Speckle Parks making their appearance.

[Farmerjon]

Would make a nice looking team of oxen.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

I have yet to meet the man who could determine the color or the hide by the taste of the meat.
The North Berwickshire witchcraft trials were more scientific than a high percentage of the Holy Grail of Blackness cattlemen (and women).

 

[TwoByrdsMG]

Ky Hills- amusing that the buyer would go ahead and buy him even knowing he was bad tempered. That's the luck we had when we bought a few British Whites. Standoffish in the pasture and deadly when we were working them. Bought a hotshot just for feeding before we could get rid of the tarts. Not getting anything like that again.

 

[Ky hills]

Ky Hills- amusing that the buyer would go ahead and buy him even knowing he was bad tempered. That's the luck we had when we bought a few British Whites. Standoffish in the pasture and deadly when we were working them. Bought a hotshot just for feeding before we could get rid of the tarts. Not getting anything like that again.

Yes, it was amusing that he went on to buy it but he is an order buyer that bought a lot of cattle through that market. He bought a lot of the singles, odd calves. I'd say he was buying those to ship to somebody else and he probably didn't handle the cattle himself, so the dispositions didn't really matter to him.

 

[M.Magis]

I have yet to meet the man who could determine the color or the hide by the taste of the meat.
The North Berwickshire witchcraft trials were more scientific than a high percentage of the Holy Grail of Blackness cattlemen (and women).

How many have you met that ran a profitable feedlot? I'm sure one could explain to you why they pay more for black cattle. I doubt its just because they feel like paying more.

 

[cattleman99]

My only experience with Speckle Park cattle was when an off age heifer I had on a dry pasture the summer before bagged up and it wasn't hard to figure out the neighbors bull had paid a visit I wasn't aware of when the heifer calf came. Daughter laid claim to it immediately and she made a good cow for 6 years TIL she came in open. She was out of a Fleckvieh cow and raised above average steers. All her steer calves were solid red or black and I bred her both roan Shorthorn and black Simmental over the years hoping for colour or a blue roan.

I got one heifer I kept, which is 95 per cent black with a touch of white and she threw me a 7/8 Simmental steer that looks like a purebred Speckle Park with all the speckled markings. So if you keep a female know a few generations down the road you can get a surprise. Sire is a solid black purebred Simmental that is hetero black.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

M.Magis> Feeling like it is the only reason to pay more for black cattle. Other than rhetoric there is no scientific data which will
confirm that a black (or any other color) beef animal will taste different from a similar beef of a different color provided
both have been raised and processed under the same conditions. Price per pound, regardless of color, is the primary
consideration in the operation of a feedlot. While I can appreciate your emotional attachment to black cattle there was
nothing in your response that would indicate you or anyone else could determine the color of the cow by the taste
of the meat.. LVR

 

[M.Magis]

M.Magis> Feeling like it is the only reason to pay more for black cattle. Other than rhetoric there is no scientific data which will
confirm that a black (or any other color) beef animal will taste different from a similar beef of a different color provided
both have been raised and processed under the same conditions. Price per pound, regardless of color, is the primary
consideration in the operation of a feedlot. While I can appreciate your emotional attachment to black cattle there was
nothing in your response that would indicate you or anyone else could determine the color of the cow by the taste
of the meat.. LVR

I have no idea what the hell you're talking about, I have no emotional attachment to any cattle. You certainly seem to though. A feedlots primary concern has to be profit. I'm sure taste is well down their list of concerns. They must have some sort of data to tell them that angus based cattle are more profitable to feed. They sure as f$&! haven't paid more for the last 30 years because they "feel like it".

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Japan purchased black hided cattle and paid a premium. Also, CAB pays a premium for black hided cattle (any breed). So, yes LVR, black hide makes them more money. It is a $$$$ profit thing for the feedlots. My PB Simmentals bring a premium if I sell finished steers that are black.
I breed for breeding stock - steers are strictly a cash flow thing. My cattle are reds and blacks. I don't care if they are purple polka dotted, just so they are GOOD. Color does not mean anything. Although, there are "fads" that people will pay more for their breeding stock. At the moment RED with blaze faces are HOT. A black steer may make me a little more than a red one if I sold on an open market (which I do not). But, selling 1 heifer of any color equals 3-6 steers, so I do not breed black Simmentals for the perceived Angus benefit.

 

[Ky hills]

It's about marketing, the AAA had the plan of CAB to help market Angus bulls, it worked well enough that other breeds that had breeding up programs largely turned black. Now Angus is a household word and a lot of folks probably could not cite another breed. The real kicker is that folks don't realize a lot of what is marketed as Angus beef is likely as much or more of a different breed as it is Angus. As for feedlot profitability, I can't speak to that, but I do know that order buyers that likely buy for them prefer to buy larger framed cattle than what a traditional Angus will be. I like Angus cattle, and the Angus beef we fed out was great, but honestly no better than the Herefords we have fed out. We have a mixed herd a little over half of the cows are black or bwf with the rest being Hereford and a few crossbred red cows. Things I like about both and like I've said before I hate that a lot of good cattle of other breeds have been lost due to the black hided nonsense. Being the fact that black cattle sell better, we are moving more towards black hided cattle again after a few years of having mainly red calves.
We will still have some red and or straight Hereford calves, but it just makes sense for us to have a majority of black or bwf calves to sell, hard to justify raising them the same way and getting docked for being red.

 

[TCRanch]

You would not believe how those calves will marble in a feedlot. They are only slightly less efficient than straight angus.

One of my friends has a few white park and they always keep the calves back to feed out because of the huge dock at the sale here. They're delicious!!! And always have a waiting list of buyers, generally by the quarter.

 

[Buck Randall]

CAB brings a premium, so producers try to make calves that will qualify for CAB. Uniformity brings a premium, so buyers look for calves that can fill a lot with minimal variation. If you're going to bring a niche breed to the sale barn, even if it's superior to angus, you're going to take a dock. It's about uniformity.

 

[Silver]

Speckle Park tend to take a beating up here too. "They" tell me one of the biggest problems is that 1,200 pounds is their ceiling in the feedlot and no matter how much feed you throw at them that's just the limit. So the feedlot doesn't have the flexibility to feed them a little longer to time the market. A similar problem exists with angus, but at a higher weight. This is not such a stumbling block for exotic (European) cattle.
Fortunately there is no colour bias up here, quality sells. Well, unless it's hereford of shorthorn. They will take a bath every time regardless of quality.

 

[Caustic Burno]

M.Magis> Feeling like it is the only reason to pay more for black cattle. Other than rhetoric there is no scientific data which will
confirm that a black (or any other color) beef animal will taste different from a similar beef of a different color provided
both have been raised and processed under the same conditions. Price per pound, regardless of color, is the primary
consideration in the operation of a feedlot. While I can appreciate your emotional attachment to black cattle there was
nothing in your response that would indicate you or anyone else could determine the color of the cow by the taste
of the meat.. LVR

It was marketing genius when they came up with CAB.
The public was fooled by smoke and mirrors, to qualify for CAB an Angus doesn't have to be within miles of your 51% black hide calves.
I have an Angus bull standing in the pasture.
This is where I have an issue, if you claim it to be Angus it should be.
Most Americans wouldn't know if the hamburger their eating came from a water Buffalo.
A super baddie will out sale straight Angus calves all day here. The order buyer knows what grows off the quickest and what they can get away docking. All these breeds have been genome mapped.

 

[Redgully]

Fun fact, you can get a black speckle park bull and cross with a white, leopard or speckle colour cow and register the calves, yet if you use that black bull on a black cow you can't register the calf.