my best Red Poll bull. Sold them just before they calved (in 2014 when prices were high) to a man in Mississippi. He called later to ask if I had anything else like them to sell. He said each of the heifers had a nice rednecked calf unassisted and he was very pleased.
There are some Red Poll bulls around that have better muscling than the traditional Red Poll. Trouble is they are still red.

 

[cbcr]

The problem with many breeds is they are competing against the"black hide" and therefore get overlooked and because of the color issue will bring less at the sales.

This is unfortunate as there are breeds that do not have the "black" influence that will perform just as well or better.

"Red Breeds Matter", and it is time that ALL other breeds band together and work together or else some of these breeds may disappear.

The Red Poll is on the Livestock Conservancy's list of breeds that are threatened!
https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/conservation-priority-list#Cattle

This is a paragraph from the information about the Red Poll on the Livestock Conservancy's website:

The breed is endangered and it is declining in Britain, North America, and globally. Large numbers of Red Poll cows are being lost to the population through their use in herds of commercial cattle and in some other breeds. The Red Poll must become more widely recognized if it is to survive. Fortunately, the breed has a great deal to offer. Its long history of pure breeding has given the breed exceptional genetic consistency. Bulls are prepotent, and their offspring are highly predictable and uniform. Distantly related to most other beef breeds, the Red Poll can impart significant hybrid vigor when crossed. The breed was, for example, a foundation of the Senepol breed, developed in the 1900s in the Caribbean. Crossbreeding serves the breed's interests when bulls are used and can then be acknowledged for the quality of the offspring they produce. Cows, however, must be bred pure to ensure the breed's survival, which means that Red Polls must also maintain their niche as a purebred. This should not be difficult, as the breed is well suited for production of grassfed beef.

 

[Cada22]

My neighbor raises Red Polls. He has a pretty uniform looking easy fleshing herd. I've always been impressed by them. My daughter won a calf scramble at the state fair. We used the certificate to purchase a heifer from the neighbor. She is a march 2019. Beautiful. Great topline. Long body. Good depth. And so gentle. We got her on a Sunday untouched except for vaccines. In 2 days she was halter broke and you could walk right upto her in the pen and catch her. She is very food motivated. And very vocal. We love how she looks. Next Saturday we are taking her to a district show. As there wont be other Red Polls, she will show in aob classes. I guess we will figure out if others think she looks as good as we think she looks.

Best of luck in the show. Please let us know how it turns out.

That is partially my reasoning for this question. I want to move into a lesser known breed and try to breed the best animal possible. Exploring Red Poll and Fleck, and may go with both.

 

[Redgully]

My neighbor raises Red Polls. He has a pretty uniform looking easy fleshing herd. I've always been impressed by them. My daughter won a calf scramble at the state fair. We used the certificate to purchase a heifer from the neighbor. She is a march 2019. Beautiful. Great topline. Long body. Good depth. And so gentle. We got her on a Sunday untouched except for vaccines. In 2 days she was halter broke and you could walk right upto her in the pen and catch her. She is very food motivated. And very vocal. We love how she looks. Next Saturday we are taking her to a district show. As there wont be other Red Polls, she will show in aob classes. I guess we will figure out if others think she looks as good as we think she looks.

Best of luck in the show. Please let us know how it turns out.

That is partially my reasoning for this question. I want to move into a lesser known breed and try to breed the best animal possible. Exploring Red Poll and Fleck, and may go with both.

Your challenge will be finding the genetics, you can get started easy enough but progressing is difficult. I want to improve the udders in my herd, finding a red poll bull to do that is near on impossible, then when you do it is most likely related! I am starting with speckle park, got my first embryos in this year. Will continue with red polls too. If you can easily get genetics from Canada then speckle park would be a good option for you too.

 

[darcelina4]

So we went to the show with the red poll today. We got reserve grand AOB. The judge didnt say much about her except the she had really good length. We will have out local show on the 15th then the county fair at the end of the month. We will end up going against the one that beat us today at the county fair in 4 weeks. Different judge. Interested to see how that goes.

 

[Cada22]

So we went to the show with the red poll today. We got reserve grand AOB. The judge didnt say much about her except the she had really good length. We will have out local show on the 15th then the county fair at the end of the month. We will end up going against the one that beat us today at the county fair in 4 weeks. Different judge. Interested to see how that goes.

What was the breed that won?

 

[darcelina4]

The one that beat us was a registered 50% red Angus. The judge raises black Angus cattle so I know he leans towards Angus. I'm pretty happy with how the red poll looks. I love her disposition. She could not be better to handle.