Here we go, I thought I would smack the hornets nest and get a good one going.
How cheap do LH/corriente type cows need to be to make money on them? I've stumbled on some fairly close to home for $400 a pop. Supposed to be bred, to similar type I assume, I'm waiting for more info on that. Going forward they would be bred Angus or Simmental.
I'm low on numbers right now, I've culled hard the last few years and high prices don't have me excited about building back right now, but the cheap girls could fill a gap until "good " cows get back in my price range.
Let the fighting begin!
I have been doing this since the mid 90's. We run 100-120 cows on a little over 200 acres. There is nothing you can do in the cattle business that will make you more money. Corrientes, like every other breed, have doubled in price the past 2 years. Corrs I bought for $250-$300 a couple of years ago, sell for $600 - $700 (for solid black ones) . When the Corrs were $250-$300, ,we weaned 6 month old, 500 lb polled black calves that sold for the same thing as any other polled black calves did. When those were bringing $1.50 a pound, the first calf off of those cows brought 2-3 times what their mommas cost. Even with the $700 cows today, the calves are bringing $2.50 - $3,00. Still twice what the cows cost. But the real advantage is, you have ZERO inputs with the Corrs. They thrive on poor forage, weeds and brush that other cattle would starve on. You do not have to vaccinate, or worm, or worry about insects. The only thing we spend on ours, is loose minerals... about $10 per head per year. They do NOT have calving problems. They have plenty of milk to raise their calves. They are extremely fertile...never had one that wouldn't breed. You can run 3-4 on the same acreage you need for one British or Continental cow. They tolerate heat and humidity as well as a Brahma, and tolerate cold temps as well. Now, we do use exceptional bulls on these calves. My partner's brother raises Brangus and Ultrablacks, and we use his bulls. However for years we used straight Angus. They just produced 400-450 lb calves at weaning, where as these bulls we use now will wean 500+ calves.
I also should add, that we have these on 230 acres of very rough land, and 100 acres or so is covered in Kudzu. The rest is hardwoods, a patch of pine, broom sage, honey suckle, black berries, Johnson grass and crab grass, as well as voluntary remnants of past dove fields and food plots. Most people think this is an intrusive weed, but Kudzu leaves are about 25% protein, roots and stems are about 18%. We do not fertilize, spray herbicide, nor mow any of this, so no inputs there either. There is about a one acre spring-fed pond near our corral and a creek that runs down one side of most of the pasture. . The beavers made us another pond last year, too, on part of the creek. On the flip side, if we had a well maintained Fescue pasture, fertilized and kept weed-free, and had protein tubs, supplements, and fed high quality Bermuda hay... as well as vaccinating, worming etc.... I don't think we would see a noticeable difference in the weaning size.
We have them calving in February.. about a 3 week calving window. We put in 5 or 6 bulls in after Easter, and get them out Memorial day weekend. . In March we round them up and tag calves and cut the bulls, Around Labor Day weekend, we round them up again, and take the calves to the sale. We bought this place about 1978 or 79, for next to nothing , after the timber company cut it the last time. It is our private quail and rabbit hunting preserve, first and foremost. The cattle are just a sideline. My partner has 450 acres of row crop land about a mile down the road, fenced and crossed fenced into four 100 acre row crop plots. We plant a 50 acre dove filed on it, and he raises beans, corn, cotton and peanuts on the 4 fields, Rabbit and quail season opens mid November, and he is usually all harvested by then, We drive them over to that place, and they eat the crop residue and dove field all winter, Quail and rabbit season ends in February, and we drive them back to the Kudzu field then. and that is the extent of our handling them. We are both in our late 60's. and we do what little there is ourselves, on horse back.
Using the right bulls, we have never had a horned 1/2 Corrriente calf, and they always are black. We have used the occasional LH, Fla Scrub, Fla Cracker or Pineywoods cow. Sometimes the LH's have had calves with horns or scurs. I attribute this to the practice many people had of crossing LH with Watusi, to create cattle with impressive horns. Watusi have the African Horn Gene, and they are almost impossible to poll. Sometimes the LH calves have roaning or white markings...depending on the cow...but they are always black.
Like I said, we have done this since about 98 or 99, carrying them to the same 2 or 3 sale barns, and they brought as much last year as they did the first year, and every year in between. I don't think that 
