South Devon Pros and Cons

[johndeereboy]

I am looking at diversifying my very small cattle operation, and am looking to get into the south devon cattle. I have some neighbors that are breeders, and they have tried getting me into the breed. Can anyone tell me any pros or cons to having these cattle. I currently have black angus cattle. My neighbors is vice president of the association and soon to be president. Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about this cattle breed?

 

[Anguscollegekid]

Very docile, we crossed some South Devon bulls on high percentage Salers cows a while back and the calves were like puppy dogs, very gentle. They have very tender meat, good marbling and the composite cows we had (small percentage S.D. in them) were nice, moderate framed cows with capacity to them but its hard to attribute all the good characteristics to one breed in a composite too. I think milk can be questionable on them so that would be one thing to look at.

 

[hillrancher]

We had two south Devon bulls about 12 years back. They were some of the most docile and added more value to our operation. We kept them as long as we could. The milk may be a problem. Are very few or no breeders around here is the reason we never acquired any more.

 

[hrbelgians]

I have no experience with them personally. However did research myself thinking of possibly getting a few. I talked to various people that had some and was not encouraged much by them. Talked to a person from P.A. and he stated he was having lots of reproduction problems with the females. (Wishing for his MG herd back) Never did mention any problems using the bulls though. He did mention not to get fullblooded cows? He was running with 40% of the cows being open? :shock:

Like I say this was only hearsay, so take it for what it' worth, as I am sure a person could make the same argument for any fullblooded cow for that matter.

 

[shortstuff]

FWIW, Leachman's sold lots of South Devon composites. I actually know someone who bought a bunch of South Devon X Tarentaise composite females & loved them. They ended up going with a 3 breed combo of South Devon, Tarentaise & Angus, but later on started to drift more toward Angus X Tarentaise crosses. The only thing they didn't like about the South Devon breed was the act that the frame size was bigger than they liked. Other than the large frame size, South Devon's produce rich milk & they seem to be pretty good cattle based on what I've seen.